This is adapted from an excerpt of a larger paper I wrote for my public history internship course last year. Sorry in advance for the sub par photography: (more…)

In conclusion: Mormon horns have piles of company and most of the folks keeping the idea were (probably still are) Mormon themselves.

1. A Selected Chronology
2. Meanings of “X has horns”
3. What Makes Horns Stick?
4. If Mormons Wanted to Shake Things Up They Should Have Grown Wings
5. The American Civil War
6. Colonialism and Functionalism
7. Miscellanea

Now, having slogged through all the academica, we finally arrive at the important question: Do Mormon doctrines of agency extend to horns? Can one choose or create their own  style? Are choices limited? to Old-Testament “clean” beasts? to terrestrials? And so on.

Update: See end of list for Signature Book’s 2010 list of forthcoming titles.

Last year I put together, with help from a number of publishers, a list of forthcoming and recently published books on Mormon History.  Most of those books highlighted last November have indeed found a place on bookshelves, so it’s about time to do it again.  There are some exciting books that have recently come off the press and which are still forthcoming.  I wasn’t able to be as comprehensive as last time, but there are still some neat things on the horizon that I was able to find, and maybe I’ll be able to do a follow up post. For now, I’m sure I missed some titles, so if you know of others, please leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list. (more…)

Curbelo, Néstor.  The History of the Mormons in Argentina.  Translated by Erin Jennings.  Salt Lake City:  Greg Kofford Books.

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A year following the discussion of King’s life and death in 1968, a series of editorials and letters to the editor reignited the debate on King in a manner that reflected the deviating views of BYU students on civil rights. On 30 April 1969, assistant news editor Judy Geissler wrote an editorial titled “In Memoriam: M. L. King.” Speaking to the idea of King’s life as a sacrifice to racial equality, Geissler declared that prejudicial words and attitudes had frequently led to the justification of discrimination, subjugation, and murder on the basis of race in the United States. She also provided a respectful biographical sketch on King in order to substantiate her own argument that BYU students should not only think about furthering equal rights but should “get out and DO something about it.” (more…)

Sometimes I get bogged down in the details of my job and forget just how much I enjoy what I do. I’ve developed a list to remind myself why I got into this field just in case the tedium of it starts getting to me. Some of these are kind of silly, but others can have a profound impact.

1. Old stuff. This is probably a prerequisite for anyone getting involved in history. (more…)

To avoid either dragging out this series inordinately or clogging up The Mormon Archipelago, I’ve broken a seven-part run into three posts with links to sub-pages. The links (to date) are below. (more…)

Last year I put up several posts about the construction and assignment of Mormon identity through the naming of animals, plants, places, etc. In the same vein, I hope to spend a few posts examining horns in a Mormon context.

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Let’s give a round of applause to my friend Brent Brizzi for taking the time and effort to transcribe the proceedings and make it available here. I have made only a few cursory edits from the version he sent me. (more…)

We had a great crowd tonight. Somewhere between 50 and 60 were in attendance. The SLMSSA would like to thank the Mormon Times for putting up a notice about the event beforehand which likely drew a number of attendees. We were pleased to have Steve Harper, professor of religion at BYU presenting on what insights memory studies can shed on the First Vision. Stay tuned to the SLMSSA website for details about future lectures and events. (more…)

My first foray into Mormon history was a complete and abysmal failure. I think I’ve destroyed all evidence of that paper because I would probably be fired for my complete stupidity. The school project was to prepare an annotated bibliography on a topic that could become a senior thesis. It sounded fairly easy and because I liked Mormon history and lived within a stone’s throw of a major Mormon site, I chose a Mormon topic. I was working at the time in interlibrary loan so I assumed that on the odd chance my school didn’t have anything, I could find other schools nearby with good sources. At the end of the project, I was under the impression that no one was doing Mormon history (more…)

Looking forward to seeing  you on Thursday at 7 pm for Steve Harper’s lecture in room 101 of the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building at the University of Utah. There is a bit of construction in the area, so I’m putting up this map to show where to go to get to the building and parking area. This is the unaltered map.  [See the SLMSSA website at this link for a marked map showing where to go]: (more…)

About 6% of all buildings in the United States were constructed before 1920. (more…)

With Stephen J. Fleming

Normally articles take a back seat to monographs in terms of impact, but Lester E. Bush’s 1973 Dialogue article “Mormonisms’ Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview” stands as a master work of scholarship that not only revolutionized how historians, sociologists, and other academics view the church’s history of race relations, but was also a significant factor leading to OD 2. (more…)

Below is my contribution to the travels of the Mormon History Association’s presidential seer stone. (more…)

A colleague of mine is fond of saying that historic markers say more about the people doing the marking than the people or events being marked. That statement holds true for historic sites. The structures and landscapes we choose to preserve, restore, rehabilitate, conserve, and maintain retain stories and significance long past the structures primary period of significance. The Sacred Grove is significant primarily for a single event on an early spring day in 1820 but the way that grove has been used and preserved in the intervening decades reveals information about the Smith family, 19^th century farming techniques, and the differing philosophies guiding preservation in the LDS Church, just to name a few. (more…)

STOP! If you haven’t read the first part of this, A Mexican Missionary Takes A Plural Wife…And Breaks The News To Wife 1 in a Letter…, read that first.

Otherwise, here is Wife 1’s response. (more…)

I feel not to disclose here in this forum the names of those involved given the really really awkward nature of this exchange, but I thought it interesting enough to share. What are your thoughts on it?

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April 14,

My Darling Wife, (more…)