Utah and the Mormons.

Utah and the Mormons combines the holdings of several major libraries to bring together a significant collection that includes periodicals, doctrinal and controversial works both pro- and anti-Mormon, contemporary works relating to the Latter-Day Saints at various times and in different places. There are also materials for the history of the more important branches of the church, as well as sources of Utah history during its territorial period. While the collection does not pretend to be complete in its record of this particular religious tradition and the lives of its followers in the territories that they settled, it does include core contemporary materials during a critical period in Mormonism's establishment as an American-born religion. The Mormons' vigorous missionary activity brought opposition nearly everywhere they gathered, rendering the history of the Mormon Church is an essential element in the history of the United States and in particular states such as Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. The history of Utah is, of course, inseparable from that of the Mormons, and this collection is rich in information with rare documents exhibiting the early history of the Mormons and their influences on the histories of these states. Scholars in the fields of American studies, religious history, and the history of the west will find key nineteenth-century and early twenty century periodical publications generated by Mormon communities in different parts of the United States (and even the world, with some publications included that appeared in Liverpool and Lausanne). Ohio papers include Elder's Journal of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Evening and Morning Star, and Latter Day Saints Messenger and Advocate (all published out of Kirtland, OH), as well as The Evangelical Inquirer (Dayton). The Illinois city of Nauvoo published the Nauvoo Neighbor, Kingdom of God, and The Wasp. Iowa is represented by the Frontier Guardian (Kanesville); Tennessee by the Latter Day Saints Southern Star (Chattanooga); Missouri by The Times and Seasons (Independence), California by The Western Standard (San Francisco), and Pennsylvania by The Gospel Reflector (Philadelphia) and the Messenger and Advocate of the Church of Christ (Pittsburgh). Among the monographs reproduced in this collection, scholars will find writings from Mormonism's original founders, such as A Collection of Facts, Relative to the Course Taken by Elder Sidney Rigdon; Discourses Delivered by Presidents Joseph Smith and Brigham Young on the Relation of the "Mormons" to the Government; A Series of Instructions and Remarks by President Brigham Young at a Special Council; and James Jesse Strang's The Prophetic Controversy and The Book of the Law of the Lord. Also present are such pro-Mormon testaments as Charles Thompson's Evidences in Proof of the Book of Mormon, Alfred Giles' Marriage, Monogamy and Polygamy on the Basis of Divine Law; Rudolph Etzenhouser's The Book Unsealed ... the Claims of the Book of Mormon Examined and Sustained; and Helen Mar Whitney's Why We Practice Plural Marriage. Anti-Mormon tracts appear as well, including George J. Adams' A Few Plain Facts Showing the Folly ... of the Rev. Timothy R. Matthews; Alexander Campbell's Delusions. An Analysis of the Book of Mormon; Joshua Vaughan Himes' Mormon Delusions and Monstrosities. A Review of the Book of Mormon; and Tyler Parsons' Mormon Fanaticism Exposed. A Compendium of the Book of Mormon. Works on specific historical events also abound, including The Lee Trial! An Expose of the Mountain Meadows Massacre; The Thatcher Episode: A Concise Statement of the Facts in the Case, George Turnbull Moore Davis' An Authentic Account of the Massacre of Joseph Smith; Albert M. Gibson's Have Mormons Any Rights? The New Edmunds Bill. Brief in Re Senate Bill No. 10; and William Hooper's The Utah Bill. A Plea for Religious Liberty.