Photograph collection documents Canadian MB history

If a picture says a thousand words, then the MB Herald Photograph Collection at the Centre for MB Studies, Winnipeg, speaks volumes. Over the past four summers, I have been processing some 20,000 photographs donated by the MB Herald to the Centre for MB Studies (CMBS). The project is now nearing completion.

A mass choir sings to a full house at a Saengerfest (song festival) at Virgil (Ont.) MB Church in the 1960s.

Drums, guitars and other electronically amplified instruments became commonplace in MB churches in the 1980s and 90s. Here the worship band at Mountain View Gospel Chapel, Mission, B.C. leads the congregation (ca. 1980).

Delegates at the 1961 Canadian Conference of MB Churches annual convention share a meal of homemade soup and buns in the Coaldale (Alta.) MB Church basement. The caption on the back reads, “Der Borscht schmeckt gut.”

At the 1992 annual convention, Canadian Conference delegates dine at the Sheraton Hotel, near Laval, Que.

The photographs depict the history of the Mennonite Brethren in Canada over the last 50 years. There are shots of outdoor baptisms, sod-turning ceremonies, revival meetings, annual conventions, overseas missions work and church buildings from across the country. All of the kinds of photographs seen in the MB Herald over the last half century are now a part of this new archival collection.

Processing the photographs proceeded in two stages. First, the people, places and events depicted in the photos were identified. Here I was assisted by various Conference staff, volunteers and researchers who frequent the Centre. Second, the photos were described and indexed in the CMBS photograph database. Thanks to this database, visitors to the Centre can now call up MB Herald photographs according to subject, place, year or even by a keyword search.

The photographs confirm a version of Mennonite Brethren history that resonates with many members’ personal experiences. Taken as a whole, they depict the rapid urbanization of the MB church; the gradual disappearance of church choirs and the increasing presence of rock music worship bands; the growing ethnic diversity of Mennonite Brethren churches; the emergence of women leaders and speakers; the shift from conventions with homemade food, rural hospitality and local speakers to conventions with catered dining, hotel accommodations and professional speakers; and the transition from simple wooden church buildings to cathedral-like mega-structures. The list could go on and on.

Many have witnessed these changes personally; some will be regretted, others welcomed. Whatever the case, they are changes captured by the camera lens of the MB Herald, a lens that has helped preserve the Canadian Mennonite Brethren story for over half a century.

Donovan Giesbrecht graduated from the University of Winnipeg in spring 2004 with an honours degree in Philosophy. He also has a major in History and is working at the Centre on an interim basis. This article was first published in Mennonite Historian and is used by permission.