Healing Herbs, Vibrant Roots:
Transatlantic Botanical Traditions Among the Pennsylvania Dutch
The use of herbs and botanicals to heal and nourish the body is the oldest form of medicine. Throughout the ages, plants have not only sustained life as an essential source of food and healing, but the patterns of their growth and the changing of the seasons have inspired beliefs of humanity’s place in a sacred world for cultures across the globe.
Among the Pennsylvania Dutch, herbal healing practices have been shaped by nuanced relationships interconnecting agricultural, domestic, social, and religious spheres of life. Influenced by transatlantic immigration, herbal medicine flourished in early Pennsylvania, where over 81,000 German-speaking immigrants arrived prior to the American Revolution, bringing with them their vibrant healing traditions and illustrated herbal compendiums. From this diaspora, America’s first book of botanical medicine was published by printer and apothecary Christoph Saur Jr. between 1762 and 1778, inspiring the use of herbal medicine on a folk-cultural level for many generations to come.
This exhibition entitled “Healing Herbs, Vibrant Roots: Transatlantic Botanical Traditions Among the Pennsylvania Dutch” will be featured June 28, 2025 – February 28, 2026 in the DeLight E. Breidegam Building, the Headquarters for the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center in Kutztown University.
Transatlantic Medical Texts
In Europe during the Middle Ages, the study of herbalism was both a practical and religious endeavor, aiming to reveal not only medicinal properties of plants, but also aspects of the divine at work in the natural world. Building upon the knowledge of a wide range of ancient cultures, European herbalism contributed to the development of botanical medicine as a natural science in the early modern era.
Blending traditional and scientific healing systems, the study of herbal medicine culminated in the creation of herbal compendiums and these were among the earliest illustrated books of medicine. These works were especially popular in German-speaking regions where botanical illustrations flourished as part of a vibrant woodcut printmaking tradition in book arts. German-speaking immigrant families brought herbal compendiums with them to Pennsylvania, where they inspired the creation of North American books of herbal medicine.
Christopher Sauer Jr.
North America’s first book of botanical medicine was published by Christopher Sauer Jr. (1721-1784), an innovative printer, apothecary, and Brethren activist in colonial Germantown. Originally printed in serial installments in his farmer’s almanacs between 1762 and 1778, Sauer’s Consise Herbal (Kurtzgefasstes Kräuterbuch) contains a combination of both clinical and ritual botanical medicine, compiled from European sources. While academically outdated for the time, Sauer’s was a people’s herbal, widely embraced by German-speaking communities in early Pennsylvania.
The Sauer printing firm also printed the first full-length bible in a European language in North America, appearing in three editions in 1743, 1763, and 1776. Sauer’s publishing was cut short in 1778, when he was accused of treason for his criticism of the revolution and his religious status as a Brethren pacifist. Sauer was stripped naked and painted in public as an act of humiliation, and his printing press, type foundry, paper mill, and personal property was confiscated and sold to provide financial support to the Continental Army.
Pennsylvania Medical Texts
Visual Material
Johann Kauffman’s Doctor’s Chest
Credits