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…)

2009 was also a fruitful year for evaluating scholarship at the JI.

Jordan W.’s review of Matt Grow’s book was later published in the International Journal of Mormon Studies: Book Review: Liberty to the Downtrodden (more…)

Yea, we had current events posts too. See, we don’t just live in the past!

David G. wrote on: Larry EchoHawk’s Mormonism, Casinos, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Christopher posted some interesting material about Glenn Beck, and that long before a Salon.com article took those themes to a national audience. A Boston Phoenix article on Beck cited Chris’s blogs here at the JI (and in the process, finally got credit for being on the cutting edge of this analysis): (more…)

See also PYMHM, 2009: Historical Posts, Part 1.

In bringing you conference coverage, aside from the efforts of various JI permas, we often benefited from friends such as Brent Brizzi and Trevor Holyoak who were kind enough to share their notes for posting on the JI. I’m proud to say that we often posted fuller notes than any competing reports, often posted them more quickly, and covered more events than just about anyone. One reporter, upon meeting me at one of these events said, playfully, “Oh, I hate you guys, you’ll probably have your stuff up tonight, won’t you?” I answered, “Probably.” (more…)

One of the fresh insights provided by Jan Shipps’ Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition when published in 1985 was its argument that Mormon history was “not ordinary history.” Shipps explored the tensions surrounding interlocked, opposing construals of Mormonism. She also demonstrated how accounts of Mormon history and origins were the animating force behind the formation of Mormonism, which she characterized as a new, independent religious tradition. A self-supporting worldview, this tradition carried its own ways of understanding place, time, and human purpose. (more…)

Well, the Niblets are here, and in a blatant and shameless attempt to remind everyone of some of the fantastic content you may have missed or forgotten from us in 2009, here is the first of a thematic series of Posts You Might Have Missed, 2009. In my opinion, 2009 was the best year yet for the JI as well as a year of transition. See Christopher’s 2nd birthday write up for info about us and our history through most of 2009. (more…)

From my inbox. I’m glad to see this version in print. It was originally included on a cd-rom in the back of the printed biography, color coded to show what was not included in the printed version. The color coding is retained in this copy. Though many of the additions are repetitive material, making the book (perhaps unnecessarily) about twice the length of the printed version, the most important additions are the full source notes. Given that the information contained in this book is already available in a more compact and cheaper format, this may not be a purchase that everyone is interested in. However, for a Mormon bibliophile like me, it’s a must own. And to be sure, to get the chance to hear Ed speak and sign your copy of any of his tomes–well worth your evening. (more…)

If you are interested in Church history and have advanced technological skills, there is currently an internship opportunity at the Church History Library that you may be interested in. (more…)

I recently completed reading David Clark’s biography of his great-great grandfather, Joseph Bates Noble: Polygamy and the Temple Lot Case (U of U Press, 2008). My full review of it will appear in the forthcoming issue of Nova Religio, but I want to focus here on an aspect of the book I wasn’t able to fully explore there.

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Have you ever lingered in the Sacred Grove? Paused to read the inscription on a headstone at the Winter Quarters Cemetery? Wondered aloud how the pioneers fit in those little benches at the Salt Lake Tabernacle? Glanced at the historic marker at Benbow farm? If the answer is yes, you have interacted with a church historic site. (more…)

I am pleased to introduce Emily Utt as the newest JI guest blogger. Emily double majored in religion and history, with a minor in sociology, at Case Western Reserve University. Now she works in the Church’s Historic Sites Department, where she focuses on the “interpretive side of history.” Some of her projects include work with the Gadfield Elm Chapel, the Church’s first international historic site; a new historical interpretation for sites in Southern Utah; and a current project involving the Beehive House.

In addition to her full-time work with the Church (where she has been employed for five years), she is pursuing a master’s degree in historic preservation through Goucher College, in Baltimore, Maryland. She has chaired sessions at MHA. She is also a renowned collector of Mormon kitsch, of which a plastic Liahona is one of her favorites. Several JI contributors–Stan, Ben, and Jared T.–and one former contributor, Heidi, have worked with Emily in historic site internships. Please join me in giving her a rousing welcome!

I received notice of an internship opening with the historic sites division. Having myself interned there, I can say it’s an excellent experience.

http://www.lds.org/emp/new/home.html

Intern-Historic Sites-Church History Department-1000012

Description

Purpose of Internship: To assist in research and writing tasks associated with the development of historic sites and associated educational materials. (more…)

Our good friend Jonathan Stapley has sent along the following review of Janet Moore Lindman’s 2008 book on Baptist community in early America, focusing on the context such an subject provides for those interested in early Mormon ritual.

Janet Moore Lindman. Bodies of Belief: Baptist Community in Early America. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 270 pp. Maps, charts, images, endnotes, bibliography, index. Cloth: $39.95; ISBN 978-0812241143.

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Fresh from my inbox:

SUMMER SEMINAR ON JOSEPH SMITH

“The Foundations of Mormon Theology: The Nature of God and the Human”

Brigham Young University

June  1-July 9, 2010 (more…)

The Salt Lake Mormon Studies Student Association will host Steve Harper, Professor of Church History at BYU, on January 28, 2010 at 7 pm for a public lecture entitled: “Memory and the First Vision.”  The lecture will be held on the University of Utah Campus in the Carolyn Tanner Irish Humanities Building, room 101 (main floor).
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I know this has been discussed around the blogernacle, but I just wanted to share a few historical anecdotes.

The first time I read the Nicene Creed (on my mission) I thought, “do we really disagree with this?” This thought has only been compounded as I’ve studied Christian history. (more…)

This is an attempt to think about Mormonism and Christian ideology in the course of American history. By Christian ideology here I think I mean assumptions or understandings so predominant at a given time that they can actually go unrecognized. In other words, I’m thinking about a silent (yet influential) common or shared sense. Although common sense might be pretty uniform at a given time, it turns out that it isn’t held in common over time. Hence, this is an effort to see how these conditions evolve over time and to demonstrate how, in the long run, that evolution can reveal the influence of the invisible.  We find that predominant convictions turn over slowly, and they leave a wide trail behind them. It seems to me that Mormonism contains a number of interesting remainders as a result of being codified in a particular historical moment and amongst beliefs and convictions that just went without saying.

Part of the impetus for this informal post was a conversation I had with my grandfather – Douglas Tobler, retired professor of European History – a few months ago, not long after the passing of Bob Matthews. He reminded me then that he and Bob used to carpool from Lindon to work together at BYU. He related a conversation that they once had during their commute about Mormon conceptions of grace, and the reasons why grace has seen so little  emphasis (especially in comparison with, say, born-again evangelicalism). (more…)

If our New Year’s resolution had been to add another extraordinarily gifted blogger, then we would have already achieved our goal. Ardis S. has been providing fascinating details of a heretofore neglected topic (LDS perceptions of the Civil Rights Movement) for nearly a year now (see here archive here). Her innovative research and scholarly wit have left us no choice but to make her attachment to the blog more permanent—plus, whenever you have a chance to associate with a Cambridge-bound historian, you gotta do it. On a personal note, I’ve had the privilege of knowing Ardis not only as a budding historian but also as a wonderful friend and engaging Latter-day Saint; we were both students during the last semester of the Joseph Smith Academy in Nauvoo, Illinois (a now-defunct BYU study program).

Here is how Ardis describes herself:

I recently graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor of arts in History. This fall, I will attend the University of Cambridge, where I will study British perceptions of the US civil rights movement. I am currently an intern at the Church History Library. My research interests include the intersections between race, gender, and social history, and within LDS history I am particularly interested in race and the LDS Church.

Please join us in giving a hearty welcome to Ardis S.!

Esto es una traducción de una página anterior que se encuentra aquí. [This is a translation of my earlier post about teaching about Official Declaration 2 and the Priesthood Ban in Sunday School which can be found here.]

Leí con interés conversaciones como esta que se tratan de enseñar en la escuela dominical sobre la restricción del Sacerdocio (o prohibición) como parte de la lección 42: La Revelación Continua. Estuve en una fiesta hace unas semanas y hablé con el presidente de la escuela dominical sobre lo que había estado leyendo y escuchando de otros y como fueron recibidas estas lecciones. Le había mostrado el documentario “Nobody Knows” hace unos meses. Le había gustado y él pensó que una lección con respecto a  ese tema podría ser de beneficio. Le dije que si esa fue la dirección a la que quería ir,  que debía ver con el obispo para asegurar que aprobara y si aprobara, que yo ensenaría la lección. Ese domingo me dijo que todo estaba bien para el 6 de Diciembre, 2009. (more…)

[While I sit in the Pisa Airport finishing my Sunday School Lesson for tomorrow, I couldn't help but share a point of convergence between the lesson and my recent scholarly research (I am currently working on the Christian response to Thomas Paine in the 1790s). What follows is not a fully drawn-out, or perhaps even thought-out, post, but rather a half-baked idea worthy of nothing more than a footnote for tomorrow's SS class.]

The 1790s represented drastic change for western civilization. On one side of the Atlantic, the early American republic was beginning to forge into a stable nation; on the other side, an early-embraced revolution was evolving into dangerous anarchy in France. (more…)