A local expert on Pennsylvania Dutch culture and practices will give an online lecture Aug. 10 on the unique traits of the Pennsylvania barn.
Patrick J. Donmoyer will speak beginning at 7 p.m. on “The Pennsylvania Barn in Form and Function” in a lecture hosted by the Cornwall Iron Furnace Associates.
Donmoyer is the director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, a folklife museum and research center on the campus of Kutztown University. An avid speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch and advocate for regional folk culture, Donmoyer’s work blends language, cultural traditions and vernacular architecture in his folklife research, according to a release from CIF Associates.
The speaker has authored numerous articles and three books: “Hex Signs: Myth and Meaning in Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Stars,” “Powwowing in Pennsylvania: Braucherei and the Ritual of Everyday Life” and most recently, “Painter of the Stars: The Life and Work of Milton J. Hill.”
The lecture is based on more than a decade of fieldwork in southeastern and central Pennsylvania.
“This program illustrates the role of the Pennsylvania Barn in Pennsylvania Dutch culture and American culture at large,” the announcement says. “Drawing upon an extensive catalog of local historic barn images from the present day, this program describes a progression among the earliest barn structures erected by the first settlers in Pennsylvania, and the various, subsequent forms that gave rise to the Pennsylvania Barn – the most predominant form of barn in present-day Pennsylvania.”
Donmoyer will discuss the “anatomy” of the Pennsylvania barn, “explaining how the evolution of this building functioned in everyday life, and why the Pennsylvania barn became a preferred expression of diversified farming methods throughout the Mid-Atlantic.”
Mike Emery, administrator of Cornwall Iron Furnace, will moderate a brief discussion at the end of Donmoyer’s presentation.
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The online lecture will be hosted on the Zoom platform. Registration required, as space for the event is limited.
Registration is available online here.
For more information, call Cornwall Iron Furnace at 717-272-9711, visit the Cornwall Iron Furnace’s website or visit the site’s Facebook page.