Utah History Encyclopedia
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UTAH HISTORY Utah historical writing has included memoirs; autobiographies; life sketches; biographies; edited diaries and journals; town, country, and valley histories; theses and dissertations; monographs long and short; and general histories. These have been produced by the historic persons themselves, their kinsmen, journalists, amateurs and enthusiasts, freelance and paid writers, defenders and attackers, students and teachers, and professional historians. Researchers have discovered a great variety of sources for direct or corroborative evidence, such as diaries and journals, church records, institutional records, town and county records, the state archives, the National Archives, periodicals, and newspapers, to name a few. Utah history in broad terms properly treats of all human endeavors of all groups of people acting within the state′s boundaries through time, ideally based on authenticated original documents from reliable eyewitnesses, and told with understanding and respect for differing points of view. Many sources now have been collected and inventoried. Special collections divisions of university and college libraries have increased their holdings of printed and manuscript materials. State and national archives remain relatively untapped but are open. The Latter-day Saint Church archives remain a major repository of importance because of the role of the church in Utah history. The conflicts between Mormons and non-Mormons in history colored many of the primary records now extant, and the prejudices, biases, and antipathies, on both sides, found their way into many studies, particularly in earlier days. There was a tendency to treat the conflicts as central, whereas in more recent times the movement has been toward bringing all groups into historic focus and attempting to understand each group′s life and contributions from their point of view. While dispassionate objectivity has brought us closer to some truths, 1 of 8 our works frequently fail to capture the depths of the human experience and the emotions of the time. Edward W. Tullidge was Utah′s first historian of stature. He wrote a History of Salt Lake City (1886) and many articles on the political and economic history of early Utah in his histories and Quarterly Magazine (1880-1885). Utah received special one-volume treatment among the histories produced by Hubert Howe Bancroft, nineteenth-century San Francisco entrepreneur. He acquired a considerable library of books and newspapers, and for Utah, manuscripts extracted from the Church Historian′s Office. He hired writers (Alfred Bates wrote most of the Utah volume), and aimed to please his audiences. LDS Church authorities read and made suggestions on the work before it went to press. His History of Utah (1889) was popular for years. In Orson F. Whitney the people of Utah found a historian of their own who undertook the prolonged task of writing a full-length history. His History of Utah (four vols., 1892-1904) placed emphasis on political, judicial, and legal history, with heavy use of documents. After treating the coming of the Mormons, the volumes chronicled events year by year. Volume four contained some 350 biographies. The four-volume work completed, Whitney turned to write Utah′s first school textbook: The Making of a State; A School History of Utah (1908). In 1916 he produced a one-volume Popular History of Utah, in which he traced mainly political themes through the territorial period, with chapters on the years to 1916. Over the years five persons (including Whitney) produced three- and four-volume works. Noble Warrum put out Utah Since Statehood (three vols., 1919), which, while mainly political, but much more or a large variety of topics. J. Cecil Alter, who made many contributions to Utah history, wrote Utah, the Storied Domain: A Documentary History (three vols., 1932). Wain Sutton edited Utah, A Centennial History (three vols., 1949), bringing together signed articles on a variety of subjects. Wayne Stout put out his History of Utah (three vols., 1967-1971), which chronicled the years 1870 to 1970. Heavy with long quotations from mainly printed sources, the work shows strong anti-non-Mormon bias. In none of these works is there synthesis, rather year-to-year chronicles using mainly quotations from documents. Popular history found expression over the years in some publications 2 of 8 designed to promote Utah, such as early works by S. A. Kenner, George E. Blair, George Wharton James, and others. Many households obtained their views of Utah and Mormon history from lesson pamphlets published by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Increasingly professional influences in the study of Utah′s history came at about the time of World War I when a group of young Utah men went off to graduate schools for advanced degrees in history. Included in this first generation were Levi Edgar Young, Andrew Love Neff, William J. Snow, Leland H. Creer, and Joel E. Ricks, among others. Most went to the University of California at Berkeley, worked in the Bancroft Library, and studied under Herbert E. Bolton. Upon completion of their doctorate degrees, they returned to Utah and taught college courses in Utah history, conducted seminars, and sometimes wrote. Their influences were felt mainly in the classroom and in public lectures: Young, Neff, and Creer taught at the University of Utah, William J. Snow at Brigham Young University, and Joel E. Ricks at Utah State Agricultural College in Logan. The writing of school textbooks provided a continuing challenge to historians who would attempt a broad coverage. Following Whitney′s example, Levi Edgar Young wrote The Founding of Utah (1923), breaking new ground with attention to the pre-1847 period. He wrote social history for his readers; his accounts of pioneer life are still useful. The work showed a refreshing breadth of interest. John Henry Evans produced The Story of Utah (1933). He began the story in 1847 and carried it to 1932. He treated political and judicial themes central to Utah history, and enlarged his treatment of social, economic and cultural subjects. The scope and presentation of material is impressive. Soon Marguerite Cameron produced This is the Place (1939), written "primarily for youth in our schools" as well as "fireside reading." Whatever its success in the schools, it was soon succeeded by Milton R. Hunter′s Utah In Her Western Setting (1943), later revised as The Utah Story (1960). The writing of county and local histories was taken up by a number of groups, especially the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Centennials have called forth worthy efforts. Town and gown collaboration produced a history of Cache Valley in 1956. Pearl Jacobson and others produced volumes for Richfield′s and Sevier Valley′s in 1964. Dixie is perhaps best treated of Utah′s regions, by the writings of Andrew Karl Larson and Juanita Brooks. Recently southeastern Utah has received exemplary treatment by David Miller, Charles S. Peterson, and Faun McConkie 3 of 8 Tanner. During the Great Depression the study of Utah history was advanced by activities sponsored by the WPA Historical Records Survey. Inventories of county records were made, scores of pioneer diaries, journals, and life sketches were copied and made available. Many pioneer records were brought to light and placed in permanent depositories. Dale L. Morgan and Juanita Brooks were important in this work, the former contributing significantly to Utah, A Guide to the State (1941), with its chapter essays on a wide range of subjects, the best information and writing up to that time. During the 1930s came the promise of much better history in the efforts of Andrew Love Neff and Nels Anderson. Neff visioned a multi-volume history of Utah which would have been definitive and detailed, but his life was cut short in 1936. Leland H. Creer prepared his unfinished manuscript for publication: Neff′s History of Utah, 1847 to 1869 (1940). The work made new contributions to the pre-1847 period, and defined the 1850s and much of the 1860s; it is a tribute to the man and his goal. In 1942 Desert Saints by Nels Anderson appeared. While not intended as a history of Utah, it filled that need for nearly a generation. He told the story of Utah up to the time of statehood and established a new standard for the inclusion of chapters on priesthood government, economics, polygamy. and the Mormon way of life. Nels Anderson, Dale L. Morgan, and Juanita Brooks formed a triumvirate of Utah′s ablest historical scholars and writers. None had a professional history degree; yet their works remain distinguished today. A second generation of professionally trained historians provided a new intellectual stimulus to the study of Utah history following World War II when veterans took to graduate schools and wrote thesis and dissertations in Utah and Mormon history. These historians came to Utah, taught at the universities, conducted research seminars, and wrote out of their researches. They included A. R. Mortensen (director, Utah State Historical Society); C. Gregory Crampton (UU); Brigham D. Madsen (BYU, USU, UU); Richard D. Poll (BYU); David E. Miller (UU); Dello Dayton (Weber); William Mulder (UU); Everett L. Cooley (State Archivist, USU, Director, Utah State Historical Society): Eugene E. Campbell (BYU); Leonard J. Arrington (USU, Church Historian. BYU); S. George Ellsworth (USU), and others. Utah history was quickened on many fronts through the work of this second generation and their 4 of 8 students. Aiding authors was an array of technological advances: typewriters and electric typewriters, photostats cameras and photocopying, microfilm and microfiche of collections of documents and newspapers, secretarial assistance, and monetary grants in support of research. More recently, personal computers and fax have both speeded and aided research. Guides, inventories, catalogs, and bibliographies led to a new materials, essential sources. The era of the monograph followed. Single subject articles and books abounded, mostly on the territorial period but gradually moving into the field of the twentieth century.