Mark Smith is Sexton of the Salt Lake City Cemetery and co-author of Salt Lake City Cemetery (Images of America).
Category: Latter-day Saint History
Learn more about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including historical findings about Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and more.
The month before Joseph Smith was assassinated, he gave a personal tour of Nauvoo, Illinois, to two prominent men of the time: Charles Francis Adams and Josiah Quincy Jr.
Jane Manning James is possibly the most well known Black Latter-day Saint pioneers. She resided in the homes Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, held Joseph’s seer stone, and received two patriarchal blessings. In this interview, biographer Quincy Newell explains what we know about Jane Manning James—and why she matters.
Ignacio Garcia is the Lemuel Hardison Redd Jr. Professor of Western & Latino History at Brigham Young University and president of the Mormon History Association.
Philip Barlow is a scholar at the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University. He has also served as the Leonard Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University. Although not as well known as Truman G. Madsen or Terryl Givens, Barlow is considered one of today’s leading Latter-day Saint intellectuals. In this interview, he discusses the roles of his faith and intellectualism.
Martin Harris is perhaps most closely associated with the loss of the 116 pages. A new biography, Martin Harris: Uncompromising Witness of the Book of Mormon, demonstrates Harris’s commitment to the Latter-day Saint scripture. Susan Easton Black explains the biography’s backstory and highlights lesser-known event from the life of Martin Harris.
Grant Hardy is the editor of the Maxwell Institute Study Edition of the Book of Mormon. In this interview, he explains how the book came to be and why it includes an Emma Smith testimony not found in regular editions of the Book of Mormon.
Harvard Heath is retired curator of the Utah and American West Archives at the Harold B. Lee Library, and the editor of “Confidence Amid Change: The Presidential Diaries of David O. McKay, 1951-1970.” President McKay’s biographies were made possible thanks to the efforts of Clare Middlemiss.
W. W. Phelps was one of the 10 most influential members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in its first 15 years, according to Bruce Van Orden. His contributions stand alongside those of Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, and Heber C. Kimball.
The fourth volume of the Joseph Smith Papers “Revelations and Translations” series is a research gold mine for scholars working on issues related to Joseph Smith and the Book of Abraham. Robin Jensen, the volume’s co-editor, answers questions about the latest Joseph Smith Papers Volume and explains why it is a landmark publication.