Course:ARST575K/LIBR539H/Mennonite Heritage Archives

The Mennonite Heritage Archives (MHA) is located in the Heritage Centre, on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The MHA and CMU are located on Treaty 1 Territory, the ancestral land of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota, and Métis peoples. The Heritage Centre is comprised of the archival program and an art gallery.

Mennonite Heritage Archives
Type	Community Archives
Focus	The Mennonite Community in Canada
Location	500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, Manitoba R3P 2N2
Established	1933
Founder	Bernhard J. Schellenberg
Website	https://www.mharchives.ca/
Abbreviation	MHA

Background

The development of the Mennonite Heritage Archives began during a period of community migration from Germany and Russia to Canada. The archives have been well supported by community institutions and individuals since the early development.

Historical Timeline

Key Dates	Events
1933	The archives program began after delegates of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada approved a recommendation by Bernhard J. Schellenberg to begin a program. Schellenberg gained insights related to a previous archival collection run by Peter Braun in Russia, which was confiscated by the Russian government. Schellenberg was the Conference Archivist from 1933-1940.
1941-1958	The archival program was directed by Benjamin Ewert.
1958-1966	Gerhard Lohrenz became the director.
1966-1973	Under the direction of Henry H. Epp, two special rooms were set aside for the archival collection at the Canadian Mennonite Bible College (now Canadian Mennonite University). Epp created a classification system for the collection.
1974	Archivist Lawrence Klippenstein expanded the heritage preservation program on a part-time basis. A five-member board was introduced as well as an administration assistant. Volunteers began helping staff.
1978	A generous gift from the Peter W. Enns Family Foundation of Winkler, Manitoba allowed The Mennonite Heritage Centre to form. The construction of the building began with a dedication in January 1979.
1984-1997	Dennis Stoesz became interim archivist, followed by Peter Rempel as acting archivist from 1992-1993. Alf Redekop served as half-time archivist with Klippenstein as director.
1992	Connie Wiebe hired as administrative assistant until 2019.
1998	Under Ken Reddig’s direction, The Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery program began.
1999	Alf Redekopp became director. Conrad Stoesz hired as half-time archivist.
2013-2017	Korey Dyck served as director.
2018	Conrad Stoesz became director and the Gallery switched to be a program of Canadian Mennonite University.
2019	Selenna Wolfe hired as administrative assistant.

Funding and Governance

The archives underwent reorganization on June 1, 2017, which transferred full ownership of the Mennonite Heritage Centre building to CMU. CMU currently runs all programming of the faith-based Art Gallery. The archives is managed and funded by a three-way partnership of Mennonite Church Canada, CMU, and Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies (CTMS). CTMS is a partnership between the University of Winnipeg's Chair in Mennonite Studies and the D.F. Plett Historical Research Foundation Inc.

The reorganization expanded the focus on resources that document, “the transnational Anabaptist experience, including materials related to church communities in the global south, the Mennonite sojourn in Russia, and the Low German Mennonites of the Americas.”

There is a board of directors, made up of two members from Mennonite Church Canada, three from Canadian Mennonite University, and three from the Centre for Transnational Mennonite Studies. The board approves budget and large issues under consideration. The MHA is also guided by an executive committee, made up of one member from each organization and the current archivist, who provides more detailed direction.

Purpose & Mandate

The MHA is a non-profit inter-Mennonite facility specializing in the preservation of Prussian, Russian, and Canadian Mennonite community documents. The Archives program serves the Canadian Mennonite church community by storing and indexing congregational, area church, and national church records. The records are a primary source of data for church and family researchers and genealogists.

Flinn, Stevens, and Shepherd describe a community as, “any group of people who come together and present themselves as such”, and that, “a ‘community archive’ is the product of their attempts to document the history of their commonality.” Further, Flinn et al. suggest that most community archives, “derive their commitment, passion and enthusiasm from a desire to document and record their own history and that of their communities; histories which are often absent from mainstream archives and other heritage institutions.” Other Mennonite archival institutions are in operation in Canada and beyond (See Mennonite Archives of Ontario, Mennonite Church USA Archives), with similar mandates, but distinct holdings.

Collections/Fonds

The MHA is organized into the following categories:

1.     Personal Collections (individuals and families)

2.     Organizational Collections (educational institutions and other organizations)

3.     Congregational Collections (either provincial or regional)

4.     Special Collections (Conference Yearbooks, Serials and Periodicals, Mennonite Historical Library, Mennonite Archival Image Database)

5.     Other Significant Collections (Small Archives, Vertical File, Photographs, Sound Recordings, Microfilm, Maps)

6.     Bibliographies

7.     Digital Archives sites

According to Conrad Stoesz, the MHA’s archivist, the archive contains approximately 600 metres of textual records – higher than the CN Tower. Some of these records are represented by digital finding aids. Only 1-2% of the physical materials and approximately 50% of the photograph collection has been digitized. Digitization for access purposes has been going on for at least twenty years. One of the earliest digital exhibits was the Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization family cards.

The largest collections of material at the MHA come from organizations such as the Mennonite Central Committee, Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization, Mennonite Church Canada, Mennonite Church Manitoba and individual congregations. Approximately 60% of the MHA’s holdings come from organizations and 40% from individuals and families. The majority of records come to the MHA by donors reaching out to ask if the archives would be interested in something they have. Other times, Mr. Stoesz may notice something a person has posted on social media that he thinks would be a good fit for the archives and then he reaches out by private message

There are several Mennonite archives accessible by the public in Canada. These archives are part of the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada. There are two main considerations when determining where records go - the first is mandate and the second is donor preference. The MHA has the broadest mandate, whereas the archives in the provinces collect only within their province. Many families are not bound in one province nor by one denomination, thus many records end up at the MHA .

Access

Digital Access

The MHA uses the Mennonite Archival Information Database (MAID) to describe and display finding aids for its archival fonds and collections. In 2015, after two years of design and development, MAID was launched as a result of collaboration by several Mennonite archives. MAID uses Access to Memory (AtoM) as the underlying archival description software. PeaceWorks Technology Solutions created custom features specifically for MAID including an eCommerce “shopping cart” to allow for the purchasing of prints of images available in MAID, an image carousel for the home page, a feature which adds a set of editing tools to AtoM’s static pages so that users do not need to know basic HTML to style static pages, and the ability to upload a different watermark for each institution.

At launch, MAID held 80,000 photograph descriptions and 10,000 scanned images. Patrons can search, view and order images for non-commercial uses. On launch day, Conrad Stoesz, the current Archivist at the MHA and a MAID development team leader said, “We are already looking to the future. MAID can be expanded to include other partners with Mennonite photo collections, new formats such as textual records or sound recordings, or additional sponsors to help us expand our vision.” Greg Bak, a University of Manitoba archives professor and the former Senior Digital Archivist at Library and Archives Canada stated, “MAID shows the future of digital community archives. By combining their resources, a number of Mennonite organizations have made innovative use of technology to create a platform that allows them to pool their archives and draw together their community, across Canada, in a common online space. By using open source code and contributing back to the code base, archives around the world that use AtoM can benefit form the new functionalities created by PeaceWorks for MAID. It is wonderful to see the Canadian Mennonite community working together, embracing digital technologies and contributing to the development of open source technologies.” MAID currently has fifteen contributing organizations that are located across Canada, the United States and Paraguay.

Items from the MHA collection can be access either by going directly to the MHA website, or by going to the MAID website, where material from other contributing organizations can also be accessed.

Physical Access

Physical materials can be accessed by making an appointment. The MHA is open Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Staff can be reached by telephone at 1-204-560-1998 or via e-mail at [[1]]. Staff at the MHA consists of the archivist, Conrad Stoesz, an administrative assistant, Selenna Wolfe, volunteers and student workers. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the MHA had approximately 20 volunteers, which has been reduced to 6 volunteers working remotely.

Programming & Community Connections

Still Speaking Radio Show

Still Speaking is a series of twelve 5-minute episodes hosted by Conrad Stoesz, current archivist of the MHA. The show airs on CFAM Radio’s program: Face2Face On Air on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:20 (CST). The purpose of the radio show is inspire people to learn about the past, and the role archives in society by sharing the stories of, “the people, places, and events preserved in documents and artifacts in our archives.” All twelve episodes from the first season are available on the MHA website along with supplementary digital records, or on CFAM Radio 950’s website.

Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery

The Gallery is, “a bridge between Mennonites and other faith communities, featuring visual arts that share our own faith story within our community as well as bringing the faith stories of other religious groups to the Mennonite community. While the Gallery is based in Winnipeg, travelling exhibits have been featured in congregations, campuses, and events such as MC Canada Assemblies and Mennonite World Conference.” Both the archives and gallery serve as valuable resources ensuring the, “rich transnational story of Mennonite faith, life and community can be told for generations to come.” The impact of the Mennonite Heritage Archives and Gallery aligns with Caswell et al.’s proposed framework for community archives to help members of a marginalized community confirm ‘I am here’, ‘we were here’, and ‘we belong here.’ The archives and gallery aid in connecting individuals to a collective memory of the past, allowing them to, “counter feelings of erasure and isolation”, and “to build the present and influence the future.”

The gallery was established in 1998 by Ray Dirks, initially self-funded and self-run.The purpose of the gallery space was to provide, “a place where Mennonite artists can feel appreciated and feel at home...Perhaps you didn’t feel valued in the past but here is an institution of the church that says you are.”The gallery secured financial stability with John Wieler’s help in promotion and sale of Dirks’ book In God’s Image: A Global Anabaptist Family and with loyal and generous donors.

Past Events

• (2020) Volendam: A Refugee Story by Andrew Wall of Refuge 31 Films

84-minute documentary highlighting the experience of Mennonite refugees fleeing Soviet oppression. The purpose of the documentary is to share, "what was lost. Tens of thousands of Mennonites disappeared into exile and death...that story needs to be told". Wall hopes people will gain deeper appreciation for what refugees experienced in the past and what refugees are experiencing now throughout the world. Note: film screening was put on hold due to COVID-19 pandemic.

• (May & November, 2020) The Anabaptist Story Lives On: Virtual Museum & Archives Tour

TourMagination hosted virtual tours of the Mennonite Museums and Archives. Archivist Conrad Stoesz shared “how the Anabaptist story lives on” in two recorded webinar presentations. Five additional presentations took place January 5 to February 2, 2021.

• Keeping Our Memories Alive webinar
• Stories from the Mennonite Heritage Archives webinar

Additional examples of past events listed can be found hereand here.

Conclusion

The Mennonite Heritage Archives is a clear example of a community archive. As Andrew Flinn says, “[an] important incentive in stimulating interest in community history comes when communities go through rapid and significant change and feel that they are in the process of losing their identity or having that identity marginalized or ignored. Community histories and archive initiatives can play an important role in reconnecting or rooting communities which have gone through dramatic and perhaps traumatic change, whether due to […] the experience of migration and diasporic living, or other cultural, demographic and generational shifts within an area.” The Mennonite community has experienced repeated traumatic changes in their collective history and through the MHA, have been able to preserve individual, family, and group histories as it relates to settlement experiences in Canada. By connecting and building strong relationships with other Mennonite archives (e.g., sharing resources available through MAID) and through its extensive community outreach, one could say that the MHA has broadened the “community” it serves.