1890 is a date that looms large in American history, thanks largely to Frederick Jackson Turner, who famously declared in 1893 that the frontier had “closed” three years earlier, and with it, a distinctive element of American identity had closed as well. Turner’s 1893 essay revolutionized how historians thought about the American past, as he pointed to the process of westward movement as being the core of American distinctiveness. The frontier was where civilization met savagery and the wilderness, where Europeans became Americans, marked by values of individualism and democracy. Turner’s essay also had the curious effect of creating a significant rupture localized at the year 1890, a chasm that left historians with few conceptual tools with which to frame the history of the American West during the 20th century. If American exceptionalism died in 1890, was there anything worth writing about after that date? (more…)

Continued from a former post.

Wilford Woodruff was having a tough time in his new assignment as Assistant Church Historian. After his appointement at the 1856 April General Conference, he was anxious to get started and optimistic about his possibilities. The first couple months, however, ended up being more difficult than he had expected. First, he came down with a crippling disease that kept him away from the office for several weeks–in fact, he wrote that he couldn’t even leave his bed for quite some time. Finally, towards the end of May, he was able to put in his first full day’s work with his new duties, writing to George A. Smith (current Church Historian and on a mission in the East Coast), “I am now calculating to devote my time [to the history].”[1]

Prior to Woodruff’s call, George A. Smith, Thomas Bullock, and the others working in the Historian’s Office had worked on “compiling the History of Joseph Smith from April 1st 1840 to his death on June 27, 1844.”[2] In May 1856, the only thing left to be completed was the Prophet’s last day’s in Carthage. However, this turned out to be a lot more difficult than Woodruff had expected because of incomplete records. On June 24th, he noted in his journal that, “We find a great (more…)

For those of you who received a MHA newsletter this week, this is not new. But, I figured I would transcribe it on here for those who haven’t heard yet. (more…)

Although I have drafted this post, I acknowledge that the idea for it and one of the sources comes from frequent commenter and guestblogger Steve Fleming.

As Connell O’Donovan has shown in his brilliant research on Walker Lewis and the origins of the Priesthood ban, Brigham Young initially did not see black skin as an impediment to a man holding the priesthood (unless otherwise noted, all quotations come from O’Donovan’s article). In fact, as late as March 1847, Young is quoted as saying that

Its [that is, priesthood restrictions] nothing to do with the blood for [from] one blood has God made all flesh, we (more…)

The Fourth Annual Brigham Young University Church History symposium will be held on Friday, February 27, 2009 in the Conference Center at Brigham Young University. The conference, sponsored by the BYU Religious Studies Center in cooperation with the Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, takes as its theme this year, “Preserving the History of the Latter-day Saints: Church Historians, the Church Historian’s Office, and the Recording and Publication of the Latter-day Saint Past.” Below is a preliminary schedule: (more…)

First of all, I would like to thank the wonderful bloggers at JI for their recent flood of attention to female subjects of history, particularly sister missionaries. I hope to contribute to the discussion of gender soon.

And second, and more important, is the day at hand, the day that comes once every four years, the day of inauguration. (more…)

From Spencer Fluhman: (more…)

Inspired by Edje, I dug this out of the archives.  Originally posted in slightly different form here.  

By 1910, 55 out of every 100 American Protestant missionaries – a group numbering in the tens of thousands whose reach extended from the cities of the United States to Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America – were women.[1] Furthermore, the congregational associations who supported these missionaries were also dominated by women. Though it could be argued this merely reflects the historic gender gap within Christian congregations, such a boring sociological explanation was not how these missionaries explained themselves to themselves, or how their leaders lauded them. (more…)

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, jolly new semester, usw. to all. I’m still working on (read: doing stuff higher on my priority list at the expense of) the last installments of the “Reading Like a Conspiracy Theorist” series. In that direction, however, I give you a “cage match”: I put two articles in a steel cage with suitable quantities of folding chairs and then observed the results. (more…)

I picked up the latest issue of Fides et Historia last week and was pleased to find an article by JI’s own Matt Bowman. The paper, entitled “The Crisis of Mormon Christology: History, Progress, and Protestantism, 1880-1930,” is an expansion of what Matt initially presented at the 2007 Summer Seminar, and examines “how Mormon visions of Christ changed during a period in which their experience of culture was simultaneously destructive and creative: the tumultuous years around the turn of the century, which witnessed both the destruction of polygamy (and the utopian society it represented) and a forcible reconciliation with the United States.”[1]

(more…)

A few months back, I wrote a general post about the little known Religion Class program which lasted from 1890 to 1929.[1] One of the responses to this post noted the role of gender in this male-led program’s dissolution in favor of the female-led Primary program.  (more…)

[WARNING: Since my Mormon-related research for the next couple months will primarily be focused on Wilford Woodruff’s time as Assistant Church Historian, most of my posts will probably closely relate to that subject; be advised.] (more…)