Q&A: Trevor Brandt – Antiques And The Arts Weekly

The nonprofit e-journal and information center for all things traditional American folk art and Americana, Americana Insights, has just released the second volume of its annual series dedicated to presenting the latest research and discoveries on traditional American folk art and material culture: Americana Insights 2024. Its predecessor was featured in a 2023 Antiques and The Arts Weekly book review. Now, a year later, Antiques and The Arts Weekly is catching up with managing editor, Trevor Brandt, to get an inside scoop on the newest volume, and what else Americana Insights is up to.

Congratulations on the completion of the second volume of Americana Insights! Could you give us a preview of what to expect from the 2024 iteration?

Americana Insights 2024 ranges even further afield than our first volume. This year’s book spans from Appalachia to the Atlantic Ocean, with topics including early Eighteenth Century Cherokee rivercane baskets, French American samplers, New England folk artist Sturtevant J. Hamblin, the almshouse paintings of German immigrant Charles C. Hofmann and the display of antiques on mid Twentieth Century ocean liners. Other topics include Pennsylvania German fraktur, carousel carving, carriage signs, quilts and game boards. There is truly something for every enthusiast of Americana within this year’s book!

We are also proud to have employed a professional decorative arts photographer to shoot the objects included within Americana Insights 2024. The images in this year’s volume look absolutely stunning, and they make Americana Insights 2024 a wonderful addition to anyone’s library!

What did you contribute to Americana Insights 2024?

I authored an essay within Americana Insights 2024 based on my research at the Newberry Library in Chicago. This essay examines the wildly ornate yet unstudied “decoupage” fraktur of the artist Friedrich Krebs (circa 1749–1815). Krebs, a former Hessian mercenary during the American Revolution, was later a prolific fraktur artist in southeastern Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1790, Krebs began to purchase expensive, imported German gilt wallpapers from merchants in Reading. He would then cut and paste figures from these wallpapers onto his fraktur, creating shimmering, almost three-dimensional objects. I am especially happy to have included some truly outstanding images within the essay, including professionally shot photographs of the fraktur certificates and examples of the Eighteenth Century wallpaper still preserved at museums in Germany.

I will be speaking on this essay at a few upcoming events. On October 22 at 7 pm I am lecturing at Historic Trappe (St Luke’s, 200 West Main Street, Trappe, Penn., 19426), free and open to the public. I will also speak with my co-author, Christopher Malone, at 2 pm on November 17 at the Delaware Antiques Show. Our new books will be sold at both talks. If you are in town, be sure to attend!

What are some of your favorite topics discussed in the volume?

That is a hard question! Visually, Matthew Monk’s essay on Cherokee baskets may be my favorite. This is the first time that Americana Insights has featured basketry and the objects turned out absolutely stunning in print. Matthew’s research is also important in tracing the adapting and overlapping meanings of these baskets to their makers and later collectors. Christopher Malone’s article on the almshouse artist, Charles C. Hofmann, similarly looks fantastic as we had many of Hofmann’s paintings in private collections specially photographed for the book.

Other essays delve into topics that have long deserved scholarly attention. Dr Paul D’Ambrosio contributed two pieces — one which casts a light on the New England portraitist, Sturtevant J. Hamblin, who has long been overshadowed by his mentor William Matthew Prior. Dr D’Ambrosio’s second contribution considers a recently discovered albumen print of W.M. Prior, which is the only known photograph of the artist. Dr D’Ambrosio uses this photograph to revisit the topic of Prior’s family life, a topic long absent from scholarship on the artist. Truly, though, each essay within the new book offers something special to the study of early Americana.

Americana Insights has both Facebook and Instagram (@AmericanaInsights) pages that are updated regularly. How has your presence on social media been beneficial to Americana Insight’s goal of spreading love for all things Americana?

Social media is extremely beneficial to our project. Americana Insights has a twofold role in the promoting of early Americana. First, of course, we encourage new research by sponsoring essays both in print and online through generous author honoraria. In this way, our busy @AmericanaInsights Facebook and Instagram presence aids us in spreading the work of our authors and in selling books.

Our second role is as an advocate for museums with collections of Americana. We are a cheerleader for museums large and small, dedicating over half of our social media presence to boosting exhibitions, lectures and workshops on early American folk art and material culture. Our website’s “On Now” page, too, is regularly updated with the latest goings-on in the world of American folk art and material culture. In all these efforts, we seek to uplift the appreciation and study of the arts and artifacts of the early United States. And, frankly, it is not difficult to promote other institutions when their programming is so exciting and their objects so beautiful!

How are those interested in contributing to the next volume of Americana Insights able to get involved?

We are always delighted to hear from potential authors! We generally include topics from the Seventeenth through early Twentieth Centuries focusing on Americana, folk art and material culture. The best way to reach us is to email me directly at: [email protected]. You can also use the “Submissions” tab on our website, www.AmericanaInsights.org. If you visit our website, be sure also to subscribe to our monthly newsletter!

— Kiersten Busch