Figure 5. Catalogue no. 129
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on hand-drawn records. We find the heart almost hidden in his entwined heart logo, in the wings of his birds. Friedrich Krebs, another 19th century schoolmaster and fraktur artist, rarely executed a certificate without a printed or drawn central heart. "The Cumberland Valley Artist," who has been familiarly dubbed "The Nine Heart Artist," is known from Maryland to Canada for his distinctive use of hearts within hearts to contain the textual material, figure 6. NonPennsylvanians have also distinguished themselves for their repeated use of the motif. William Murray, a Mohawk Valley, New York, schoolmaster, has adorned dozens of family records with his unmistakable red and black watercolor hearts. A still unnamed maker of family records from the southern Maine-New Hampshire border area is known only as the "Heart and Hand Artist," a rebus that he uses for his signature. It is possible but unnecessary to read a deeper meaning into the final form of a carved or stitched heart. At some point we must merely accept the interrelationship of the medium, the tools, and the individual genius of the creator. It is interesting to note that of the 130 objects on exhibition, three-quarters were made by men, and over one-third were made for women. If we were to examine the intent of the hearts employed in handmade items of both utility and beauty we would discover a limited set of motivations behind their creation, generally falling into five major categories: Religious/Ritualistic; Fraternal; Love/Friendship; Identification; Manipulation of materials. In the discussion above, the religious associations were outlined. The heart, severed from its purely religious connotations during the Renaissance has outlived its earliest exhortations of faith and piety to survive for use in these other categories. Rituals in which the heart figures prominently include birth and baptism, marriage and death. Records of these rites of passage, markers, and ceremonial effects will often include the heart. Amish brides stitch hearts of thread into layers of their marriage quilts. Its persistence as a death motif is further attested to in Queena Stovall's contemporary painting of a country funeral in which the flower festooned heart wreath serves as a living consolation to the bereaved. Several native American Indian tribes include the heart in their design repertoire. Hearts can be found among the Passamaquoddy and other Northeast Woodland tribes as well as Tlingit (Northwest coast), Yuma, Porno, and Shoshonea (California) ritual and utilitarian wares. We are unfortunately more often reminded of the Victorian souvenir items, beaded pillows and trinkets made for the tourist by entrepreneurs eager to profit from the mobility and romanticism of the period. Since 1782 men have been incalculably proud to wear the Purple Heart as a reward for combat wounds (awarded posthumously after World War I). The first Purple Heart (designed by Pierre Charles L'Enfant) was a heart-shaped purple cloth embroidered with a wreath surrounding the word "Merit" and with edges of silver rope. Today the award