LancasterHistory.org is pleased to kick off our fall season of the Regional History Colloquium series on Thursday, September 14 with Beth Oberholtzer presenting on Plain Meetinghouses: Old Order Mennonites Gather to Worship. Old Order Mennonites are deeply faithful, agrarian-rooted, Swiss-German Anabaptists who have called Lancaster County home for 300 years. Their meetinghouses silently embody their religious traditions, and yet few outsiders have seen the startling utilitarian beauty of these rural structures up close. Author Beth Oberholtzer and photographer John Herr were allowed rare access to 22 austere houses of worship and join us to discuss the extraordinary religious heritage of this Old Order way of life.

Beth Oberholtzer is a book designer, editor, and author from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She has written and photographed books about grain painting, crazy quilt stockings, and appliqued wall hangings. John Herr is an architecture photographer, also from Lancaster County, whose work portrays contemporary and historic buildings. Beth and John are tenth- and eleventh-generation descendants of Swiss-German Mennonites who in the early 1700s escaped religious persecution and settled in Lancaster County.

Event information: This event takes place in Ryder Hall at LancasterHistory.org. A social gathering and book signing begins at 4pm, followed by the presentation at 4:30pm. The event is free and open to the public. Ample parking available on-site.