Americana crafted

Robert D. Bethke, Jehu Camper

At the age of thirty-six Jehu Camper (1897-1989) began a fifty-year career as a whittler. Assisted by his wife Lillian he was able to complete more than six hundred pieces. In these mixed-media assemblages of farm implements and evocative scenes filled with whimsy they preserved vivid memories of rural life in Delaware. Camper regarded himself as a custodian of the past. He was celebrated as a local folk historian as well as a "resident whittler" at state fairs and programs for school children. Through his many presentations Camper engaged the public in an examination of their heritage and gained renown for promoting its preservation with his folk carvings. This book pictures the delightful carvings with which Camper attempted to commemorate the past. When he died, a large collection of his works was donated to the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village. These not only preserve the...

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