Amana Society Collection

Amana Product label

An Amana Product label

Description

These are materials related to the Amana Society held by the Rare Books and Special Collections Department of Hamilton College.

The Community of True Inspiration, or Amana Society, is a Pietist sect that began in south central Germany in 1714. The Inspirationists, like the Shakers, were influenced by the "French Prophets," protestant refugees who fled southern France around 1700. The Inspirationists immigrated to the United States from Germany beginning in 1843. They were resident first at Ebenezer, New York (just south of Buffalo), and ultimately settled at Amana, Iowa, beginning in 1855. Although they abandoned communal living in 1932, the religious practice of the Inspirationists remains vital today.


Inventory

  • Visual Materials - 125 items

  • Ephemera - 12 items

Visual Materials

Ephemera

Background

About the Amana Society

(Excerpt from the Amana Colonies entry in Wikipedia, accessed 2012/12/13)

"The Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of radical German Pietists in Iowa, USA, comprising seven villages. Calling themselves the Ebenezer Society or the Community of True Inspiration (German: die Gemeinde der wahren Inspiration), they first settled in New York state near Buffalo in what is now the Town of West Seneca. However, in order to live out their beliefs in more isolated surroundings they moved west, to east-central Iowa (near present-day Iowa City) in 1856. They lived a communal life until the mid 1930s. Due to this, the Amanas are sometimes mistaken for Amish."

History of the Amana Society

For more information about the collection contact the Rare Books and Special Collections Department of the Hamilton College Library.

Credits

Metadata for the collection was provided by the Special Collections and Cataloging Departments at Hamilton College.

Digitization

Digitization of this collection was done in-house on a flatbed scanner at 300 dpi, 24-bit color and saved as uncompressed TIF images. Images were converted to JPEG2000 for high-quality Web delivery and for long-term storage.

External Resources

Christian Goodwillie, Director of Special Collections and Archives
E-mail: cgoodwil@hamilton.edu
Telephone: (315) 859-4447

Special Collections
Burke Library
198 College Hill Road
Clinton, NY 13323