University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 4/1996 Delaware Folk Art Book Connects Generations As a young man growing up in rural Kent County during the early years of the 20th century, Jehu Camper saw changes taking place in what were then familiar scenes of everyday farming and community life. To preserve this cultural heritage before it disappeared, Mr. Camper sought to create, in wood, scaled-down scenes that he, and others of previous generations, had witnessed. The legacy created by Mr. Camper, who died at the age of 91 in 1989, is examined in a new book by Robert D. Bethke, associate professor of English. Americana Crafter: Jehu Camper, Delaware Whittler, recently published by the University Press of Mississippi, is the ninth book in its Folk Art and Artists series. Books in the series focus on the work of informally trained or self-taught artists rooted in regional, occupational, ethnic, racial or gender- specific traditions. "Folk art, in form and substance, has a community basis," Bethke said. "It's art with an individual vision in keeping with a collective identity and shared experience. "Jehu Camper hoped that these assemblages would connect generations of Delawareans," Bethke explained. "He hoped that the individual pieces would serve as a link between the young and the old." The book is a result of research since 1977, when Bethke first met Jehu and Lillian Camper. During Mr. Camper's long and prolific career as a whittler, the Delawarean created more than 600 objects, about 50 of which are assembled scenes. Bethke's book includes black-and-white photographs of the artist and of the backyard Camper's Museum, built in 1975 to display his handicraft. Color plates depict representative assemblages, which are described in Mr. Camper's words. The book notes that the earliest assemblage, and Mr. Camper's favorite, was completed in 1933. It shows a farmer, wearing a slouched hat and smoking a corncob pipe, sitting astride two oxen hauling a log to a saw mill. Although this assemblage marked the beginning of Mr. Camper's lifelong project, Bethke said, he did not begin dedicated work on the "memory art" until 1945, when he retired from operating a service station in his native Harrington. Despite losing an eye in a 1930s accident while replacing a tire, Mr. Camper whittled until severe arthritis put an end to his efforts in 1984. Bethke's book captures the whittler's keen sense of humor. On one occasion, while exhibiting his work at the Delaware State Fair, Mr. Camper told a woman who had expressed an interest in becoming a whittler that, to get started, all she needed was to get herself a piece of wood, a sharp knife, some Band-Aids and a few cuss words. Bethke said that Mr. Camper remarked later that the woman never did become a whittler. "I guess she just couldn't find the cuss works," Mr. Camper said. Mr. Camper's assemblages, which Bethke likens to three- dimensional photographs of the past, offer glimpses into the daily life of the Delaware farming community. Scenes include hauling and scalding hogs, sorghum molasses making, a water- driven grist mill and a blacksmith shop. In 1984, the Delaware whittler was honored by then-Gov. Pierre S. du Pont IV and, that same year, Mr. Camper was invited by the Smithsonian Institution to display samples of his work at the 17th annual Festival of American Folklife on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Although the Smithsonian expressed interest in acquiring the collection, Bethke said, Mr. Camper declined the offer when he learned that the majority of the work would probably remain stored somewhere in the museum's vast archives. Mr. Camper's dream of keeping his collection together in one place, for public viewing, was fulfilled in 1992, three years after his death, when his wife, Lillian, donated its entirety to the Delaware Agricultural Museum and Village in Dover. The museum currently features most of the assemblages in a prominent display. Bethke, who began teaching at the University in 1971, traces his interest in Americana to having been raised in a home filled with country antiques and folk art. As an undergraduate at Middlebury College, where he majored in American literature, Bethke learned about folklore studies from Horace P. Beck, a nationally known folklorist. With Beck's encouragement, Bethke went on to pursue M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in folklore and folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. -Jerry Rhodes