Mennonite Historical Library to celebrate 100 years with conference, May 5-6

GOSHEN, Ind. – In June 1906, just three years after the Elkhart Institute moved to a wheat field at the south end of Goshen and became Goshen College, the newly established Goshen College Alumni Association passed a resolution to create a collection in the college library devoted to Anabaptist-Mennonite history. Thus began the Mennonite Historical Library (MHL), which took up residence on a few shelves of the college library.

One hundred years later and having grown to include nearly 65,000 volumes, the library is celebrating its anniversary with a two-day conference, “Future directions in Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholarship,” May 5-6 in the Goshen College Church-Chapel.

The MHL was one of the earliest North American institutional collections of Anabaptist-Mennonite materials, and few undergraduate institutions of any type have research collections similar in scope. The library has grown over the past century to earn the description as “one of the most valuable of its kind in America,” according to MHL Curator Joe Springer.

Throughout its history, the MHL has relied on a combination of donations and purchases to increase its holdings. One of the library’s most prized pieces is the only known copy of the 1564 edition of the “Ausbund,” an Anabaptist hymnal still used by the Amish; the volume was purchased for $10 in a Pennsylvania bookshop in 1928. In addition to printed materials, the MHL collection has long included objects of historical interest, ranging from textiles to toys to furniture.

The library is much more than a static collection of old books and objects. MHL Director and Goshen College Professor of History John D. Roth described the library instead as “a dynamic collection trying to represent accurately the rapidly changing global Mennonite reality.” The library seeks out “the materials that will help us know, and in the future to understand, that reality. We collect widely and comprehensively so that the materials will be available for scholars in the future to address questions that will help the church understand more fully its moment in time,” he said.

According to Roth, the MHL sees its role in the church as collecting publications and other materials about and by Anabaptist-Mennonites, sorting materials in a systematic way, making these materials available, helping people to find access points to the story and actively telling the story.

The library has been actively involved in major corporate projects of telling that story and describing that reality – including “The Mennonite Encyclopedia,” Hans J. Hillerbrand’s “Anabaptist Bibliography” and Nelson P. Springer and A. J. Klassen’s “Mennonite Bibliography,” all of which relied heavily on access to the MHL’s comprehensive collection of materials. In 1990 the MHL partnered with the Kauffman Museum of North Newton, Kan., to launch a traveling exhibit based on Anabaptist martyr stories depicted in the texts and illustrations of the “Martyrs Mirror.”

Through a series of academic presentations by Anabaptist-Mennonite scholars, the May centennial conference hopes to address the following questions: What is Anabaptist-Mennonite Studies? What have been strengths of this scholarly tradition both in terms of its academic impact and its contribution to the life and faithfulness of the church? How has the landscape of Anabaptist-Mennonite Studies changed in the recent years? What does it mean to “do scholarship for the church”? What are some of the most important research directions for the future? How might Mennonite libraries and archives better support those new directions?

The presenting scholars include Gerald Biesecker-Mast, associate professor of communication at Bluffton (Ohio) University; Theron Schlabach, professor emeritus of history at Goshen College; John A. Lapp, coordinator of the Global Mennonite History Project and former dean and provost at Goshen College; Gayle Gerber Koontz, professor of theology and ethics at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind.; and Ervin Beck, professor emeritus of English at Goshen College. Responding to these scholars will be Victor Hinojosa, assistant professor of political science, Baylor University, and doctoral candidates Troy Osborne (University of Minnesota), David R. Swartz (University of Notre Dame) and Janneken L. Smucker (University of Delaware).

The conference will begin on Friday, May 5 with registration at 12:30 p.m. and will end after a 10:30 a.m. presentation on Saturday, May 6. The cost of the conference is $20, which includes a Friday night banquet, or $25 after March 15. For more information or to register, visit www.goshen.edu/mhl/centennial, e-mail mhl@goshen.eduor call (574) 535-7418.

The conference is supported in part by the C. Henry Smith Endowment Fund and Goshen College.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.