The Mennonite Church USA Archives was founded in 2001 under the denominational merger of the (old) Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Prior to 2001, the two largest Mennonite denominations maintained separate archives: the Archives of the Mennonite Church, located on the Goshen College (Goshen, Indiana) campus, housed materials pertaining to the (old) Mennonite Church, while the Mennonite Library and Archives on the Bethel College (North Newton, Kansas) campus held the records of the General Conference Mennonite Church.
From 2001 to 2012, the two repositories remained physically separate but were merged administratively, with oversight from the Mennonite Church USA Historical Committee. In 2012, the Historical Committee was disbanded and the two repositories came under the administration of the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board.[1]
In March 2017, the Mennonite Church USA Archives moved from its former location on the campus of Goshen College to the Mennonite Church USA denominational building in Elkhart, Indiana. Goshen College institutional and faculty records – most notably the personal papers of Harold S. Bender and Guy F. Hershberger, among others – remain at Goshen College and are no longer managed by the Mennonite Church USA Archives.
In July 2017, Mennonite Church USA ceded ownership of the records of the former General Conference Mennonite Church to the Mennonite Library and Archives at Bethel College.[2]