New photo archive captures Mennonite life around the world

A new online photo archive is making thousands of images of Mennonite life from across Canada and around the world easily available to the public.

The images, some over 100 years old, chronicle everything from weddings to barn-raisings to Pierre Trudeau meeting with Mennonite leaders in Winnipeg in the 70s.

The Mennonite Archive Image Database (MAID) is the work of seven Mennonite archives across the country: one each in Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, and Ontario and three in Manitoba.

"The problem with photographs is if you want to really see them you have to actually come to archives. If you want to see photos in another province that's a long journey," said Laureen Harder-Gissing, the archivist at the Mennonite Archives of Ontario at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, one of the groups involved in the project. 

"What this database has allowed us to do is scan the photographs, put them online and that allows not only anyone across the country but anyone across the world to view these photographs, either for research or pleasure or their own family history."

There are 80,000 photos with descriptions in the database, but at this point only 10,000 of the photos are scanned and available online.  

"That scanning is an ongoing process," said Harder-Gissing. "We face some interesting challenges because some of these photographs might be glass-plate negatives from the 19th century. Some of them might be printer's plates."

As an added bonus, people who browse the archives and spot family members or other photos that interest them can easily buy and download digital copies of the photos online. 

"That is something that is fairly new in the archival community, the ability to do that," said Harder-Gissing.

Other cities, like Toronto, make their photos available to order online, but the photos must be paid for and picked up in person, either digitally scanned on a CD or as a print.