Copperplate Portraits of Reverend Paul Henkel (1754-1825) and Elizabeth Henkel

Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place Made
New Market Shenandoah County Virginia
Date Made
1825
Medium
copper
Dimensions
HOA: 4 3/4″; WOA: 3 1/4″
Accession Number
5550.4a-b
Description
The Reverend Paul Henkel was born in Rowan County, North Carolina. An itinerant Lutheran preacher, Henkel sermonized in English and German up and down the Great Wagon Road in present day West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In 1806 he settled in New Market, Virginia, where his son Solomon Henkel established the Henkel Press. Printing a wide variety of educational and religious materials in German, the Henkel Press worked to preserve the German language among the South’s German-speaking communities.

RELATED OBJECTS: MESDA has a large collection of Henkel Press material (acc 5550). Among this material are woodblocks, books, prints, and manuscript material. Other objects in the MESDA collection include include a fraktur for the Henkel’s grandson Silon Amos Henkel (Acc. 5853), a profile portrait drawn by Silon Amos Henkel (Acc. 5163), a chair (Acc. 5838) and a sideboard (Acc. 3350) with a Henkel line of descent.