Amana native’s book compiles stories from the Amana Colonies during pivotal time

Of all the famous Eastern Iowa artists, few may know photographer John Barry, who focused on Amana. Amana native and historian Peter Hoehnle, Ph.D., has been drawn to Barry's images for years, and recently used them for the backbone of a book about Amana history: 'Images of America: Amana Colonies 1932-1945.” 'This is a period that's after the communal era, and people have not been as interested in that part of our local story - it's always the communal period. This book is very intentionally not the communal period. I picked this era because this is an important transition for the Amana community from communal to basically the wider American world at that time. I thought that needed to be preserved.”

Barry's photos were taken during a two-week period in 1936 for LIFE Magazine essay: Paul Engle was going to write the text, and the essay would be illustrated with Barry's photos.

When the essay didn't materialize, Barry held onto the photos, keeping them in storage for years.

'It always seemed like a piece of unfinished business,” Hoehnle said in a recent phone interview.

'These were just these beautifully lit scenes of craftspeople at this really important time in the 1930s when the communal system has just ended and things are still kind of in the old traditions, but they are starting to transition. They are just so much a moment in time.”

In writing this book, Hoehnle succeeded in sharing these photographs images with the public, as well as photographs of this era taken by other photographs, such as Amana natives William Noe and Rudolph Kellenbreger, among others.

But there was also the matter of identifying the subjects in the photographs - and telling the larger story of the transition away from communal living.

'A friend of mine in Amana made the comment: 'Now at least they're all identified. We know who's who in each picture. And that was kind of a long, long process for me. Going over to the care facility and tracking down some of these older ladies who could still remember all of these folks.

'It was a learning experience for me as well. I learned some stories that I thought I knew - about war effort, the great change and so on - and I found through the pictures and through the stories that came with the pictures I learned more about those things.”

Hoehnle, an Amana native, has deep roots to the area: his family members have been active in preserving Amana history for generations.

'The great-grandfather I'm named for was notorious for saving everything. He had boxes and boxes and boxes of important historical books and documents, and he collected photos and took photos himself. So I was raised around these filing cabinets of old Amana papers.”

Hoehnle spent years working the Amana Heritage Museum, up through his time in college. When he went to pursue a doctorate in history from Iowa State University, there was little question what his main focus would be.

'Being raised in Amana, there's this cultural identity that's unique and important. I identify so much with being from there. That's a big part of who I am because that's where I was raised.”

'In a way, I'm understanding myself by trying to figure out the Amana community.”

Hoehnle hopes this book will give readers a more complete sense of Amana history, as well as pride in local history in general.

'(Local history) is the foundation for the national story. By collecting all the photographs and oral histories and antidotes and such that's the ground work for the big sweeping histories that tell the whole American story. Local history is a way for folks to feel connected to bigger stories, to remind them that they're own experience is important in the larger scheme of things, it has some value, that they've made a contribution.”

'It helps us to preserve some sense of community, some shared identity.”

All royalties from the book go to the Amana Heritage Museum and the Amana Church.