“Mennonites in Texas: The Quiet in the Land” program and photo exhibit open to the public
AUSTIN, TEXAS – January 12, 2007 – The Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin presents a program and panel discussion featuring “Mennonites in Texas: The Quiet in the Land,” a photo documentary exhibit by UT master’s degree recipients and photographers Laura Camden and Susan Gaetz Duarte.
Sara Funk, Seminole, Texas,
© Laura Camden, from the Laura Camden Photographic Archive
The program and panel discussion with the photographers will be held on The University of Texas at Austin campus, Thursday, February 1, 2007, in the Thompson Conference Center, Room 3.102, at 7:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public. The exhibit is on display through February 17 [extended through April 30] in Sid Richardson Hall, Unit 2, on The University of Texas at Austin campus.
Camden and Gaetz Duarte, who have donated the exhibit of 50 photographs to the Center, separately documented two very different Mennonite communities in Texas as master’s degree projects for the UT School of Journalism. During the program on February 1, Camden and Gaetz Duarte will discuss selected photos and their experiences with the Mennonite communities in Seminole and Lott, Texas, respectively.
The Center’s exhibit includes a selection of the photographers’ research notes and journals, correspondence, printed material about the Mennonite faith, and materials documenting the recent publication of their book, Mennonites in Texas: The Quiet in the Land, by Texas A&M Press, with a foreword by former Governor Ann Richards, whose papers are available for research in the Center’s archives.
“A highlight of the exhibit,” noted Exhibits Curator Lynn Bell, “is a handmade quilt crafted by members of the Mennonite community in Seminole for Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., in appreciation for his assistance during immigration difficulties in the 1970s. Mrs. Bentsen has generously loaned the quilt for this exhibit.”
Senator Bentsen’s papers also are part of the Center’s Congressional Collections.
For more information about the program and exhibit featuring “Mennonites in Texas: The Quiet in the Land,” contact Lynn Bell at (512) 495-4452 or l.bell@mail.utexas.edu or visit the Center’s Web site, http://www.cah.utexas.edu/news/exhibits_current.php.
