Early Anabaptism in Global Perspective
Optional Tours
Pre-conference tour: Tuesday, July 22, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Visit Mennonite Life to tour the library and archives and view the exhibit “Decorated and Plain”
Visit Mennonite Life’s Millstream Campus, near Lancaster, Pa. Tour the library and archives, where Archivist and Librarian Julia Wiker will share collection highlights, including rare holdings related to sixteenth-century Anabaptism, materials illustrating Anabaptism’s global expressions, and related artifacts and folk art. Tour participants will also experience Mennonite Life’s museum exhibit “Decorated and Plain.” Collections Curator Emily Immel will introduce the exhibit, which features 300 years of Mennonite and Amish life in southcentral Pennsylvania and beyond through the material culture of furniture, fraktur, needlework, quilts, and clothing. Tour participants will then have ample time to explore the exhibit's themes of home, church, land, and school.
Cost: $60 (Includes charter coach transportation, boxed lunch, and admission)
Post-conference tour, option 1: Thursday, July 24, 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Visit the 1719 Museum, including the Herr House and the Lancaster Longhouse
Visit Mennonite Life’s 1719 Museum, Willow Street, Pa., and experience a guided tour of its eleven-acre campus, including the Herr House and the Lancaster Longhouse. Built in 1719, the Herr House was a home and place of worship and is the oldest Mennonite meetinghouse still standing in the Americas. Carefully restored, it interprets early Mennonite life in Pennsylvania. Tour participants will also learn about the rich history of the region’s Indigenous people, who lived here before the Mennonites arrived, by visiting the Lancaster Longhouse. Based on historical and archeological research, the Longhouse is a full-scale replica of one of the many multi-family homes that once dotted Pennsylvania’s landscape.
Cost: $60 (Includes charter coach transportation, boxed lunch, and admission)
Post-conference tour, option 2: Thursday, July 24, 12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Visit Muddy Creek Farm Library
Visit Muddy Creek Farm Library, Ephrata, Pa., and tour its library and museum. Muddy Creek Farm Library exists to help the Old Order Mennonites retain and appreciate their heritage. Library staff will share collection highlights, including rare sixteenth-century books, copper plates created to illustrate the 1685 Dutch Martyrs Mirror, and holdings related to Old Order Mennonite history. Since 2019, Muddy Creek Farm Library has also provided a home for most of the Pathway Heritage Historical Library, the extensive collection of Old Order materials that was previously housed in Aylmer, Ontario. Tour participants will also have ample time to visit the museum located on the lower level of the library, with its exhibits organized around themes of domestic life, agriculture, and church life.
Cost: $60 (Includes charter coach transportation, boxed lunch, and admission)