Mennonite Church USA Archives
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The Mennonite Church USA Archives was founded in 2001 under the denominational merger of the (old) Mennonite Church and the
General Conference Mennonite Church The General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC) was a mainline association of Mennonite congregations based in North America from 1860 to 2002. The conference was formed in 1860 when congregations in Iowa invited North American Mennonites to join ...
. Prior to 2001, the two largest Mennonite denominations maintained separate archives: the Archives of the Mennonite Church, located on the
Goshen College 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 High ...
(Goshen, Indiana) campus, housed materials pertaining to the (old) Mennonite Church, while the Mennonite Library and Archives on the Bethel College (North Newton, Kansas) campus held the records of the General Conference Mennonite Church. From 2001 to 2012, the two repositories remained physically separate but were merged administratively, with oversight from the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee. In 2012, the Historical Committee was disbanded and the two repositories came under the administration of the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board. In March 2017, the Mennonite Church USA Archives moved from its former location on the campus of Goshen College to the Mennonite Church USA denominational building in Elkhart, Indiana. Goshen College institutional and faculty records – most notably the personal papers of Harold S. Bender and Guy F. Hershberger, among others – remain at Goshen College and are no longer managed by the Mennonite Church USA Archives. In July 2017, Mennonite Church USA ceded ownership of the records of the former General Conference Mennonite Church to the Mennonite Library and Archives at Bethel College.


Collections

The Mennonite Church USA Archives is the official repository for the institutional records of the denomination and its agencies, created between 2001 and the present. The archives also house the historical records of the (old) Mennonite Church and other affiliated organizations, including: *
Mennonite World Conference The Mennonite World Conference (MWC) is a Mennonite Anabaptist Christian denomination. Its headquarters are in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. History The first ''Mennonite World Conference'' was held in Basel in 1925. Its main purpose was to celebra ...
*Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission *Mennonite Mission Network *Mennonite Education Agency * MennoMedia *
Christian Peacemaker Teams Community Peacemaker Teams or CPT (previously called Christian Peacemaker Teams) is an international organization set up to support teams of peace workers in conflict areas around the world. The organization uses these teams to achieve its aims ...
*Mennonite conferences *Mennonite congregations In addition to institutional records, the archive maintains a manuscript collection documenting Mennonite history, theology, and faith practices through the writings and collected materials of significant Mennonite thinkers such as
John Howard Yoder John Howard Yoder (December 27, 1927 – December 30, 1997) was an American Mennonite theologian and ethicist best known for his defense of Christian pacifism. His most influential book was '' The Politics of Jesus'', which was first published in ...
, J.C. Wenger,
John F. Funk John Fretz Funk (April 6, 1835 - January 8, 1930) was a publisher and leader of the Mennonite Church. Funk published the ''Herald of Truth'' from 1864 until 1908 when it merged with the ''Gospel Witness'' to form the ''Gospel Herald''. Jacob Clemen ...
, John S. Coffman, Lois Gunden Clemens, and Emma Richards.


History

Mennonite archival endeavors in North America began in earnest during the early part of the 20th century. In 1911, ten men, including
John Horsch John Horsch (18 December 1867 in Giebelstadt - 7 October 1941 in Scottdale, Pennsylvania) was a Mennonite historian and writer. Life John Horsch was born in Germany in Giebelstadt near Würzburg to Elder Jacob Horsch and his wife Barbara Landes ...
and J.B. Smith, in Johnstown, PA, were appointed by the (old) Mennonite Church to create a document of church history. Two years later, the conference began buying books on church history and by 1923 had amassed 200 titles at their library in
Scottdale, Pennsylvania Scottdale is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh. Early in the 20th century, Scottdale was the center of the Frick coke interests. It had steel and iron pipe mills, brass and silver works, a casket facto ...
. After
John F. Funk John Fretz Funk (April 6, 1835 - January 8, 1930) was a publisher and leader of the Mennonite Church. Funk published the ''Herald of Truth'' from 1864 until 1908 when it merged with the ''Gospel Witness'' to form the ''Gospel Herald''. Jacob Clemen ...
's library was added to the collection, the committee self-proclaimed their records as "the most valuable library on Mennonite History in America" Eventually the Historical Committee, under Harold S. Bender, began moving towards a central building for archives in Goshen. In the same year, 1911, the General Conference Mennonite Church began taking steps to create an intentionally preserved historical record. At an assembly in
Bluffton, Ohio Bluffton, originally known as Shannon, is a village in Allen and Hancock counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 4,125 at the 2010 census. Bluffton is home to Bluffton University, a four-year educational institution affiliated w ...
, Silas M. Grubb lamented to other delegates, "What a sad commentary it is upon the historical sense of our people when the only records available are those upon the tomb-stones." C.H. Wedel and H.R. Voth were members of this group. The Archives of the Mennonite Church (as it was called at the time) was founded in 1937 and originally housed in the basement floor of the school's library. In 1959, the Archives moved to the new Goshen Biblical Seminary Building (later renamed Newcomer Center, when the seminary merged with the Mennonite Biblical Seminary of the General Conference Mennonite Church to form
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary 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 ...
and moved to
Elkhart, Indiana Elkhart ( ) is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, Indiana, east of Chicago, Illinois, and north of Indianapolis, Indiana. Elkhart has the larger population of the two principal cities of th ...
). Until 2012, the Mennonite Church USA Archives was the official repository for the historical records of the
Mennonite Central Committee Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a relief service, and peace agency representing fifteen Mennonite, Brethren in Christ and Amish bodies in North America. The U.S. headquarters are in Akron, Pennsylvania, the Canadian in Winnipeg, Manitoba. ...
, a binational relief and development organization with offices in
Akron, Pennsylvania Akron is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 4,169, History Akron was incorporated as a borough in 1895. Before this point, a small village called New Berlin sat at the center of the bor ...
and
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
, Manitoba. These records are now located with and managed by the organization itself. In response to a continued decline in financial support for the archives and a need for more storage space, in 2016 Mennonite Church USA decided to transfer collections to its administrative headquarters in nearby Elkhart and completed the move in March 2017. In addition to the Mennonite Church USA Archives (Elkhart, Indiana) and the Mennonite Library and Archives (North Newton, Kansas), there are several other regional Mennonite archives located across the country. These include the Mennonite Historical Library and Goshen College Archives at Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana), the Menno Simons Library and Archives at
Eastern Mennonite University Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) is a private Mennonite university in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The university also operates a satellite campus in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which primarily caters to working adults. EMU's bachelor-degree holde ...
(Harrisonburg, Virginia), the
Bluffton University Bluffton University is a private Mennonite university in Bluffton, Ohio. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, with four programs that have earned programmatic accreditation: dietetics, education, music, and social work. The unive ...
(Bluffton, Ohio) Archives, the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), the Mennonite Heritage Center (Harleysville, Pennsylvania), the Heritage Hall Museum & Archives (Freeman, South Dakota), and the Pacific Northwest Mennonite Historical Society (Hubbard, Oregon).


Bomb scare

On February 1, 2011, an archivist happened across two large caliber shells, a grenade and a small aerial bomb in the Mennonite Church USA Archives. These materials had been donated by George Springer, a post World War I relief worker in France. The Elkhart Police Department was brought in to dispose of the ordnance. Other artifacts amon
George Springer's papers
including trench art created by German prisoners of war, were donated to the Mennonite Historical Library and th
Museum of the Soldier
in Portland, Indiana.


References

{{Reflist


External links


Mennonite Church USA Archives

Mennonite Archival Image Database

Archives Newspaper Article

Bomb Scare Article

Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online
Archives in the United States Mennonite Church USA