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Mennonite Historical Library | |
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Location | Goshen College, Indiana, United States |
Established | 1906 |
Branches | 1 |
Collection | |
Size | 67,000 |
Other information | |
Director | Elizabeth Miller |
Employees | 3 |
Website | www |
The Mennonite Historical Library (MHL) is considered the world's most prominent and complete collection of resources and artifacts pertaining to Mennonites and related Anabaptist groups. It is housed in the Harold and Wilma Good Library on the campus of Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana. The specialty library was founded in 1906 under the guidance of Harold S. Bender and Ernst Correll. Elizabeth Miller is the current director. [1]
On June 13, 1906, the Goshen College Alumni Association unanimously passed a resolution to establish a Mennonite Historical Library on campus. Already at that date, alumni were committed to fostering the Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage that still informs the purpose of Goshen College and is part of its distinctive character. The suggestion may have originated with C. Henry Smith, then professor of history at the college. Smith, together with the Alumni Association executive committee, served on the book selection committee for the proposed library. By the following June, out of its endowment earnings of $82.50, the Association had expended $33.88 to nurture the growth of the infant collection.
Six years later, not long before Smith departed for what is now Bluffton University, the Alumni Association formally presented the collection, then numbering about 80 volumes, to Goshen College. Among the early volumes were a 1771 edition of the Dordrecht Confession of Faith in French translation; an inventory of the Mennonite Archives in Amsterdam; C.H. Wedel's German-language general history of the Mennonites (the first written and published in America); and Helen Reimensnyder Martin's book Tillie, a Mennonite Maid. The collection grew only modestly during the following decade, a period of turmoil for the college. One of the earliest North American institutional collections of Anabaptist Mennonite materials, the archive has grown over the past century to truly earn the description, prematurely granted by early Goshen catalogs, as "one of the most valuable of its kind in America."
After a one-year closure, Goshen College reopened in the fall of 1924 with a new vision for making the institution a center for the academic study of its denominational heritage in order to educate leaders for the future of the Mennonite Church. Young professors Harold S. Bender, Ernst Correll and Guy Hershberger were among those active in promoting the concurrent resurrection of the college's Mennonite Historical Society. Students, faculty and several alumni and friends were part of the reconstitution group's charter membership of 42 in 1924. Activities of the society and its leaders were key in transforming the MHL's several shelves of topically related material into a comprehensive resource for the study of Anabaptist-Mennonite history, life, and thought.
Over the next five years, the society launched both its scholarly journal, The Mennonite Quarterly Review , and its monograph series, Studies in Anabaptist and Mennonite History. For the next quarter century, the society was the primary funding source for the growth of the MHL.
Throughout its history, the MHL has relied on a combination of donation and purchase to build its holdings. In June 1906, Goshen College received as a gift a 1534 Bible in the Zurich (Froschauer) translation long favored by the Swiss and South German Anabaptists over the more widespread Luther translation. One of the library's most prized pieces, the only known copy of the 1564 (first extant) edition of the Ausbund, an Anabaptist hymnal still used by the Amish, was purchased for $10 in 1928 in a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, bookshop.
From early on, the MHL holdings incorporated significant portions of earlier North American collections such as those assembled by Mennonite publisher and bishop John F. Funk and historian John Horsch, who collected books for his work with the Mennonite Publishing House and Mennonite Historical Committee.
Later, portions of several European collections (e.g., Christian Hege of Germany and W.J. Kühler of the Netherlands) gave important depth to the library's holdings. Several printers and publishers have regularly donated deposit copies of their publications, notably Mennonite Publishing Network's Herald Press/Faith & Life Resources and Pathway Publishers (operated by Old Order Amish). Contributions have also been critical in the library's effort to sustain comprehensive acquisition of newly published material. Exchanges of material with sister collections, such as Bethel College's Mennonite Library and Archives (North Newton, Kansas), Eastern Mennonite University's Menno Simons Library (Harrisonburg, Virginia), and the Heritage Historical Library (Aylmer, Ontario), have helped broaden MHL holdings beyond the Swiss South-German Old Mennonite segment that continues to characterize their core strength.
In addition to printed materials, the MHL collection has long included "objects of historical interest" - ranging from quilts to toys to furniture. Although at an earlier time the library also collected manuscript items, most of these are now under the care of the Mennonite Church USA Archives, long housed under a common roof with the MHL, and still located on the Goshen campus. The distinction between the Archives' collection of unpublished records and the MHL's focus on published material is easily lost on users—many of whom benefit from visiting both collections. Close proximity of the two institutions clearly strengthens each collection.
In 1927, the MHL was removed from the general college library into its own room on the third floor of the Goshen College Administration Building; a short while later, it was moved into a larger, more accessible room on the first floor of the same building. In 1940, the MHL became the first occupant of Goshen College's newly constructed Memorial Library, with stacks and workspace separate from the main college library collection. The Archives was then located adjacent to the MHL, as it was also in 1960 when both moved to the new facility for Goshen Biblical Seminary (now known as Newcomer Center). In 1967, the MHL rejoined the college library in its current residence, the third floor of the Harold and Wilma Good Library.
Today, the MHL occupies approximately 60 percent of the third floor. In addition to public space and a secure rare book room at the north end, portions of the collection are located in a storage area at the south end of the floor. A seminar room named in honor of historian John Horsch houses the 19th- and 20th-century works that were part of the collection Horsch formed at Scottdale, Pennsylvania. A current goal is to transform a work area into an artifact storage room.
The MHL collection, now over 75,000 volumes, provides necessary material for a remarkable variety of individual academic pursuits-ranging from high school term papers to doctoral dissertations. Major corporate projects such as The Mennonite Encyclopedia, Hans J. Hillerbrand's Anabaptist Bibliography and Nelson P. Springer and A.J Klassen's Mennonite Bibliography relied heavily on access to the MHL's comprehensive collection of materials.
In the 1980s, two successive grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) totaling more than $290,000 funded the professional recataloging of most of MHL's books. At the time, these grants were among the largest Goshen College had ever received. Work accomplished through the grant funding now allows for ready international access to information about MHL holdings through the catalog's on-line interface. In 1991, the MHL received another $57,000 NEH grant to microfilm early North American Mennonite periodicals and, in 1998, was awarded a $373,000 grant from Lilly Foundation Inc. to study Amish and Old Order groups in Indiana.
Over the past 20 years, the MHL has supported a variety of exhibits featuring their own materials as well as items belonging to private or other museum collections. As a partner in the Martyrs Mirror Trust, the MHL collaborated with the Kauffman Museum (North Newton, Kansas) to launch a traveling exhibit based on martyr stories depicted in the texts and illustrations of the 1685 edition of Martyrs Mirror. Since 1990, the exhibit has appeared in more than 60 locations in 22 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces. In the Good Library Art Gallery, the MHL has helped mount more than a dozen exhibits that have served the campus and community. The diverse themes of these exhibits include toys and games, Amish crib quilts, Goshen College's centennial, one-person art shows, Fraktur (decorative writing), and furniture.
The MHL continues to focus on the original vision of providing sources for the study of Anabaptist-Mennonite heritage and training young people continues. Staff members assist students and faculty of Goshen College, AMBS and other institutions along with independent researchers who wish to explore any topic related to Anabaptists, Mennonite and related groups.
Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has an enrollment of 824 students. While Goshen maintains a distinctive liberal Mennonite worldview and Mennonites make up 30 percent of the student body, it admits students of all religions.
Martyrs Mirror or The Bloody Theater, first published in Holland in 1660 in Dutch by Thieleman J. van Braght, documents the stories and testimonies of Christian martyrs, especially Anabaptists. The full title of the book is The Bloody Theater or Martyrs Mirror of the Defenseless Christians who baptized only upon confession of faith, and who suffered and died for the testimony of Jesus, their Saviour, from the time of Christ to the year A.D. 1660. The use of the word defenseless in this case refers to the Anabaptist belief in non-resistance. The book includes accounts of the martyrdom of the apostles and the stories of martyrs from previous centuries with beliefs similar to the Anabaptists.
Dirk Willems was a Dutch Anabaptist martyr most famous for escaping from prison but then turning back to rescue his pursuer — who had fallen through thin ice while chasing Willems — only to be recaptured, tortured and killed for his beliefs.
Hesston College is a private college in Hesston, Kansas, United States. It is associated with the Mennonite Church USA and has an enrollment of about 400 students who typically come from about 30 states and 15 other countries.
Harold Stauffer Bender was a prominent professor of theology at Goshen College and Goshen Biblical Seminary. His accomplishments include founding both the Mennonite Historical Library and The Mennonite Quarterly Review. He served as president of the American Society of Church History, and was a major scholarly influence on fellow Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder.
Donald B. Kraybill is an American author, lecturer, and educator on Anabaptist faiths and culture. Kraybill is widely recognized for his studies on Anabaptist groups and in particular the Amish. He has researched and written extensively on Anabaptist culture. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Elizabethtown College and Senior Fellow Emeritus at Elizabethtown's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) is an Anabaptist Christian seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, affiliated with Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada. It was formerly known as Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary until its name was changed in 2012.
Located in Smithville, Ohio, Oak Grove Mennonite Church is an historical church that has made a significant contribution to the larger Mennonite denomination, currently pastored by Doug Zehr. Oak Grove started as an Amish church in 1818, as many Amish started settling in Wayne County, Ohio. From humble beginnings the church grew and built a meetinghouse in 1862, one of the earliest of such meetinghouses the Amish have built.
The Mennonite Quarterly Review is an American interdisciplinary review journal, devoted to Anabaptist and Mennonite history, theology, and contemporary issues.
The Ausbund is the oldest Anabaptist hymnal and one of the oldest Christian song books in continuous use. It is used today by North American Amish congregations.
Guy F. Hershberger was an American Mennonite theologian, educator, historian, and prolific author particularly in the field of Mennonite ethics.
The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (GAMEO) is an online encyclopedia of topics relating to Mennonites and Anabaptism. The mission of the project is to provide free, reliable, English-language information on Anabaptist-related topics.
The Mennonite Church USA Archives was founded in 2001 under the denominational merger of the (old) Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Prior to 2001, the two largest Mennonite denominations maintained separate archives: the Archives of the Mennonite Church, located on the Goshen College campus, housed materials pertaining to the (old) Mennonite Church, while the Mennonite Library and Archives on the Bethel College campus held the records of the General Conference Mennonite Church.
College Mennonite Church (CMC) is a Mennonite Church located in Goshen, Indiana, and a member of the Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of Mennonite Church USA.
Assembly Mennonite Church is a Mennonite Church located in Goshen, Indiana. It is a member of the Central District Conference of Mennonite Church USA. Beginning as a small group of Members from Surrounding Mennonite Churches, Assembly broke from that congregation in the mid-1970s.
Pop-Mennonite was a Mennonite-themed art exhibit created by Don Swartzentruber with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and Indiana Arts Commission. The collection included oil paintings, drawings, artists’ books, and music. The Mennonites are a anabaptist denomination which dates back to the Reformation and advocates a life of modesty and simplicity.
The Amish and Mennonite Heritage Center is located at 5798 County Road 77 near Bunker Hill in Berlin, Holmes County, Ohio. It houses the Behalt cyclorama, one of a handful of remaining cycloramas worldwide and the only one painted by a single artist. The cyclorama presents the history of Anabaptism.
Noah Troyer, was an Amish Mennonite farmer and "sleeping preacher," who preached while in a state of trance.
John Stanley Oyer (1925-1998) was an Anabaptist scholar and editor.
John Horsch was a Mennonite historian and writer.