Book excerpt: Paint, Pattern, and People explores the fascinating and diverse furniture of southeastern Pennsylvania through the people who made, owned, inherited, and collected it. Delving into the cultures and creativity of the area's inhabitants, primarily those of British and Germanic heritage, this comprehensive work looks closely at localisms and regionalisms of form, ornament, and construction that were influenced by ethnicity, religious affiliation, settlement patterns, socioeconomic status, and the skills of the craftsmen. William Penn's policy of religious tolerance attracted people of various faiths and ethnic backgrounds, making Pennsylvania the most culturally diverse of the thirteen colonies. Through the study of well-documented furniture, fraktur, needlework, paintings, and architecture produced by this mixed multitude, the region's great diversity comes into focus. Paint, Pattern and People is a significant contribution to the literature in the field, presenting new scholarship as well as never-before-published furniture and related objects.