Online Lecture: “Going to Work with a Will”: Emmeline B. Wells and the Road to Suffrage

This news comes from our friends at the Church Historian’s Press. If you’d like to received updates in your email, you can subscribe here!

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JSP Conference 2020: “Joseph Smith’s Connections and Networks”

From our friends at the Joseph Smith Papers:

On Friday, September 18, 2020, the Joseph Smith Papers Project will host the fourth annual Joseph Smith Papers Conference. To ensure the health and safety of all participants, conference organizers have decided that the event will happen online.  This year’s conference theme is “Joseph Smith’s Connections and Networks.” Presentations will explore aspects of Joseph Smith’s interrelated worldviews, including race, politics, finance, and theology. Papers will engage with themes found in volumes 10 and 11 of the Documents series of The Joseph Smith Papers. This event is free to attend, but space is limited. Please register only if you plan to attend; your courtesy will help us keep this conference series free. 

For more information on the conference, go here.

Review: Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon (UNC Press, 2020)

Many thanks to friend of JI, WVS, for his thoughtful review! You can purchase the book from UNC Press HERE.

“Regardless of what one believes about its historical or sacral authenticity, the Book of Mormon reveals important information about nineteenth-century American culture, particularly regarding oral culture and the formation of American literature among the non-elite classes of democratic-minded citizens, whose voices often emerged through the spoken word along religious avenues and byways.”(ix)

“I will be exploring how the textual phenomena and internal evidence within the pages of the Book of Mormon reach outside the text to engage with the pervasive oratorical training, practices, and concerns of Smith’s environment in early nineteenth-century America. I believe that this information, for believers and nonbelievers alike, reveals valuable insights about the life of Joseph Smith, his background and religious experiences, as well as the cultural context in which he grew up. I invite the reader to join me in that journey of discovery.”(xi)

Thus, William L. Davis sets the stage for his study of the Book of Mormon, Visions in a Seer Stone: Joseph Smith and the Making of the Book of Mormon (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020). i-xiii, 1-250. Notes, bibliography, index.

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Discourses of Eliza R. Snow

Mabel Knell, age five, joined the Primary in her small southern Utah town when it was organized on 6 December 1880. Eliza R. Snow and Zina Young visited nearly all of the southern settlements, including Pinto, near Pine Valley. The minutes record that Eliza asked the children if they wanted to be organized, and she helped them appoint a presidency. Then she showed them a gold watch that Joseph Smith gave her back in Nauvoo in 1842. (1)

Mabel remembered something else significant, not recorded in the minutes: a young boy in Pinto was very sick and had been carried to the meeting. He requested a special prayer for his health. “Sister Snow told the children to arise to their feet, close their eyes, and repeat after her the prayer, one sentence at a time. She prayed for the sick boy. When they got through praying he got up, walked home, and got into a wagon without help. He was well from that time.” (2) Eliza certainly cared for the individual–especially this young boy; she also cared for the community, teaching the Primary association how to unitedly pray for one of their members–to draw upon the powers of heaven even in their young ages.

This was just one of Eliza R. Snow’s nearly 1200 discourses, recorded in minute books and in personal writings. The Church History Department is proud to present “The Discourses of Eliza R. Snow,” a website with the Church Historian’s Press. As second general Relief Society president, Snow became a prolific speaker, traveling to nearly every settlement in the Utah Territory. Her marriages to both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young gave her an intimate perspective of the early events of the Restoration. She enlarged the stakes of the church with her visits to the hinterlands, teaching, organizing, and connecting with women, youth, and children. And she returned to Salt Lake City with a more expansive view of the institution she served.

The Discourses of Eliza R. Snow will be a great resources for both scholars and a general audience. The ability to trace a significant female preacher, to understand current events in local areas with specificity to women, and to follow the circuitous trajectory of her theological teachings is unprecedented. Her explanation on personal ministry is personal and intimate. And her efforts to provide order to the various women’s organizations, to teach them about their temple blessings, and their family relationships are indeed poignant.

President Snow spoke with authority in several ways. She was the secretary of the Nauvoo Relief Society and had a clear understanding of the purpose of the women’s organization as set by Joseph Smith. She was assigned by Brigham Young in 1868 to assist the bishops in organizing ward Relief Societies and to instruct the sisters. Snow taught the proper manner in which to organize and she encouraged women to speak publicly–to have a voice. She was a firm supporter of plural marriage, female empowerment with women responsible for their own salvation, and in encouraging women’s education and civic participation.

While only fifty discourses from 1868-1869 are currently available, batches of 100 discourses will be uploaded quarterly. Snow appeared publicly until a few months before her death in late 1887, often speaking three times a day in different locations even in her 80s. Later batches will include speeches in the form of poetry given to the Polysophical Institute and the Literary and Musical Associations in the 1850s, a speech given to her students in Nauvoo in 1843, and a fiery Pioneer Day diatribe on 24 July 1849. Snow spoke to Relief Societies, Young Ladies and Primary Associations, Cooperative Retrenchment groups, grain committees and silk associations, public meetings, anniversary celebrations, and general ward groups.

An interactive map shows the range of Snow’s travels and links to the discourses. A helpful reference section includes explanation of historical context, Snow’s chronology, and links to her publications. Where available, photographs of the places in which she spoke are available, bringing her discourse alive in a material way.

This new addition to the Church Historian’s Press website joins other endeavors, including the diaries of Emmeline B. Wells, the journals of George Q. Cannon and George F. Richards, and online versions of First Fifty Years of Relief Society and At the Pulpit. Also new is the ability to search across all church history sites.

(1). Pinto Ward Records, Primary Minute Book, 1880-1890, 6 Dec 1880, 3, BYU.

(2). Mabel Knell, “Our Primary,” The Juvenile Instructor 28, no. 9 (1 May 1893): 301.

Job Ad: 12-Month Contract Research Historian, Church History Department (LDS)

Research Historian, Publications Division, (Contract worker)–Church History Department

UNITED STATES |  UT-Salt Lake City

ID 261442, Type: Temporary Full-Time

POSTING INFO

Posting Dates: 07/13/2020 – 07/31/2020

Job Family: Library, Research&Preservation

Department: Church History Department

WORTHINESS QUALIFICATION

Must be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and currently temple worthy.

POSTING NOTICE/MORE INFO.

Please Note: All positions are subject to close without notice. 

Find out more about the many benefits of Church Employment at http://careers.churchofjesuschrist.org.
 

PURPOSES

The Church History Department announces an opening for a Research Historian with the Joseph Smith Papers project. The successful candidate will assist the Publications Division with historical and textual research. This is an exciting and outstanding opportunity for someone interested in pursuing a career in history. We are looking for a motivated, upbeat, and skilled individual to join our team.

This is a full-time position starting in September 2020 and expected to last 12 months.

Please attach a vita, a short writing sample demonstrating ability in using primary sources to form a cogent argument, and a list of three references to your application.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Duties will include research related to document analysis (textual and documentary intention, production, transmission, and reception) and contextual annotation of documents (identifications and explanations). Research will involve work in primary and secondary sources for nineteenth- and twentieth-century America and Latter-day Saint history. Work will include assistance to historians working on publication projects.

The Research Historian will work under the direction of senior Historians/Writers.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will possess the following knowledge, skills, and abilities:

Completion of Bachelor’s degree in history, religious studies, or other related field, preference will be given to those with master’s degrees and/or in doctoral programs in history, religious studies, or related field.

Knowledge of and training in historical research

Demonstration of excellent research and writing skills

Ability to work in a scholarly and professional environment

Strong organizational, time management, and verbal communication skills

Organized, with an ability to prioritize time-sensitive assignments

Creative and flexible

Ability to work in a team, as well as independently

Guestpost–Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects

Mark Ashurst-McGee is a friend of the JI and the Senior Research and Review Editor with the Joseph Smith Papers. He holds a Ph.D. in American History from Arizona State University and has published broadly on Joseph Smith and early Latter-day Saint history. He co-edited, along with Michael Hubbard MacKay and Brian M. Hauglid, Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity, which was recently published by the University of Utah Press.

This collaborative volume is the first to provide in-depth analysis of all of Joseph Smith’s translation projects. The compiled chapters explore Smith’s translation projects in focused detail and in broad contexts, as well as in comparison and conversation with one another. The various contributors approach Smith’s sacred texts historically, textually, linguistically, and literarily to offer a multidisciplinary view. Scrupulous examination of the production and content of Smith’s translations opens new avenues for understanding the foundations of Mormonism, provides insight on aspects of early American religious culture, and helps conceptualize the production and transmission of sacred texts.

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Review: MacKay’s Prophetic Authority

I’ve known Michael MacKay for a while now. Sometimes our research interests have followed adjacent lanes. He is smart, and willing to approach topics that have challenged some of our best thinkers, and he has done so in innovative ways. His work is always notable. Mike’s recently published Prophetic Authority, more than any his previous work, hits on topics that have captivated me—Latter-day Saint constructs of authority, priesthood, and ecclesiology. As one would expect with the best work on any topics, I found myself sometimes disagreeing emphatically, then, and more often, concurring with its insightful and piercing presentation.

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University of Utah Press MHA Code

From the editors of Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity:

In conjunction with this year’s annual conference of the Mormon History Association, the University of Utah Press is offering a 20%-off advance sale on the soon-to-be released

Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith’s Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity (available 26 June 2020). This sale also includes free domestic shipping. 

The offer is available through the book’s University of Utah Press webpage:

https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/producing-ancient-scripture/ 

At checkout, use this promotion code: MHA2020 The promotion code will be valid through the months of June and July.