Ferdinand A. Brader (Swiss 1833-1901)

Ferdinand A. Brader, an itinerant folk artist, wandered through Pennsylvania and Ohio, creating a legacy of drawings, which provide a glimpse into daily life in rural America in the late 19th century. His drawings are treasured today by collectors of folk art and by scholars of American folk life, and certainly by the many families who cherish the stories of their great grandparents’ rural homes.

A native of northeast Switzerland, Brader came to America in the 1870s, around the age of 40, after a career of carving wooden bakery molds for the family bakery in his home village of Kaltbrunn. It is not known why he left Switzerland and his family behind or exactly when he ar...