February 28 – June 15, 2019

A photo exhibit of selections from the color slides of Anna B. Guntz (1913-2005), a Mennonite woman of rural Montgomery County. In the early 1950s, Anna bought an Argus C3 camera and began taking slide pictures. From our perspective, we can see that she was gifted at capturing day-to-day scenes from her life, her family and community.

As an unmarried sister and aunt in a close-knit farming family, Anna either lived with or visited often the families of each of her brothers and sister, usually bringing her camera along. In the process, she documented the life and growth of each of these families, especially of her nieces and nephews, whom she loved dearly. Her picture-taking spans from the early 1950s through the 1970s, giving us intimate, colorful glimpses of life in a still-rural Mennonite farm family of the third quarter of the 20th century.

There’s an interactive component to this exhibit! We’ve assembled a collection of farm family artifacts similar to those that appear in the photos. A couple of the artifacts are the very same objects that appear in the photos, borrowed from the family. Visitors are invited to find each of the artifacts displayed in one or more of the photos. Stop in and see this colorful exhibit and others at the Heritage Center.