News from Church Historian’s Press

For those not paying close attention, a fairly important milestone might go unnoticed at the Church Historian’s Press website. The church just announced that last year’s volume, At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women, is now available in Spanish and Portuguese on the Church Historian’s Press website. Later this week the translated volume will also appear in the Gospel Library app. Having published numerous books, this is the first volume from the Church Historian’s Press in a language other than English. Given the international growth in the latter half of the twentieth century—particularly in the Southern Hemisphere—this is a crucial step in reaching members and scholars outside the English-reading wards, branches, and universities.

Clipping Words and Pasting Narratives (or Tweeting the Nineteenth Century)

True to form, the online discussion over differing journalistic approaches to the reporting of the death of President Thomas S. Monson, sixteenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints appears to have run its course. Mormons quickly took to Twitter to respond to one particular article perceived as far too negative. In turn, those believing the article portrayed an accurate depiction of the church and its leaders responded. Hundreds debated the nuance of words and those words? implications for the nation?s view of the church and its leaders?all in 280 characters. In other words, it was a typical day on Twitter.

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Restriction-ism Unveiled!

Today’s guest post comes from Keith Erekson. Keith is the Director of the Library division at the LDS Chruch History Library.

One of the most common tropes in Mormon literature asserts that Mormon practices are veiled in secrecy. In the realm of historical practice, the trope has been employed to describe the archival and historical collections of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presently housed in the Church History Library in Salt Lake City. What lies in the vaults at the Church History Library? What is restricted, and why? Is it possible to use restricted items in your research? What restrictions influence the intellectual property request process? Are restrictions ever lifted?

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George Q. Cannon Journals

This morning’s guest post comes from Richard Dilworth Rust, a missionary at the LDS Church History Library and who has worked on the George Q. Cannon project for the last several years.

On George Q. Cannon?s 190th birthday, January 11th, 2017, the Church Historian?s Press issued online George Q. Cannon?s journal for the period of 1876 to 1880.

The following are some of the events/topics that can be explored. Links to events are provided in the online list at the beginning of January each year.

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Summer Book Club Week 1: Chapters 1 and 2

For this Summer’s Book Club, we will be reading Mormon Enigma by Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery. This week’s post focuses on the first two chapters, “Emma and Joseph, 1825-1827” and “The ?Elect Lady? 1827-1830.”

Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery published Mormon Enigma, the biography of Emma Smith, in 1984 at the height of the Hofmann era (any guesses how many Hofmann sources are quoted in the first two chapters of the first edition?). Their work went a long way in bringing Emma Smith out of the antagonistic rhetoric so often used by members of the LDS Church. Today, the work still serves as a corrective to a surprising amount of Mormon scholarship, despite the fact that it does show signs of its age.

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Mormon History Association awards recipients

As announced at this evening?s Awards Banquet in San Antonio, Texas:

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Reference Archivists

The Society for American Archives month has designated October Archives Month. To celebrate, here?s a highlight of the recent SAA journal.

Documenting history

[Another installment in the roundtable on John Turner’s Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet.]

Archival and historical research is the bread and butter of historical writing.

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Finding history in the archives

From my experience, historians don?t consciously believe archives are a neutral space in the historical research process, but there is not nearly enough literature on the filtering process that occurs within an archives.[1] I?m not speaking of the difficulties inherent in historic documents. All historians are taught to focus a critical eye on a source, look at why it?s created, and to weigh its biases. But I think historians are ill-trained in analyzing the archival influence of various collections. Scholars need to think about and engage with the fact that historical documents are processed by archivists with their own prejudices, (changing) professional standards, and varying historical knowledge. What have historians missed due to not understanding processing and preservation practices? This opens up a tremendous array of questions scholars can glean in their own research. Below is but a small example of this kind of thinking. It?s in no way earth-shattering, but I think uncovers some illustrative evidence historians should remember.

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I Found it in the Archives

Archival research and the resulting discovered sources often provide the critical foundation for scholarly articles and books. There is something wonderful about stepping into the archives and having the past delivered to your table in Holinger boxes and non-acidic folders; not to mention that you often discover answers to questions you had not thought to ask.

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