I became interested in the Pennsylvania Dutch, both their furniture and their painting, when reading and studying the Asheford material on this matter. I found it fascinating that there were certain colors used, coupled with the utilitarianism of the furniture. How typical of humans that we take something that we must have, a barn in this case, and make it beautiful within the bounds we are capable of. Thus developed a love and interest of the specific painting to this region of people. The origination and development of Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs seemed the logical choice of an AIA essay.
When researching the Pennsylvania Dutch, one of the first discoveries is that there are several names referring to these people. One, obviously, is Pennsylvania Dutch, but they are also called Pennsylvania Germans, and possibly the best known, “fancy” Dutch. (folkart.com). Thus called to distinguish them from the “plain” Dutch or Anabaptist’s who did not assimilate quickly or easily into American mainstream (wikipedia.org). We would call these people Mennonites or Amish.
The Germans began to make their way to North America in the late 1600’s to escape what seems constant war and destruction in Germany and Switzerland. Most emigrated to England first; of these, over half were sent to Ireland to bolster Protestantism there. The rest were sent to North America. Eventually, many from Ireland also emigrated here as well.
When established, finally in Pennsylvania, the Germans employed farming techniques learned in Europe; these were astonishingly successful in their adopted land. With most of their time dedicated to farming, and no extra money, painting and decorating was by necessity and practicality not necessarily for looks. As their lives developed and paint became affordable, look and comfort became more important. To accessorize their barns and homes, they turned to their quilts; there they found the shapes and colors they preferred; the logical next step was to apply these same shapes and colors to their buildings (wikipedia.org).
There was little painting prior to 1830, as the cost was astronomical, so the development of hex signs didn’t really get started until shortly thereafter, around 1860 or so (amishnews.com). The Pennsylvania Dutch tended to stay with shapes they were familiar with and that had meaning for them. Some of the symbols were Distlefink, Double Headed Eagle, Tulips, Hearts, and several geometric shapes, the oldest most likely being the Rosette. Each of the symbols possessed a meaning as well. See the following list:
- Crescent Moon: the four seasons
- Distlefink: good luck and happiness
- Doves: friendship, peace, happiness, purity
- Eagle: strength, courage
- Heart: love, true and everlasting; love for others
- Oak Leaf: long life, strength, endurance
- Pineapple: welcome and hospitality
- Raindrops: water, crop abundance, fertility
- Rosettes: good luck
- Scallops: smooth sailing in life
- Stars: good fortune, hope, love, fertility
- Tulips: Faith, hope, charity, and trust (folkart.com).
As with shapes and symbols, colors also held significant meaning. Blue: protection, peace, calmness and spirituality. Brown: friendship and strength; green, growth and fertility. Orange meant abundance and purple sacred things. Red dealt with emotions and white, purity. Yellow represented health, love of mankind, and connection to God (folkart.com). Due to the age of the Hex Signs, the colors were ones that would be found in nature.
While the term hex means many things, within our frame of reference it most likely is not negative. There are several thoughts associated with the term Hex Signs. One is the Pennsylvanian Dutch word ‘hex’ which in fact means witch. This is probably not the original derivative as Hex Sign wasn't applied to this decoration until after 1924 and Wallace Nutting’s book Pennsylvania Beautiful was published. In this book, Nutting wrote that barn signs were used to ward off evil spirits. A second thought is based on the 1929 coverage of a witchcraft-related murder in York County. The news media introduced the word hex to the American public at this time (ancestry.com).
Yet another interpretation is “Chust for nice” in the local dialect. As stated by amishnews.com, “the meanings we find in the hex signs are ethnic identity, ethnic pride, and the pure joy of colorful decoration.” A popular belief stems from the previous idea as well; as the state of Pennsylvania tried to dissolve the German language and culture, the increased display of hex signs with the result. Yet another thought follows the idea that a favorite symbol of these paintings were of the six sided star; the word six in German is “sechs” which sounded like “hex” to the English speaking neighbors (padutch.com).
With all of these varying interpretations, we will probably never know the true roots of the Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs. My guess is that it is probably a combination of several
of these theories. Part of the beauty is the mystery behind where they came from. If we knew without a doubt, they would without a doubt, be less popular and certainly less fascinating.
