Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Tunebook, Manuscript |
Object ID # |
2025.17.11 |
Other Name |
Notenbuchlein |
Title |
Manuscript tunebook for Debbie Wismer, 1827 |
Creator |
Unknown |
Place of Origin |
Plumstead Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania |
Date |
1827 |
Material |
Paper, ink |
Dimensions |
H-4 W-7.25 inches |
Description |
Manuscript tunebook with fraktur title-page, dated 1827, made for Debbe Wismer "Singing Scholar in the Plumstead School." Inscription on bookplate reads: Dieses Harmonische Melodeyen Buchlein gehoret Debbe Wismerin [Wismer], Sing Schuler in der Plumsteadter Schule, Geschrieben im Jahr Unsers Herrn 1827." By an unidentified artist and schoolmaster in the Plumstead School. Bold decoration of red, yellow and light-blue flowers and buds. All pages of the tunebook seem to be intact and are filled with hand-written first-line texts and tunes of German hymns. |
Provenance |
Manuscript tunebook with fraktur deocrated title page, 1827, made for Debbe Wismer, student in the Plumstead School, Bucks County. See a nearly identical example of the same date made for Sarah Wismer (likely a sister) in, "Bucks County Fraktur" (Cory Amsler, editor) (Pennsylvania German Society, 1999); p. 285, fig. 255. According to the Wismer Family History (A. J. Fretz, 1893) there was only one Debbie (Deborah) Wismer in Bucks County, born in the early 19th century. She was Deborah (Debbie) Wismer (1821-1874), daughter of Samuel Wismer (1780-1851) & Susanna Detweiler Wismer of Plumstead Township and members of the Deep Run East Mennonite congregation. Debbie Wismer later married Isaac Wismer Gross (1821-1905) of Plumstead Township. And, this Debbie Wismer had a sister Sarah Wismer (b. 1819) who would also have been a student in the Plumstead School in the late 1820s! She later married Joseph N. Gross. Later provenance of Debbie Wismer's tunebook is mostly unknown. Around the year 2000, it was sold by a Bucks County fraktur dealer to Joel G. Clemmer (the donor). |
Source |
Gift of Joel G.Clemmer |
People |
Gross, Deborah Wismer, 1821-1874 |