This video is part of the Cornwall Iron Furnace Associates (CIFA) historical lecture series. Patrick Donmoyer examines the history of the Pennsylvania Barn.
Based on over 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. 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. The anatomy of the Pennsylvania barn will be thoroughly discussed, 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.
Patrick J. Donmoyer is the Director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University, a folklife museum and research center on the Kutztown Campus. An avid speaker of Pennsylvania Dutch and advocate for regional folk culture, Patrick’s work blends language, cultural traditions, and vernacular architecture in his folklife research. Patrick is the author of 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.”
