Collaborative Exhibitions
Easter Eggs: Symbols of Rebirth and Renewal
A collaborative exhibition produced by Glencairn Museum and the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Kutztown University. March 2 — May 5, 2024.
Exploring Pennsylvania’s colorful and diverse Easter egg traditions, Easter Eggs: Symbols of Rebirth and Renewal, is a collaborative exhibition at Glencairn Museum produced in partnership with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University. Featuring an unparalleled display of historic and contemporary Easter eggs, artifacts, documents, and ephemera, the exhibition traces the origins, history, and cultural diversity of Pennsylvania’s unique role in the development of Easter traditions in North America.
For hundreds of years, the egg has captured the imagination of cultures and religions throughout the world as a symbol of the mystery of creation and the reawakening of the earth at springtime. Since the Middle Ages, Christians have decorated eggs as symbols of resurrection and new life. This exhibition explores age-old European Easter egg traditions and how present-day Pennsylvanians are keeping them alive. From the colorful pysanky eggs of Ukrainian immigrants to the intricate scratched eggs of the Pennsylvania Dutch and the Lithuanians, the Easter egg embodies the vibrant mosaic of Pennsylvania’s diverse cultural and sacred expressions.
Visit Glencairn Museum for an online catalogue of the exhibition, or download a PDF here.
Hex Signs: Sacred and Celestial Symbolism in Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Stars
A collaborative exhibition produced by Glencairn Museum and the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Kutztown University. March 1 — November 3, 2019.
Barn stars (also known as hex signs), are a form of indigenous American folk art. Throughout Southeastern Pennsylvania, and within the cultural hearth of the Pennsylvania Dutch, decorated barns, primarily from the 19th century once saturated the rural landscape in Berks, Lehigh, Bucks, Northampton and Montgomery counties. Featuring geometric paintings of celestial bodies including stars, suns, and moons, these large-scale murals have come to represent the region’s culture and traditional arts.
For previous generations of Pennsylvanians, these star motifs were not only found on barns, but also throughout the material culture of everyday life. This exhibition explores these common expressions of Pennsylvania Dutch artistic, religious, and cultural identity through works of art and everyday artifacts, including examples of original barn art, baptismal certificates, devotional texts, household implements, and gravestones.
Visit Glencairn Museum for an online catalogue of the exhibition, or download a PDF here.
Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Healing Rituals of the Dutch Country
A collaborative exhibition produced by Glencairn Museum and the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Kutztown University. February 18 — October 29, 2017
Pennsylvania’s tradition of ritual healing, known as powwow (or Braucherei in the language of the Pennsylvania Dutch), is one of many folk healing systems in North America that blends elements of religion and belief with health and healing. Combining a diverse array of Christian prayers, gestures, and the use of everyday objects, these rituals are used for healing the body, protection from physical and spiritual harm, and ensuring good outcomes in everyday affairs.
Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Healing Rituals of the Dutch Country features artifacts, documents and photographs illustrating a wide range of expression within the ritual tradition of over three centuries of Pennsylvania Dutch folk culture. A collaborative effort between Glencairn Museum and the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, the exhibition features items from the Heilman Collection of Patrick J. Donmoyer, the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, the Mercer Museum, the Thomas R. Brendle Museum at Historic Schaefferstown, the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center, as well as the private collections of Clarke Hess, and Jim and Marcia Houston.
Visit Glencairn Museum for an online catalogue of the exhibition, or download a PDF here.
Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Healing, Cosmology, & Tradition in the Dutch Country
A collaborative exhibition produced by the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center and the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Kutztown University. July 19, 2015 — January 31, 2016.
This exhibition of Pennsylvania Dutch folk healing manuscripts, books, and ritual objects is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Don Yoder (1921-2015), Father of American Folklife and contributer to this display. Dr. Yoder’s ground-breaking work for the advancement of the study of folk medicine was instrumental in assembling the contents of this exhibit, first through his research materials in the Roughwood Collection, and later through his assistance in developing the Heilman Collection of Patrick J. Donmoyer, guest curator of Powwowing in Pennsylvania. Among the very first and largest of its kind, this exhibit encompasses a wide range of expression in the material culture of folk healing, and offers a rare opportunity to experience a diverse spectrum of spiritual and cosmological beliefs in Pennsylvania Dutch folk culture throughout three centuries.