Juvenile Instructor » 2009

Freedom from Religion, Boulder, Utah

By StanJuly 26, 2009

Freedom was closed the day I visited. A pity: I was curious to see what it was all about.

On writing Mormon women’s history

By Steve FlemingJuly 24, 2009

So in my ever-stewing never-ending revisions of my work on Mormonism in the Philadelphia area, I’ve decided that I need to say more about women. This is a challenge since my sources are overwhelmingly written by men. I do have some detailed journals that I can mine better than I have though.

Anyway, up at the archives the other day and I came across another letter from a woman in the area (making a total of 5 letters by women in all).

Twin Barbarians 1: Mormon Crickets (Happy Pioneer Day!)

By Edje JeterJuly 24, 2009

A. simplex put the 'omni' in 'omnivore' and the 'can' in 'cannibal'

A. simplex cannibalizes another A. simplex

All that is green west of the Rockies quivers before that most fearsome of Mormon beasts, the Mormon cricket. It wasn’t always so. Before the 1870s (in the Anglo-European world), mesch, “a curious kind of cricket,” “an ugly cricket,” “a large kind of cricket,” the “mountain cricket” ravaged the left side of the American map. [1] Colonel Kane and the Mormons described it:

Wingless, dumpy, black, swollen-headed, with bulging eyes in cases like goggles, mounted upon legs of steel wire and clock-spring, and with a general personal appearance that justified the Mormons in comparing him to a cross of the spider on the Buffalo, the Deseret cricket comes down from the mountains at a certain season of the year, in voracious and desolating myriads. [3]

As you’ve probably grown tired of hearing, the Mormon cricket isn’t really a cricket. It’s a katydid sporting the genus name Anabrus, “in allusion to [its] unprepossessing appearance”; an + abroV = “not soft, delicate, tender, dainty, or beautiful,” which I think fits pretty well. [4] (Image: A. simplex cannibalizes [2])

The 2010-2011 Relief Society/Melchizedek Priesthood Course of Study:Taking A Break From The Prophets

By Jared TJuly 24, 2009

Well, a friend tipped me off that it appears we will be taking a break from the Teachings of the Prophets series we’ve had over the last few years as the Relief Society/Melchizedek Priesthood course of study. The new curriculum for two years, 2010-2011, will be the [fanfare]

An Insider’s View of Early Mormonism. . .and Methodism

By David G.July 23, 2009

After months of anticipation, the JI’s Christopher has successfully completed his MA thesis at BYU. The thesis examines the influence of Methodism on early Mormon history, and will doubtless be a valuable contribution. It is available on-line here and I’ve reproduced the abstract after the jump:

Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: Writing as Restoration and Redemption

By Ben PJuly 23, 2009

[This is the first post of the “Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography” Series]

The details behind the writing (compilation?) of the Autobiography will be detailed in Matt Grow’s post next week. This post, however, focuses on Parley’s motivation behind the book. I argue that the text was written for two central reasons, beyond the obvious reason of providing the Saints with a first-hand account of the Church’s early history.

The Journal of Mormon History, Spring 2009 (35:2), Part 1

By Jared TJuly 22, 2009

The most recent issue of the Journal of Mormon History actually arrived a little while back, but I’ve been slow to post this. Since the next will be here soon, I’d better get this out! I’ll be more prompt next time!

What Put the “Mormon” in “Mormon Fly” Might Not Go Well with Breakfast

By Edje JeterJuly 21, 2009

An 1840s British visitor to Illinois noted that “among the novel discomforts of the West, that of insects is one of no trifling character. The whole earth and air seems teeming with them….” [1] A big bunch of them, including mayflies, teemed at Nauvoo.

Perspectives on Parley Pratt’s Autobiography: Introduction

By Ben PJuly 20, 2009

Warning: If you have grown sick with the number of Parley Pratt posts coming from me lately, it’s about to get worse; much, much worse.

For Chris: Two Anti-Anti-Mormon Miscegenation refs

By Edje JeterJuly 16, 2009

In a post earlier today, Chris asked about instances when Mormons defended polygamy by attacking sexual relations between races. I have been working on racial construction by Mormons and non-Mormons in the late 1880s to 1890s and happen to have two pieces ready to go. They would be too long for a comment, so I’m posting them here.

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