Speak ‘friend’ and enter.

Please join Juvenile Instructor’s Andrea R-M and tour co-director Janelle Higbee for the second round of fantastic Mormon women’s history on a bus, Thursday, June 9, leaving from Snowbird at 8:30 a.m. and returning after 5:00 p.m.. Tour spots are still available, and even those not registered for the conference may register for the tour.Last year’s MHA women’s history tour by Andrea R-M and Jenny R was a rousing success, or at least we thought so until people demanded their money back.  Highlights included stops at some of the surviving Relief Society halls in Utah County, including this one in Mapleton, which is now a lovely garden shed in one family’s backyard.  For this year’s tour, we are looking forward to a lovely walk through the Salt Lake City Cemetery with the incomparable Jeff Johnson, who will introduce us to a veritable who’s who of the resting places of famous Mormon women.  Do you love cemeteries?  We love cemeteries.  And we promise no zombies coming up out of the graves.  You know you want to find out who this Mother is.  Post your guesses in our comments, but come on our tour, to find out for sure.  Her initials should give it away. 

I hope you are as excited as I am to see the gravestone of my favorite Chicago World’s Fair hostess, speaker, and Mormon suffrage leader, Emily S. Richards, but here’s a teaser.

We will spend time at the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum, where we are excited to show you every item in every case in every room on every floor in the entire museum.  Just kidding, we won’t have time for that.  But we are thrilled to point out some special highlights that have to do with women’s public life in Utah, so a few suffrage tracts and items, souvenirs from the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, some of Utah women’s handmade silk items, some gross, but awesome hair wreaths, and an entire room dedicated to women in the medical profession.  And we will have a special guest to talk to us about the 20th Ward Quilt, that is *sort of* on display in one of the DUP cases.  Afterwards, we will make a stop at the rare, surviving 19th Ward Relief Society Hall, which is now the home of the Salt Lake Acting Company.

You really can’t appreciate these items with all that glare from glass cases. And the DUP won’t take these out until the Millennium, and they’ll only let Jesus himself touch them. So you’d better come on our tour to see the stuff in person.

We are excited for a noon hour visit to This is the Place Memorial Park, where we will eat our box lunches, and then focus on a few structures related to women’s public life and activism. The Deseret Hospital and Quilt Museum and a replica Relief Society Hall are some  highlights.  We will probably run through a couple of polygamist homes, because what would a Mormon women’s history tour be without some polygamist homes?  They’re compact and interesting, plus you get the added benefit of imagining what your living conditions will be like in the eternities.

We will wrap up our afternoon with the Pioneering Women in the Utah State Capitol tour, where our guide will discuss 19th-century and 20th-century milestones in woman’s suffrage, elections, and political representation.   On the way, we will pass other landmarks important to Utah women, like the Salt Lake City and County Building, the Council Hall, and Nordstrom at City Creek.

At the end of the day, you might be a little tired like this, but there will be plenty of time to eat, freshen up, and gargle before the opening reception and Lower Lights concert.  This is another event that is being offered as part of the MHA a la carte menu.  Invite your friends, even if they are unable to attend the whole conference. It’s ten little, teeny, tiny dollars at the door.  So, we look forward to seeing you and your Grandma and your Aunt Becky and Cousin Mel at our Mormon Women Public Life and Activism tour on Thursday, June 9, 2016.