Johann Adam Eyer

Johann (sometime John) Adam Eyer (1755–1837) was an American fraktur artist.

Eyer was a indigenous of Bedminster Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. During his career he taught studious in Chester and Lancaster Counties, but by nearly 1786 he had moved similar to his entire associates to Upper Mount Bethel Township in Northampton County, where he took a slant at the Lutheran school. The family moved once again in 1801, settling in Hamilton Township, Monroe County; there, at Christ Hamilton Lutheran Church, he became a schoolteacher and a clerk. He never married and remained in Hamilton Township until his death; during his career he taught in Mennonite schools as capably as Lutheran. Eyer was the eldest son of the family, and in this tilt presided beyond the estate of his parents. With his brother Ludwig acting as agent, he founded and developed the town of Bloomsburg in 1802. Another brother, Johann Frederick, was a schoolmaster and organist who furthermore produced fraktur. Eyer was connections as with ease with Andreas Kolb, another fraktur player and Mennonite minister, with whom he exchanged artworks. In addition to his teaching activities, he was a flourishing businessman.

Eyer produced hundreds of pieces of fraktur during his career, initially copying pieces produced by Mennonite or Schwenkfelder artists who created writing samples for their students. These he would fold to make a booklet, with four pages and a cover. Cutting a larger sheet in half lengthwise allowed him to fabricate a LP of musical notation, a aptitude which he passed on to his pupils as well. Later in computer graphics he then produced hymnal bookplates, baptismal records, and presentation drawings, as without difficulty as illustrated poems. Also extant is a drawing of a soldier's wedding. The Mennonite Heritage Center owns several of his works. Three works are held by the American Folk Art Museum, while fourteen may be found in the growth of the Winterthur Museum. Twelve pieces are owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, or have been promised to the museum. Eyer's bookish roster autograph album survives and has been translated for publication.