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Johann Heinrich Otto - Fraktur

Fraktur (ca. 1770–1800)

Johann Heinrich Otto (American, ca. 1733-ca. 1800)
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License: All public domain files can be freely used for personal and commercial projects.
Why is this image in the public domain?
The Artist died in 1800 so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries where the copyright term is the Artist's life plus 70 years or fewer. It is in the public domain in the United States because it was published or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office before Jan 1, 1926

Johann Henrich (sometimes Heinrich) Otto was an American fraktur artist.

Otto was a native of Schwarzerden near Pfeffelbach, and came to the Thirteen Colonies as a young man, arriving aboard the ship Edinburgh on October 2, 1753. He married Anna Catharine Dauterich; their children were born in Lancaster and Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1755 he advertised himself as a weaver. From 1777 until 1780 he saw military service in the American Revolutionary War. He appears to have worked as a schoolmaster for numerous Reformed Protestant churches; from around 1769 until 1779 he was associated with an institution in Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, and later he lived in Mahanoy Township, then in Northumberland County, where he likely taught at St. Peter's Lutheran and Reformed Church. Otto began producing fraktur in the 1760s; he was among the first artists to create birth certificates using the style.

His earliest pieces are completely hand-drawn, very colorful and detailed. By 1784 he was having baptismal certificates printed at the press of the Ephrata Cloister; the woodblocks used to decorate the pieces may have been designed by him as well. Some of them contain longer certificates which appear to justify infant baptism, a practice generally disdained by Mennonites in the area. Otto also created broadsides featuring Adam and Eve during his career, as well as spiritual mazes, bookplates, and presentation pieces. The birds that he drew were later copied by other artists, who also borrowed the style of his text. His four sons, Jacob, William, Daniel, and Conrad became fraktur artists, as did Conrad's son Peter. Johann Otto died in Mahanoy Township.

More Artworks by Johann Heinrich Otto

Fraktur Motifs

Fraktur Motifs (ca. 1780)

Johann Heinrich Otto (American, ca. 1733-ca. 1800)
Birth and Baptismal Certificate

Birth and Baptismal Certificate (1782)

Johann Heinrich Otto (American, ca. 1733-ca. 1800)

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License: All public domain files can be freely used for personal and commercial projects.
Why is this image in the public domain?
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