Shelley, Donald A.

Donald A. Shelley was a noted expert on Pennsylvania German fraktur. He was born in York, Pennsylvania, on July 11, 1911, and was descended from Pennsylvania Germans. He received degrees from Pennsylvania State College (B.A.), Harvard University (M.A.), and New York University (Ph.D.). He also studied at the Universities of London and Paris and traveled in Germany to research the European antecedents of Pennsylvania German folk art. He held positions in various museums, including the Reading (Penn.) Public Museum and Art Gallery, the Chrysler-Garbisch Collection of American Folk Art, the New-York Historical Society, the Children's Museum of Queens (N.Y.), and was executive director of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. He also served as acting director of the Historical Society of York County from 1978-1980. He lectured widely and wrote numerous books and articles on American painting and decorative arts. His book The Fraktur-Writings or Illuminated Manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Germans, published in 1961 by the Pennsylvania German Society, is still considered the definitive work on the subject. Dr. Shelley died in Oley, Pennsylvania on April 19, 2006.