Prestele, Franz Joseph Ulrich. (1796 - March 9, 1867) was a German-American lithographer; he was known in the United States as Joseph Prestele. He is remembered mainly for his botanicals, but also produced a lithograph broadside synopsizing the story of the move, from Germany to America, of the pietist sect known as the Community of True Inspiration (The Inspirationists) of which Prestele had become a member. Prestele was born in Jettingen, Bavaria, where he was trained by his father as a lithographer and painter. In Germany, he had been head gardener for King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and an artist at the Royal Botanical Garden in Munich. Prestele joined the Community of True Inspiration in 1837, relocating first to their community in Engelthal. The family were, in 1843, among the first members of the community to resettle in AmericaM, where they founded the communal settlement of Eben-Ezer, now part of suburban Buffalo, New York. As a member of the Community, Prestele sold botanical illustrations to nurserymen and provided illustrations for Asa Gray's botanical.



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