Our on-going monthly series highlighting collection materials to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence continues! Want the next post delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to our mailing list here!

In earlier posts in this series we have looked at the Moravian Church during the American Revolution and the varying attitudes and responses of members to the conflict. This month we are sharing something different from our holdings, a scrapbook created by a Moravian artist roughly a hundred years after the Revolution that offers an interesting lens on how the war was seen by later generations of Moravians.

Titled “Relics of the Revolution”, this scrapbook (presented in full below) was assembled by Rufus A. Grider (1817-1900) and is believed to have been made in the late 1870’s.  Grider was born in Lititz, Pennsylvania, and worked as a businessman, artist, and local historian throughout Pennsylvania and New York. Here at the Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, our holdings include a wide range of material from Grider, including artwork, personal correspondence and scrapbooks.

“Relics of the Revolution” is a fascinating example of one of these scrapbooks, as it consists of a wide variety of material related to the American Revolution. Some highlights include newspaper clippings, stamps, illustrations of notable individuals and locations, a handwritten piece on the artist Gilbert Stewart, and Colonial era currency. Some of the included items relate specifically to Bethlehem and the Moravian community’s experiences during the war, notably an illustration made by Rufus Grider of the banner presented by the Moravian Single Sisters to the calvary commander Casimir Pulaski in 1778.

In earlier posts we have noted how the Moravian Church officially tried to minimize any involvement with the American Revolution, as well as looking at how individual Moravians responded during this tumultuous time. This scrapbook offers a fascinating example of how attitudes of Moravians had shifted over time to, much like other Americans, begin to lionize the young country’s founding.

Materials: “Relics of the Revolution,” GriderColl f 29.1-18, Moravian Archives Bethlehem

Further Reading:

For more on Casimir Pulaski and the banner see this earlier post: Digital Collections Spotlight #59: Casimir Pulaski

Much of the Rufus A. Grider material in our holdings has been digitized and can be viewed by searching for “GriderColl” in our online finding aid here.