Most people are surprised to learn a group of Mennonite peace-loving conscientious objectors (CO) were unwittingly involved in an experimental military project codenamed Habakkuk to build the largest warship ever made.
Although the Wright brothers have a name that is famous around the world for their successful invention and creation of the first airplane, the Kitty Hawk, they were not the only aeronautic innovators of their time. Most Canadian and Mennonite people would be surprised to learn that in 1907 a small group of men in the Mennonite colony of Chortitza, Ukraine developed, created, and successfully flew what is likely the very first glider and airplane in Russia!
This blog entry contains the conclusion to the story of how Samuel McRoberts’ photograph collection made its way to the Mennonite Heritage Centre Archives.
In the modern world people have the opportunity to see a diverse assortment of documents and photographs in archives, but these often fail to convey the richly nuanced contextual history of how these unique and important contributions made their way into the archives in the first place.
2016 is the centennial of the surprising interaction between a group of peaceful Mennonite farmers and the notorious bandit and general of the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa (Colton, Ray E. “Mennonites in Mexico Rewarded for Aid Given Villa, Bandit General.” Reading Eagle. Newspaper. October 13, 1933).