It’s that time of year again! Our annual exhibit titled “History of Doctrine and Covenants, 1833-1921” is on display now in L. Tom Perry Special Collections. This exhibit takes the viewer through the history of the Doctrine and Covenants, from handwritten manuscripts to being published in book form in 1835. Later editions with significant additions or deletions are also displayed, including the 1844 Nauvoo edition (added the section on the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith), the 1879 edition (footnotes added by Orson Pratt), and the 1921 edition (removed the Lectures on Faith, which had been there since 1835). Also shown is an 1835 letter from Oliver Cowdery to Newel K. Whitney regarding original copies of a revelation, and James E. Talmage’s journal where he documents revisions he was asked to make in 1921 as part of the Doctrine and Covenants Committee.
This exhibit will be on display in the Reading Room in Special Collections until the end of 2018. Come see this popular exhibit and learn more about this significant book of modern day scripture!
Lucy Hannah White Flake (1842-1900)
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Lucy H. Flake journals (MSS SC 13). The collection includes three handwritten journals which contain Flake’s autobiography, covering the years 1842 to 1894. These items include details of her life in Beaver, Utah, and a detailed account of her experience colonizing Snowflake, Arizona. Also included are details of her funeral by her daughter, Roberta Clayton, and Flake family genealogical data.
Lucy Hannah White was born in Knox County, Illinois, to Samuel White and Mary Burton. She was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of seven and emigrated with her family to Utah when she was eight years old. Her family helped settle what is now Lehi, Utah. In October 1852, her father was called to help reinforce Cedar City and the Parowan in southern Utah from uprising of surrounding Native American tribes.
In 1857, Lucy met William Jordan Flake, and they were married on December 30, 1858, and had thirteen children together, eight of which lived to adulthood. They built a home in Beaver, Utah, and were sealed in the Endowment House in 1861. In 1868, William took another wife, Prudence Kartchner. In the spring of 1874, they joined the United Order, until it was disbanded in 1876. In 1877 William was called to a colonizing mission in Arizona, and they left Beaver in October. They would settle what is now Snowflake, Arizona, named in part for Apostle Erastus Snow and William Jordan Flake. Lucy died here on January 2, 1900, at age 57.
October 29, 2018 by Maggie Kopp
Tradition says that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of Wittenberg’s parish church on October 31, 1517. Over the next few years, thanks to the power of the printing press, Luther’s ideas would spread across Europe and spark a new religious movement. Luther even inspired poetry! These two pieces, one well-known and one more obscure, used verse to spread the news of the Reformation.
Hans Sachs, Die wittembergisch Nachtigall (The Wittenberg Nightingale). Zwickau: Jörg Gastel, 1523. Call number: Vault Collection 831.4 Sa14w 1523
Hans Wallser, Ain Bericht Wie D. Martini Luther von ersten hinder söllichen schwären handel kommen sey (How Doctor Martin Luther First Came Out of Obscurity). Augsburg: Johann Schoensperger, 1521. Call number: Vault Collection BR 327 .W36 1521
Jessie (Jesse) Easters Murphy (1832-1916)
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Jessie (Jesse) Easters Murphy diary (MSS SC 1010). In this journal, Murphy records his experiences while serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Southern States from 1867-1869.
Jessie (Jesse) Easters Murphy was born January 27, 1832, in Union, South Carolina, to Emanuel Masters Murphy and Nancy Easters. His family converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1857 Jessie married Grace Broadbent in St. Louis, Missouri, and soon after traveled to Utah. In 1860, Jesse was called as a Captain of a company to bring Saints to Utah, and he brought his father, mother, and many other family members with him. Jessie was called to serve a mission for the Church in 1867, where he served in the United States and Canada, primarily the Southern States. Jessie would later marry three more wives: Elizabeth Sproul (m. 1860), Robena Sproul (m. 1862), and Lavona (Lovonia) Ann (m. 1867). Jessie Easters Murphy died March 15, 1916, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, October 16 at 3pm in the Alice Louise Reynolds Auditorium (HBLL 1060), Daniel B. Kuhn, a long-time railroad historian, will be giving a lecture/presentation about the history of railroad services in Utah. This lecture will mark the official opening of the new exhibit in the Special Collections exhibit gallery “Since the Golden Spike: 150 years of Utah Railroad History.” Here are the details of Mr. Kuhn’s lecture:
The Legacy of the Golden Spike: Railroad Service in Utah
Railroads have been vital to the social and business development of Utah for 150 years and continue to serve our economy in the 21st Century. Understanding the evolution of railroads and their impact on Utah is essential to plan for and address our future transportation needs. Railroad technology and operations here in the West have come a long way since the completion of America’s first transcontinental railroad with the driving of the Golden Spike on May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah.
In this presentation, historian, photographer, and retired railroad official Daniel B. Kuhn, UDOT’s Railroad & Freight Planner, discusses the evolution of modern locomotives from steam to high tech, the demise of the private passenger trains, and how government deregulation has impacted Utah rail service.
Elwin A. Ireland land indenture, 1883
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Elwin A. Ireland land indenture (MSS 1162). This is a handwritten land indenture dated December 21, 1883 that records a public auction by Elwin A. Ireland to sell property owned by Samuel Jones in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Catherine Davis for $139.80. The manuscript was signed by Ireland.
Elwin A. Ireland was born in 1846 in Penobscot, Maine to Osbert A. Ireland and Sally Dorothy Elliot. During the Civil War he served in the Union Army as a private in Company H, Regular Army 17th Infantry Regiment. On December 25, 1867 he married Agnes Dow Goodwin, and together they had three children. He then worked as a customs clerk in New York under Chester Arthur. After Arthur became president, Ireland was appointed as a U.S. marshal in Utah, where he served from April 1882 until October 1886. He afterwards became involved in livestock business in the region. In February 1898 he joined Klondike Gold Rush, but died on May 18, 1898 in Alaska of edema.
October 5, 2018 by Maggie Kopp •
exhibits
It’s October, when Special Collections puts some of the most spooky, odd, and macabre objects in our collections on display. From Renaissance demonology to the first edition of Dracula, our newest exhibit, “Strange Things in the Archives” will get you in the mood for Halloween, or at least American Archives Month!
September 24, 2018 by Ryan K. Lee
Image of William Dearborn Brown (1813-1901) journal
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: William Dearborn Brown journal (MSS 7819). In this journal, Brown writes about his ancestors, family history, and his own personal history. Entries date from around 1860.
William Dearborn Brown was born on February 27, 1813, in Gouverneur, New York. He married Harriett Frances Hatch on March 18, 1840, in Fowler, New York, and together they had ten children. He worked as a carpenter in Michigan and New York. His family converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and settled in Utah in the 1860s. He died in 1901, in Texas.
Cicero was a huge deal in the Renaissance. Manuscripts of the classical Roman statesman’s letters and speeches were rediscovered by the Italian humanists Francesco Petrarch and Poggio Bracciolini in the 14th and 15th centuries, leading to new interest and dissemination of his works among scholars. Many Renaissance humanists adored Cicero’s prose style, and his work was esteemed as a model for composing in Latin.
To meet the demand for Cicero in studies and schoolrooms, printers supplied numerous editions of Cicero’s works, including his letters and his works on oratory and rhetoric. Special Collections owns numerous copies Cicero’s works from the 15th and 16th centuries. The oldest is this beautifully-decorated copy of two rhetorical works, De finibus bonorum & malorum and Topica, printed by Fillippo di Pietro in Venice in 1480.
William Jordan Flake (1839-1932)
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: William Jordan Flake diary (MSS SC 1453). This is a handwritten diary kept while Flake was kept in the Yuma, Arizona, prison for polygamy. It includes a map of the lay out of the facility and descriptions of the treatment of the Mormons by the guards, including work by the prisoners to repair and unload railroad cars. Also includes poetry and information from letters he received from his family.
William Jordan Flake was born on July 3, 1839 in Smith Creek, North Carolina to James Madison Flake and Agnes Haily Love. In the 1840s his family moved to Mississippi, where they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They migrated west with the Church, settling in San Bernardino, California by the 1850s. In 1858 Flake married Lucy Hannah Smith in Beaver, Utah, where he set up a cattle ranch. He later married Prudence Jane Kartchner in a polygamous marriage in 1868. In 1877 Brigham Young called Flake and his family to help settle the Arizona Territory. With other pioneers he settled
Snowflake, Arizona in 1878. Under the Edmunds Act he was imprisoned for polygamy around 1883. He died on August 10, 1932 in Snowflake.