Outside of a childhood trip to Lancaster County and a brief day in a southern Michigan Amish community, Arthur, Illinois was the place where I first came to know Amish, while selling books there in 2004. Arthur is in fact the sixth largest Amish settlement, with a population of about 4,000. Arthur is a community about 3 hours south of Chicago in the flat farmland…
People often wonder about the Amish and photography. Documentarian and film & media professor Dirk Eitzen has an interesting chapter on filming the Amish in the exceptional Amish and the Media. Eitzen describes three methods used by those wishing to visually document the Amish: pushiness, poaching, and focusing on children and young adults. I suppose if I had to confess, I would qualify as a…
Here’s a link to the BBC ‘Trouble in Amish Paradise’ documentary, now hosted on an Australian site (since removed). I don’t know how long it will be up, but if you’d like to view it, I’d go ahead and do it in case it is taken down. It’s not quite a full hour long. As to the narrative background, they get some things right, they…
I recently came across a transcript from George Bush senior’s 1989 meeting with Mennonite and Amish leaders in Lancaster County. It’s interesting to read not only for those seeking late 80s era nostalgia but for the interesting dynamic between the President and the typically spotlight-shunning Amish and Mennonites as they take the stage in a very high-profile context. The event is ostensibly about Bush meeting…
Just read an interesting article in the Mount Vernon News about the relationship between law enforcement and Amish in a few Ohio communities. One of the two sheriffs interviewed–hailing from Knox County, an area with a relatively small Amish population–says that law enforcement tries to be sensitive to Amish customs and in particular the Amish system of church discipline. “I believe a lot of times…
Outsiders often express an interest in joining the Amish. The Amish traditionally do not seek out converts. In one example related by John Hostetler in Amish Society, a particularly zealous outsider–though never actually formally joining an Amish congregation–did much to stir up Amish circles in the 1950s. As Hostetler writes: When outsiders join, or attempt to join, the Amish church, issues may arise that polarize…
Photo man and in-the-field auction expert Rick Harrison shares his latest batch of pictures from the New Wilmington Amish auction, which took place June 6th. This was the 20th annual benefit auction and turnout was sizable. Rick estimated over 125 buggies on the lot. Auctions are popular among Amish. Lancaster County holds a medical benefit auction each year to support the work of Holmes Morton…
Pastry samples at a Flavor retail store Donald Kraybill shares some photos and comments from a recent lecture trip to Japan. Professor Kraybill recently spent a week at universities in Tokyo and Gifu and at the Shibunkaku Art Museum in Kyoto, speaking on the Amish. The Amish are quite well-known in Japan, with perhaps more books on the Amish having been translated into Japanese than…
Texas seems an odd spot to find Amish. Besides the current community in Bee County, there have been at least four other attempts to settle the Lone Star State. In his meticulously researched The Amish in America: Settlements that Failed, 1840-1960, David Luthy describes a short-lived settlement that came about in the state’s southernmost county. Amish fields today brim with corn, alfalfa and hay. One…
A recent re-read of a piece by Steven Nolt in Mennonite Quarterly Review–‘Who are the Real Amish? Rethinking Diversity and Identity among a Separate People’— made me recall a common dilemma when discussing our Plain neighbors. ‘The Amish’ is a moniker that tries to do more than it really can, which is blanket a group of people having quite diverse practices. Saying “‘the Amish’ this”…