Thanks to the Joseph Smith Papers Project for sharing this event! You can sign up for the JSPP newsletterHERE.
Date: September 26, 2019 Time: 7:00 p.m. Location: Assembly Hall (50 West South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah)
The Church History Department invites you to attend a special lecture entitled “Joseph Smith, The Leader.” The lecture will explore the leadership positions that Joseph Smith held in Nauvoo in 1842. The presenters, Elizabeth A. Kuehn and Alex D. Smith, will draw on examples and insights from the latest volume of The Joseph Smith Papers, Documents, Volume 9, and the forthcoming Documents, Volume 10, which will be published in spring 2020.
Joseph Smith’s leadership was a central factor in developing the Latter-day Saint community of Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1842, Smith took on new civic, ecclesiastical, and financial responsibilities in addition to those he already held. These roles ranged from becoming the city’s mayor and judge over the local courts to editing the Church’s newspaper the Times and Seasons and helping to establish the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. The lecture will highlight these responsibilities, their significance, and how Joseph Smith’s involvement provides insights into his character and leadership style.
Here are a few highlights from the Mormon History Association’s newsletter, which you you should receive with your MHA membership.
NEW JMH EDITORS: Christopher James Blythe and Jessie L. Embry have been appointed as co-editors of the Journal of Mormon History. From the newsletter, ” As co-editors, Jessie and Chris are committed to improving the scholarly profile of the JMH. While the journal will continue to be comprised of traditional historical articles, they will expand the journal’s vision to include articles on the Mormon past from a wider range of methodologies and perspectives. They look forward to special issues devoted to a particular theme and genre, as well as new sections of the journal devoted to the analysis of historical documents, visual and material culture, and field notes. They invite and seek contributions from both seasoned and emerging scholars, including those of underrepresented groups. Do not be surprised if you hear from them in the coming months! The next four years promise great things for the JMH.”
NEW BOARD MEMBERS: “During the business luncheon, MHA members elected five new board members, including Jenny Lund as President-Elect, Sara Patterson as Liaison Chair, David Simmons as Financial Chair, and Charlotte Hansen Terry as Student Representative. One of the most exciting changes announced was the addition of a Global Outreach Chair to the MHA board. Vinna Chintaram was elected to fill this important new role. We look forward to exciting things to come from this new position.”
FUNDRAISING FOR A JAN SHIPPS AWARD: MHA is thrilled to announce that we are raising funds to endow an article award in honor of Jan Shipps. A decades-long member of MHA and the first woman to serve as MHA President, Shipps is known to many in the organization as a friend and mentor. A pioneer of academic Mormon history, over many years her articles pushed the field in new and important directions. We feel it worthwhile to prominently feature her name when recognizing our best scholarship. An endowed award in her name will assure that MHA continues to promote and highlight the finest academic work on a yearly basis. We are pleased to report that $2,600 was raised when we announced the award at the 2019 MHA conference, and thank those who so generously donated. Please help us reach the endowment goal of $10,000. Donations may be made through MHA’s website or by mailing a check to MHA, P.O. Box 980398, Park City, Utah 84098 (write “Jan Shipps Article Award” on the memo line). For more information, or to assist in fundraising efforts for the endowment, please contact MHA Executive Director Barbara Jones Brown at barbara@mormonhistoryassociation.org.
MHA submissions are due on November 1, 2019! If you’re looking for co-panelists, feel free to use this Google doc, where you can list what you’re interested in, how many panelists you need, and any other information you’d like to include. We hope that this will be used in conjunction with Women in Mormon Studies and Global Mormon Studies. If you have other organizations whose membership might be helpful for forming panels, comment on this post and I’ll add it!
Anne Berryhill and I are also happy to put folks in touch with one another and to speak about proposed panels. Our emails are available in the CFP.
We are pleased to share details from the Third Annual Book of Mormon Studies Conference. If you’re in or near Utah State University you should consider going!
Friday, October 11
Plenary Session: Book Reviews 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Details forthcoming
Concurrent Sessions 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Room 1
Elizabeth Fenton (University of Vermont), “Readymade Books and the Preservation of the Sacred in the Book of Mormon and the Early Church”
Joseph M. Spencer (Brigham Young University), “‘Virgins, Harlots, Brides, and Queens: Women in the Prophetic Texts of First Nephi”
Kimberly M. Berkey (Loyola University), “‘Here Is My Daughter a Maiden’: Daughters in Judges and the Book of Mormon”
The Church History Department announces an opening for a historian/writer with an emphasis on the global history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Duties will include researching and writing, in collaboration with others, histories of the global Church for both scholarly and member audiences.
This is
the first post in a roundtable on Quincy D. Newell’s Your
Sister in the Gospel: The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century
Black Mormon (Oxford University Press,
2019). Look for more posts in the coming week!
Quincy Newell’s biography of Jane Manning James is a concise, informative study of one of the best-known Latter-day Saints of African descent. It is not the first study, nor the last, to examine Jane’s life and faith.[i] Born a free woman in Connecticut and buried a free woman in Salt Lake City, Jane James’ experiences are a crucial part of any study of Mormonism and people of African descent. Newell notes in the introduction that Jane’s life is “comparatively well-documented…she left multiple accounts narrating her personal history, some of which were published during her lifetime, and she appears in many other sources, including other people’s diaries, meeting minutes, and church and government records” (1). Despite the presence of these sources, many parts of Jane’s life remain mysterious to historians.
For all the words left behind by Jane, or about Jane, two words
repeatedly used by Newell stick out to me.
The 55th Annual Conference of the Mormon
History Association will be held June 4-7, 2020, in Rochester/Palmyra, New
York. The 2020 conference theme, “Visions, Restoration, and Movements”
commemorates the 200th anniversary of Mormonism’s birth in upstate
New York. Joseph Smith’s religious movement has grown from a fledgling frontier
faith to a diverse set of religious and cultural traditions functioning across
the globe. Members of Mormonism’s many branches are found among people of
different colors, languages, and nationalities. Consequently, Mormonism shapes
and has shaped the lives of millions of adherents and their neighbors from its
founding to the present.
People from all
of Mormonism’s branches have proven visionary in building their congregations
across the globe, in humanitarian efforts to relieve suffering and rebuild
communities, in political activism, caring for the environment, and other
actions which sometimes push back against accepted traditions, policies and
structures. Transformational activism
was a key feature of Mormonism from the beginning, born as it was in a
landscape of peoples and movements who changed the world around them–
constructing the Erie Canal, “burning” with religious fervor in the
Second Great Awakening, nurturing abolitionists and the fight for Black
liberation, and producing the struggle for women’s rights and suffrage.
On Memorial Day in 2019, 50-60 people gathered to participate in a monument dedication for Hark Lay Wales, a formerly enslaved African American man buried in Utah’s Union Cemetery. Wales, pronounced either like “whales” or “Wallace,” depending upon the person you speak to, lived and died in Utah Territory. He was enslaved by the William Lay family who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mississippi. Wales entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 with the first company of Latter-day Saints.
There is no definitive, published proof that he was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though sources have told Juvenile Instructor that information will be forthcoming on centuryofblackmormons.org which suggest Hark may have identified as a Latter-day Saint at some point in his life. For a full overview of Hark’s life, please consult this piece by Amy Tanner Thiriot on Keepapitchinin.
The program preceding the dedication was remarkable for several reasons. First, it was presided over, guided by, and featured nearly all Black speakers, both Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint. Many of Utah’s and the LDS Church’s best and brightest spoke or sang at the event, including Robert and Alice Faulkner Burch, Marlin Lynch III, Tekulve Jackson-Vann, Salt Lake City Fire Chief Jeff Thomas, Yahosh Bonner, Utah State Representative Sandra Hollins, David Hollins, Andra Johnson, Nate Byrd, & Byron Williams, and the lone white speaker, Sheri Orton. Robert Burch dedicated the grave through prayer and Melodie Jackson, Garrett Whiting, and Sierra Rose unveiled the headstone.
Congratulations to all of the winners! JI-ers are in bold.
Individual Awards
Leonard J. Arrington Award: Kathleen Flake
Special Citation: Larry H. Miller, Gail Miller, and Kim Wilson
Book Awards
Best Book: Jonathan A. Stapley, The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).
Best Book Honorable Mentions: Colleen McDannell, Sister Saints: Mormon Women since the End of Polygamy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018); James Swensen, In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953-1954 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2018).
Best Biography: Daniel P. Stone, William Bickerton: Forgotten Latter Day Prophet (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2018).
Best International Book: James A. Toronto, Eric R. Dursteler, and Michael W. Homer, Mormons in the Piazza: History of the Latter-day Saints in Italy (Provo, UT: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2018).
Best International Book Honorable Mention: Julie K. Allen, Danish but Not Lutheran: The Impact of Mormonism on Danish Cultural Identity 1850-1920 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2018).
Best Person History/Memoir: Vella Neil Evans, My Father’s People: Journeys Across a Landscape of Hope (Self-Published)
Article Awards
Best Article: Matthew McBride. “’Female Brethren’: Gender Dynamics in a Newly Integrated Missionary Force, 1898-1915.” Journal of Mormon History 44, no. 4 (October 2018): 40-67.
Best Article on Mormon Women’s History: Kathryn H. Shirts. “The Role of Susa Young Gates and Leah Dunford Widtsoe in the Historical Development of the Priesthood-Motherhood Model.” Journal of Mormon History 44, no. 2 (April 2018): 104-139.
Best Article on International Mormonism: Erik J. Freeman, “’True Christianity’: The Flowering and Fading of Mormonism and Romantic Socialism in Nineteenth-Century France.” Journal of Mormon History 44, no. 2 (April 2018): 75-103.
Article Award of Excellence: Joseph R. Stuart. “’A More Powerful Effect upon the Body’: Early Mormonism’s Theory of Racial Redemption and American Religious Theories of Race.”Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 87, no. 3 (September 2018): 768-796.
JMH Article Award: William G. Hartley, “Brethren, It’s the Last Day of the Month’: A History of Ward Teaching, 1912-1963,” 44/4.
Student Awards
Best Dissertation Award: Megan Ann Stanton, “All in the Family: Ecclesiastical Authority and Family Theology in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Best Unpublished Graduate Student Paper: David Dmitri Hurlbut, “Unmasking a Peculiar People: The Entry of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints into Mission in Southeastern Nigeria, 1962-1966” (Boston University)
Reviewed by Jon England, Ph.D. Candidate at Arizona State University
In April of 2013, Elder Marcus B. Nash of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Quorum of the Seventy gave a lecture at the University of Utah’s Wallace Stegner Center Symposium. In his lecture, titled “Righteous Dominion and Compassion for the Earth,” Nash explained that the Mormon environmental ethic revolves around the concept of “stewardship” and the need to care for God’s creations. Coincidentally, just a few months later, historians Jedediah Rogers and Matthew Godfrey began exploring the possibility of a book on Mormon environmental history. The result is The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden, a collection of essays from both established scholars and young historians of Mormon environmental history.
In the
first essay, Rogers takes us through the historiography of Mormon environmental
history and identifies some of the gaps. He references Lynn White Jr.’s 1967
assertion that Christianity is to blame for environmental degradation. This has
become a central debate in environmental history, and each author approaches it
through the context of their various subjects. Sara Dant gets at the roots of
Mormon environmental ethics by questioning the legitimacy of a Brigham Young
quote: “There shall be no private ownership of the streams that come out of the
canyons, nor the timber that grows on the hills. These belong to the people:
all the people.”[1] I
won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that she reminds historians to double
check their sources. She also identifies the tension within the Mormon
environmental ethic between communal stewardship and a market economy. Thomas
Alexander’s “Lost Memory and Environmentalism” works to confirm Dant’s
conclusion. Mormon settlers began with an environmental ethic (a bit of a
misguided ethic, but an ethic nonetheless), which they forgot as they secularized
their sense of entrepreneurship. As a result, the Wasatch Front environment
suffered with overgrazing, air pollution, and a decline of native species.
Most
environmental histories of the Latter-day Saints deal with their time in Utah
and settling the West. Matthew Godfrey, however, shows that over a decade
before Brigham Young attempted to make the “desert blossom as a rose” in
northern Utah, Joseph Smith was teaching the Saints to do the same thing in
Missouri. And Brett Dowdle provides an insightful look at how American Mormon
missionaries in England and British converts in the U.S. perceived new
environments.
Richard
Francaviglia takes us back to the Great Basin and posits that Mormons used and
created maps that show how they viewed the land they were settling. These maps
obviously proved essential in building cities, but also expressed the vision
Mormons had for their settlements. Betsy Gaines Quammen delves into land policy
with an examination of the history and founding of Zion National Park. She
convincingly asserts that Thoreauvian ideals of wholesome nature converged
harmoniously (for the most part) in Zion with Mormon perceptions of practical
wilderness use. Jeff Nichol’s essay, however, argues that the Mormon sense of
stewardship had its limits. Echoing Dant and Alexander, Nichol exposes the
tensions within Mormon environmental thought of communitarian ideals and market
successes within the context of the livestock industry. Communal projects, such
as shared ranges, helped establish Mormon communities, but overgrazing became
more prolific as Utah moved toward a market economy. Overgrazing livestock
changed the local environment in disastrous ways.
Another way
Mormons changed their environment was through irrigation. Brian Frehner
complicates the history of reclamation projects with the story of St. Thomas,
Nevada. Mormons founded St. Thomas in 1865, and for decades struggled to keep
it afloat only to watch it literally sink under the waters of Lake Mead in
1938. In 2002 however, remnants of the town reappeared due to the diminished
flow of the Colorado River. The story of St. Thomas is one of both success and
failure and shows that reclamation projects never fully accomplished their purpose
to control nature in the Southwest.
The last
few essays focus on the diminishing agrarian culture of the Church through the
twentieth century. Brian Cannon shows
that this change came despite Mormon leaders’ efforts to keep the Church’s
agrarian identity. Nathan Waite illustrates how Church president Spencer W. Kimball
looked to preserve the connection between the land and the Church by
encouraging members to maintain gardens. Rebecca Anderson offers a fascinating
look at the history of place and memory by comparing Ensign Peak to the gravel
pits that line Beck Street just to the north. While Ensign Peak represents the
early Mormon vision of what Zion could become, the gravel pits show the reality
of development.
George
Handley provides a fitting conclusion to this collection with a summation of
what Mormonism has to offer environmentalism. He also identifies what’s at
stake. Mormonism has yet to embrace its own environmental ethic in an effective
way. Fortunately, this collection represents a possible turning point as it
reflects the growing concern among Mormons, particularly among the younger
generation, for the environment.
The authors touch on issues specific to Utah
such as over-development and smog, and global issues like climate change, but
not in-depth, leaving room for more discussion and analysis. Just as Elder
Nash’s lecture (which is included in the appendix) opened the door for more
conversation around the Mormon environmental ethic, Eden lays the
groundwork for more substantial work in the environmental history of Mormonism.
[1]
Sara Dant, “The ‘Lion of the Lord’ and the Land: Brigham Young’s Environmental
Ethic,” The Earth Will Appear as the Garden of Eden, 29
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “Interesting, Jack. But just to reiterate, I think JS saw the SUPPRESSION of Platonic ideas as creating the loss of truth and not the addition.…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “Thanks for your insights--you've really got me thinking.
I can't get away from the notion that the formation of the Great and Abominable church was an…”
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “In the intro to DC 76 in JS's 1838 history, JS said, "From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “"I’ve argued that God’s corporality isn’t that clear in the NT, so it seems to me that asserting that claims of God’s immateriality happened AFTER…”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”
Recent Comments
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “Interesting, Jack. But just to reiterate, I think JS saw the SUPPRESSION of Platonic ideas as creating the loss of truth and not the addition.…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “Thanks for your insights--you've really got me thinking. I can't get away from the notion that the formation of the Great and Abominable church was an…”
Steve Fleming on BH Roberts on Plato: “In the intro to DC 76 in JS's 1838 history, JS said, "From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important…”
Jack on BH Roberts on Plato: “"I’ve argued that God’s corporality isn’t that clear in the NT, so it seems to me that asserting that claims of God’s immateriality happened AFTER…”
Steve Fleming on Study and Faith, 5:: “The burden of proof is on the claim of there BEING Nephites. From a scholarly point of view, the burden of proof is on the…”
Eric on Study and Faith, 5:: “But that's not what I was saying about the nature of evidence of an unknown civilization. I am talking about linguistics, not ruins. …”