Manitoba historical society
The work of community remembering is important work. Archives, historical societies, libraries and museums all have a role in a community to remind us who we are and help point us to where we should go. Sometimes we have been in the wrong and need to change course; at other times we have done well…
Odessa state archives
As the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, staff at the state archives in Odessa, Ukraine, worked diligently to microfilm Russian Mennonite documents in its possession. Collected by Peter J. Braun during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917-1920), and later confiscated by the Soviet state, the records languished in obscurity until…
Historical Society quietly contributes to national identity
Historian Laureen Harder-Gissing does not want to be heard saying, “You should know your history,” the way someone might say, “You should eat your vegetables.” She does not want people to feel badly if they do not know their history; she just wants it to be available at those “points in our lives when the…
Preserving the voices of the past
“This is our collective memory,” says Conrad Stoesz, gesturing to a long hallway filled with row upon row of shelves, packed with files and boxes. Stoesz is the archivist at the Mennonite Heritage Archives (MHA), located on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg. The “collective memory” stored in this archive is made…
UWinnipeg Fellowship to crack open KGB archives
In the 1930s, thousands of Mennonites disappeared in the Soviet Union without a trace. The KGB archives in Ukraine has thousands of files on these missing Mennonites, and a newly announced University of Winnipeg Fellowship wants to crack into these archives to uncover the stories of lost relatives, ancestors and much more. Through the Centre…
An historical treasure
Jake Buhler knows an historical treasure when he sees one. That’s why he’s so excited that the Saskatchewan Valley News is donating all of its back issues to the Mennonite Historical Society of Saskatchewan Archives in Saskatoon. The Valley News, as it has been simply known, quit publishing after 114 years. The final edition rolled…
A potluck plate full of Mennonite cultures
This spring I was awarded an archival internship with the Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission that allowed me to travel to various Mennonite Brethren archives in North America to learn how they work, as well as to do some of my own research. I visited the archives at the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Abbotsford, B.C.; the…
A vision for the MHC Archives and Gallery
Did you know that if all of the textual records and photographs in Winnipeg’s Mennonite Heritage Centre (MHC) Archives and Gallery were stacked on top of each other, they would be taller than the CN Tower? That was one of the facts Korey Dyck shared during a seminar entitled “History matters: A new vision for…
