Articles

We are pleased to introduce Mennonites in Texas: The Quiet in the Land, a new traveling exhibition created by the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin, presented in partnership with Humanities Texas.

In Mennonites in Texas, photojournalists Laura L. Camden and Susan Gaetz Duarte present a photographic tour of two Texas Mennonite communities. Separated by only 450 miles, the two communities are surprisingly different. The Beachy Amish Mennonites are a small community of approximately 160 people located in the Central Texas town of Lott. The Mennonites of Seminole are a West Texas farming community of more than five thousand residents and five separate congregations, several of which still speak Mennonite Low German.

Camden and Duarte spent over a year engaged in the two communities, cultivating relationships with Mennonite families, participating in day-to-day activities, and documenting their uncommon way of life. The resulting photographs provide deep insight into the religious beliefs, interpersonal relationships, and daily routines of a little known subset of Texas culture. Through their camera lenses, Camden and Duarte offer a touchingly intimate view of a lifestyle seldom experienced by outsiders.

Mennonites in Texas is a wall-hanging exhibition that features twenty-five framed and matted black-and-white photographs by each photographer and is now available for rental through the Humanities Texas traveling exhibitions program. The exhibition is currently on display at the Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site in Mexia through May 24, 2015.

Learn more about reserving Mennonites in Texas: The Quiet in the Land for your community.