Historic Trappe is pleased to announce the acquisition of a newly discovered painting by itinerant artist Charles C. Hofmann (1821-1882), best known for his paintings of the almshouses of Berks, Montgomery, Northampton, and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania. A frequent almshouse resident himself, Hofmann traveled around Pennsylvania and was commissioned by the almshouse administrators to paint their institutions multiple times throughout his life. He also painted bucolic scenes of country life, including family farms and a prominent local church, and an allegorical interpretation of German imperialism titled Die Wacht am Rhein (The Watch on the Rhine). The newly discovered painting is titled The Seven Swabians encountering a hare and is a rare and important work. The Seven Swabians was a popular German folk tale that lampooned the travels of a group of men from Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany. One of the most famous scenes is when the men encounter a sleeping hare and, after mistaking it for a monster, try to kill it with a long spear only to realize their mistake when the hare wakes up. In the Grimms fairy tale version of the story, the men later drown while trying to cross a river. Only one other depiction of the Seven Swabians is known thus far in Pennsylvania German folk art, a fraktur by Friedrich Krebs in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Following conservation to remove surface dirt and grime, the painting will be exhibited at Historic Trappes Center for Pennsylvania German Studies alongside two other works by Hofmann. Thirty-six paintings by Hofmann were the subject of an essay by Historic Trappes curator, Christopher Malone, in the 2024 volume of Americana Insights, the first new scholarship on Hofmanns life and work since 1978. Malone will now team up with German language expert Mark Louden at the University of Wisconsin to write an article about this new discovery and the Swabian dialect used in the painting and the related fraktur by Krebs. Look for this in the next volume of Americana Insights, due out in fall 2026. Historic Trappe is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the historic places, landscapes, and heritage of southeastern Pennsylvania. The organization maintains five historic properties, four of which are open to the public. The Center for Pennsylvania German Studies, located in the Dewees Tavern, has five galleries featuring a wide variety of furniture, fraktur, textiles, and other objects as well as a changing special exhibitions gallery and research library/archives. The Muhlenberg House is a fully-furnished museum interpreting the families of Lutheran pastor Henry Muhlenberg and his son General Peter Muhlenberg during the Revolutionary War. The Speakers House, home of Frederick Muhlenberg, is an ongoing restoration project and the site of a Pennsylvania German kitchen garden. The St. Lukes Cemetery was founded in 1742 and includes many prominent local figures and military veterans. Historic Trappe is also the owner of the Muhlenberg parsonage, built in 1745 and currently undergoing architectural study in preparation for restoration. To learn more, visit www.HistoricTrappe.org.