Paul Sandby
A View of Bethlem, the Great Moravian Settlement in the Province of Pennsylvania

A View of Bethlem, the Great Moravian Settlement in the Province of Pennsylvania

Public Domain

A View of Bethlem, the Great Moravian Settlement in the Province of Pennsylvania
EngraverBritish, 1731–1809
PublisherEnglish, 1701–1779
PublisherEnglish, 1725–1794
PublisherEnglish, active c. 1719–1771
PublisherEnglish, 1723–1793
PublisherEnglish, 1725–1809
CultureBritish
Titles
  • A View of Bethlem, the Great Moravian Settlement in the Province of Pennsylvania
  • from the portfolio Scenographia Americana
Date1768
Published inLondon, England
MediumEngraving and etching with watercolor hand coloring on laid paper
DimensionsImage: 12 3/4 × 20 1/8 in. (32.4 × 51.1 cm)
Plate: 14 3/8 × 20 7/8 in. (36.5 × 53 cm)
Sheet (irregular): 17 3/4 × 23 3/8 in. (45.1 × 59.4 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by the Mary Beth Baird bequest, by exchange
Object numberB.2017.10
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
DescriptionWith origins in fifteenth-century Bohemia and Moravia (now parts of the Czech Republic), the Moravians were a pre-Reformation sect following the teachings of priest and reformer Jan Hus. In 1741, attracted by Pennsylvania’s climate of religious tolerance, a group of Moravians settled near the Lehigh River, intending to minister to Indigenous people. The settlement quickly established many workshops, as well as a municipal waterworks. Dominating this view are the large dormitories in which community members were grouped according to age, gender, and marital status.
Provenance[Philadelphia Print Shop, Philadelphia]; purchased by MFAH, 2017.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto, printed below image, far right: C.5.
Recto, printed below image, left: A View of Bethlem, the Great Moravian Settlement in the Province of / PENNSYLVANIA
Recto, printed below image, right: Vue de Bethlem, principal Etablissment des Freres Moraves dans la Province de / PENNSYLVANIA
Recto, printed below image, center: Sketch’d on the SPOT by his Excellency Governor Pownall, Painted and Engraved by Paul Sandby / London, Printed for John Bowles at No. 13 in Cornhill, Robert Sayer at No. 53 in Fleet Street, Thos. Jefferys the corner of St. Martins Lane in the Strand, Carrington Bowles at No. 69 in St. Pauls Church Yard, and Henry Parker at No. 82 in Cornhill.
Verso, inscribed in graphite, upper left edge: Pennsylvania (cursive)

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