Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
EASTER BUNNY’S PA. DUTCH ROOTS
Orwigsburg artist credited with drawing early rendition of holiday symbol
The Easter Bunny as we know it might have originated in Schuylkill County.
Johann Conrad Gilbert (1734-1812), is credited with drawing one of the first depictions of an Easter rabbit when he lived in Orwigsburg around 1800.
His tiny drawing of a rabbit delivering a basket of colorful eggs foreshadows the iconic image of the Easter Bunny that has become an endemic part of American culture.
A Lutheran schoolmaster who served areas of Schuylkill and Berks counties in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Gilbert is buried in the Zion’s Red Church cemetery near Deer Lake.
As a sideline, he made Pennsylvania Dutch fraktur, a type of folk art. On occasion, as an apparent reward for scholarship or good behavior, he made drawings for his students.
Only two of Gilbert’s Easter rabbit drawings are known to have survived — one in the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Wilmington, Del., and the other in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum in Williamsburg, Va.
“The Easter rabbit drawing is one of the rarest of all fraktur, with only two examples known,” according to the Winterthur Museum, which has one of the originals.
Winterthur dates its drawing to circa 1800 and says it was probably a gift to one of Gilbert’s students.
A passage on the back of the one in the Rockefeller museum, written in German, says it was given to John Bolich of Brunswick Township. It is not dated.
Jennifer Bowen, Orwigsburg Historical Society president, said genealogical research suggests Bolich would have been of the right age to be in one of Gilbert’s classes around 1778-79.
At a time when schools were organized by churches, Gilbert taught at Zion Red Church school, she said.
The Orwigsburg Historical Society has a copy of one of Gilbert’s Easter rabbit drawings in its collection.
As was common at the time, Bowen said, Gilbert used natural inks in his fraktur and drawings.
“He created what is sometimes called illuminated art,” she said. “Judging from their intricacy, it’s obvious he put a lot of thought into them.”
Artist, teacher, patriot
Gilbert was born in Germany on April 29, 1734. When he was 16, he came to America with his father on the ship Nancy in 1750.
As a tailor and, later, a schoolmaster, he honed his artistic skills by making fraktur, elaborate birth and marriage certificates adorned with Pennsylvania Dutch symbols like distelfink, tulips and angels.
During the Revolutionary War, Gilbert served in the Continental Navy aboard the ships Eagle and Vulture in 1776 and 1777.
It was during that period that Gilbert called Orwigsburg home, according to the Orwigsburg Historical Society.
At the time, Orwigsburg was part of Berks County.
Schuylkill did not become a county until 1811 — the year before Gilbert died — when it was created from parts of Berks and Northumberland counties. In Pennsylvania Dutch, the name Schuylkill translates to “hidden river.”
Parts of Luzerne and Columbia were added to Schuylkill on March 3, 1818.
German immigrants brought with them cultural and religious traditions.
One of them involved a mythical figure known as Ostara, who was symbolic of fertility and the new life associated with the arrival of spring.
According to legend, Ostara changed a pet bird into a rabbit to amuse children, and the rabbit laid brightly colored eggs. Ostara gave the eggs as gifts to children.
The Americanized version of the myth had a rabbit bringing colored eggs and other gifts to children in their Easter baskets — thus, the Easter Bunny.
An artist of his time
A prolific fraktur artist, it is unknown how many Easter rabbit drawings Gilbert made. The two that survive are not signed, but experts authenticated them as Gilbert’s based on comparison with the style of his fraktur.
Gilbert kept a notebook of his artwork but, unfortunately, it has been lost.
The intricate detail of Gilbert’s fraktur is characteristic of Pennsylvania Dutch folk art of the period, Bowen said.
Being one, she said, it’s not surprising Gilbert had a penchant for painting schoolmasters, usually holding a book or a bible.
“Their art was a reflection of their life,” Bowen said of Pennsylvania Dutch folk artists of the day. “They painted what they knew.”
In his rabbit drawings, Gilbert departed somewhat from his fraktur style.
Appearing as if in flight, the Easter rabbits reveal the artist’s more creative side.
“Carrying a basket of colored eggs,” Bowen said, “the rabbit is prancing off to enchant a child’s Easter.”