Mennonite Heritage Center: Archives

Hymnals and song books of the Mennonites, Amish, Brethren, and other Pennsylvania German religious groups (Lutheran, Reformed, Schwenkfelder, Evangelical), circa 1700 to present.  Manuscript singing books, many with decorative fraktur inscriptions, including original compositions from late 18th-early 19th centuries. One copy of Geistreiches Gesang-Buch (early Brethren hymnbook, 1720), two Zionitischer Weyrauchs-Hügel (Ephrata, 1739), several editions of the Brethren Davidische Psalterspiel (beginning 1744); one early European (undated) edition and several early American editions of the Amish/Mennonite hymnbook, Ausbund (beginning 1742), all editions of the Franconia Mennonite Zions Harfe (beginning 1803), and numerous editions of the Lancaster Mennonite Unparteyisches Gesangbuch (beginning 1804).  Total date range: early 18th-late 20th century.