VIRTUAL: Americana Symposium - Valley Culture: Constructing Identity Along the Great Wagon Road

Building on new research and discoveries generated by Historic Trappe’s current exhibition Valley Culture: Constructing Identity Along the Great Wagon Road, this inaugural Americana Symposium’s theme explores the evolution of Pennsylvania German folk art as settlers moved west. From the Perkiomen Valley of southeastern Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, locally distinctive forms of material culture emerged. This symposium will explore how German settlers transformed artifacts of daily life —including fraktur, painted furniture, boxes, and other artifacts—as they settled within several valleys along their journey on what became known as the Great Wagon Road.