Fiftieth Anniversary Forum

As the Journal of Mormon History starts publishing its fiftieth volume, this forum looks back at its almost half-century run. During those years, the journal has published articles about the churches that trace their beginnings to Joseph Smith Jr. In this essay, I examine the history and content as the journal grew from a small yearly volume to four quarterly issues per volume of nearly three hundred pages each, and transitioned from a privately published journal to one of many produced by the University of Illinois Press. In the early years, articles focused on traditional history. Gradually it accepted articles from many disciplines reflecting the change in broader disciplines of history and religious studies. To tell this story, I divide those years into three periods. In the beginning, academic members of the Mormon History Association volunteered to edit a yearly journal. From 1991 to 2015, Lavina Fielding Anderson shepherded major changes as she edited, copy edited, and produced the journal. In the years since, I have edited the journal but turned production over to the University of Illinois Press. For this retrospective, I discuss the journal contents and editors’ visions through the first forty-nine volumes.The Mormon History Association was organized in 1965 at about the same time that BYU Studies (1959) and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (1966) started publishing articles on Mormon history and culture. Many MHA founders felt that those journals would serve the academic reading audience and focused the new organization on an annual gathering. By 1974, MHA determined there was enough scholarship to support another journal. Richard Sadler, a professor at Weber State College, with the assistance of BYU professors Thomas G. Alexander and James B. Allen edited the first issue. It had only four articles. Over the next eight years Sadler edited the journal supported by assistant and associate editors just beginning their historical careers. In 1982, associate editor Dean L. May, a University of Utah professor, took over as editor. When May stepped aside after four years, Leonard J. Arrington, the founder of MHA, former church historian, and director of the BYU Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Church History, was listed as editor for volume 13. Lowell M. Durham Jr., a businessman, educator, and editor, headed a staff to produce the next four volumes.During most of these first sixteen years, the journal focused on scholarly articles. Over time, the MHA presidential address and the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner lecture from the annual meeting were included. During May's tenure, “Notes, Views, and Reviews” were added. Just as important as what was included was what was not. Davis Bitton, an MHA founder, reports the organization determined not to include reviews in a limited yearly volume.1 Many articles focused on the developing “New Mormon History.”The first time period ended when the editorship moved to Lavina Fielding Anderson. Anderson, a trained editor who had worked for the LDS Church Ensign, took over first as designated and then as editor of the journal in 1991 and 1992. As designated editor, Anderson used volume 17 to celebrate MHA's twenty-fifth anniversary. Anderson selected Warren Archer's abstraction of the Salt Lake Seventeenth Ward window as the cover. Over her years as editor, she used the same illustration and varied the colors of the window and background. Her first official issue, volume 18, announced that the MHA board had approved moving to two volumes a year and expanded the scope to include “in addition to articles, letters to the editor, book reviews, and advertising.”2Starting in 2004, Anderson convinced the MHA executive board to add a third issue a year, and in 2008 she promoted a traditional quarterly publication. With more issues, Anderson added book notices, round tables, photography, and review essays. Under her leadership, each issue had 288 pages. She recruited many people to help in the publication. Her board of editors reviewed all the submissions, and she and Patricia Scott, the editorial manager, circulated the paper copies. Anderson also created an executive committee to select articles. Members remember fondly the dinners to discuss the journal around Anderson's table. Anderson also recruited and trained people to assist her in the copy editing. Indeed, Elizabeth O. Anderson, who has copy edited the journal these last eight years, learned the art from her.After eighteen years, Lavina Fielding Anderson stepped away from being the editor. To replace her, MHA hired Martha Taysom who had worked as an editor with the American Historical Association. Volume 35, issue 2 (2009), listed Anderson as editor and Taysom as editor designate. During Taysom's term, Anderson continued as the copy editor and coordinated publication. Taysom served as editor until 2015. Some of her changes were very visible. Her covers were photographs that reflected the content of the issue. In order to fill the pages, she increased the typeface size. She selected peer reviewers and accepted articles. She then passed them on to Anderson who copy edited them. During Taysom's tenure, the MHA board of directors became involved and published two guest-edited special issues, a fiftieth anniversary issue (41:1, January 2015), and an issue focused on race and Mormonism (41:3, July 2015).Up until 2015, the journal was published independently. Several factors led to the MHA board's decision to try a new model. The journal was costing more to produce. Some board members worried that the journal was not always ready on schedule. Perhaps even more important, were the new ways of distributing journals. Presses coordinated publication and then made the journals available on line through groups such as JSTOR. With that in mind, the board searched for a press to publish and distribute the journal. They hired the University of Illinois Press (UIP) who already published many academic journals.In fall 2015, I was hired to replace Taysom and work with UIP. During my first four-year term, I streamlined the peer review process and learned the press's production schedule. I do not copy edit and the MHA board of directors contracted that job to the new publisher. That meant that the entire issue had to be submitted to the press six months in advance and was at the mercy of a copy editor who did not speak Mormon. We reviewed the arrangement and hired Elizabeth O. Anderson as a copy editor. I found the 288 pages difficult to fill, so MHA also agreed to reduce each issue to 160 pages. I focused on history. As I received more Mormon/religious studies submissions, I recruited the book review editor, Christopher James Blythe, to help process those papers. Later we applied to be coeditors and were hired for a four-year term.Before I was able to reduce the number of pages, I republished “classic” articles that gave a new generation a chance to see the work of earlier historians. I decided to use historical photographs with different colors for three issues of the journal. The fourth issue, published in April, had a cover unique to the conference presidential address or the Smith-Pettit lecture. With the time lag in the UIP schedule, I eliminated letters to the editor. Blythe and I recruited authors for forums on selected topics and also published short essays.While the editors can control the length and appearance of the journal, they depend on authors to submit papers. Editors spend much of their time encouraging and soliciting papers. Throughout the journal's history, it has published editorial policy and guidelines for submissions. Comparing these statements provides additional information on how the editors envisioned the journal. Volume 4 listed the first editorial policy. After explaining the journal reflected the goals of the Mormon History Association, which was “to foster scholarly research and publication in the field of Mormon History,” the editors clarified, “Manuscripts dealing with all aspects of Mormon history are invited. First consideration will be given to those which make a strong contribution to knowledge through new interpretations or new information. A panel of readers will also consider general interest of the paper, extent and accuracy of research, and literary quality.”3Anderson offered some additional suggestions. In volume 18, issue 2, the statement repeated the purpose of MHA and the journal to “foster scholarly research and publication in the field of Mormon history.” Rather than just soliciting “all aspects of Mormon history,” the statement listed underrepresented fields “including twentieth-century history, regional and local history, women's history, and ethnic/minorities history.” It repeated the request for new information or interpretations and the need for “general interest, accuracy, level of interpretation, and literary quality.”4 Taysom expanded the list to include “contemporary history . . . folklore, [and] historiography.”5As I started my term as editor, I rewrote the statement. “Manuscripts dealing with any aspect of Mormon history (any tradition tracing its origin to Joseph Smith, Jr.) will be considered. While articles based on disciplines other than history are acceptable, the focus should be on the past. Primary consideration is given to manuscripts that make a significant contribution to the knowledge of the Mormon past through new interpretations and/or new information.” Since I had heard complaints about long articles, I added that they “should be approximately 10,000 words in length. Articles longer than 15,000 words will not be considered.” As with other statements, I explained, “Acceptance is based on originality, use of primary sources, literary quality, accuracy, and relevance.”6With Christopher James Blythe's interest in religious/Mormon studies, Blythe and I worked hours on a new statement that showed his desired diversity. “The Journal of Mormon History examines the Mormon past through a variety of perspectives, including but not limited to Mormon studies/religious studies, cultural history, social history, intellectual history, reception history, sociology, economics, geography, political science, women's studies, material culture, race studies, and folklore. Importantly, Mormonism is interpreted to encompass all traditions that trace their origins to Joseph Smith, Jr. The editors are especially interested in articles that offer international perspective and twentieth century and contemporary history.” The statement continued, “In addition to traditional articles, the journal publishes roundtables and shorter essays analyzing particularly significant (and not widely known) documents, photograph and material culture, as well as historiographical essays. These shorter essays should be approximately 2,000 to 4,000 words. The editors welcome suggestions for potential topics of roundtables and shorter essays before they are submitted.”7As I researched the history of the journal and looked at past issues, I was impressed with Leonard J. Arrington's and Dean May's statements about the study of Mormon history. In the MHA twenty-fifth anniversary issue, Arrington called on those writing Mormon history to judge historical figures by the standards of their times and see the people as God would see them, in which “justice is tempered with mercy.” In addition, authors should recognize the goodness of all people and discuss all factors that influenced them including economics and religion. He hoped, “If we members of MHA do our work properly, we will come to be associated in the minds of our nonmember colleagues with a certain attitude toward history, with the quality of our concern about it, with the sense of reverence and responsibility with which we approach our assignments.”8 Dean May echoed those feelings in a letter to the editor in volume 18: As we try to enhance historical understanding we must always remember that we have been called to the sacred responsibility of speaking for the dead. We must seek to see their world (as nearly as we can) as they saw it, which is to say, perhaps not always as we might wish it to have been. Past Saints, like us, were imperfect people in an imperfect world, and to imagine them otherwise is to rob them of the dignity of having faced life as it was, sometimes with honor and sometimes with equivocation. We must never be silenced by those who would stop the honest and hence only relevant voices from the dust.9I shared similar views about the publication of Mormon history. Whether authors look strictly at the past and tell stories about historical figures or use theories from religious studies/Mormon history, I hoped that they provided context and understanding for the Mormon experience. I wanted them to recognize that people had different motivations for their actions and asked historians to recognize the time period they write is different from their own. I hope that I judge these people in the same way that I hope future historians will judge me.Blythe and I had contracts to edit the journal through August 2023. However, in 2022 Blythe resigned and MHA hired Christopher Cannon Jones as a coeditor. He becomes the sole editor when my term expires in 2023. This is the last issue that my name will appear as editor. As I away from the Journal of Mormon History, I the I have learned about peer and publishing the journal. I of the issues that I and then Blythe, and I and Christopher Jones have of them are the to the study of the Mormon past. I all of the issues add to the of knowledge and I future volumes will in that for my time at the Journal of Mormon History as associate editor and as I took the to make a in the and and I many of our shared and It was an important for and for the journal. For the first time in history there was an issue in which all articles were by and a special issue in of which were Over the past years, we published some articles and forums that will to the field for years to The of a journal is not always but I was with research, soliciting articles, and with authors to their with as executive director of the Mormon History Association. It was a difficult but the one for our and for has already in her first year on the is a of what was always the most of the the field and to especially to make their I offer this of with the hope that all of can more and and come to see as of a of historians in each first to the of the tradition is that they should be with the field that to For consider an American religious historian, should the work of and should with what is being about topics to should be to studies Many are writing about of race and their is of a to write in this should but should also the work of and are writing on not to should be reading Joseph and God were to write on the more than Christopher James should be reading and have an field that need to what has been in the past. we that an or more has or at different than the also need to when are new and when they have been are more than for an that was years but appear in the most work on the of reading widely in LDS studies is being able to other just as would hope they would as editor, I saw a to other with they had already It not from a work to have work that has come and other to that cover in of the of topics has been their with Many of in with this field we wanted to more about a that we found have not been the first as an how do might with the in the field Joseph Smith have the of research, but must in We need to to a understanding how we can use it to a but also a it is a very to those of who are to do when it to research, need to the and It is to a but should not research are on a when have a unique from another should their assistance in a or in the of is not to be and from We must write to our are two of there are in which they They that their work might not be the on a contribution to our knowledge be but readers that what they do produce produce as they are to the but that much of their work will not be I have a for this of that as a of a of to have their and knowledge we need to have standards for our but we should not be of writing for years before it is ready for publication. The for is For many of us, writing is the most difficult for have writing with the help of are ready to I have three of the journals. are journals in the field of and history to journals over have on the of the be that a journal be interested in They just a try to have articles appear in studies but do not the of publishing in our BYU and will peer and a than journals. After those who are interested in reading Mormon history, including other to these future of Mormon history a of and will to have at and with at the Church History the Church History LDS and of with other such as the B. of Mormon and that to the for The field also has its who work as and any number of other A support and their with any given they all need and but not provides this of scholarly in a streamlined It not scholarship and there are to that are as a the only can is a that or not be for research, write and are on and can come by a process of and We all need to in the field and the Mormon History Association is an to need a might be it might also be an in the field who is to a a they are who and that to that about they should honest my time at the Journal of Mormon History has my that scholarship not only in the and that the most are those who approach the field as but as became the to edit the Journal of Mormon History when my term as on January 2023. I recognize this as a my research include topics the scope of the the Mormon History Association and the Journal of Mormon History have always been my scholarly It was at MHA's annual conference in Salt Lake in that I my first scholarly paper, and it was in the journal that I published my first peer reviewed During my time in as my to earlier American religious history, my to MHA never as I the annual conference each year, or on in the continued after being hired in History I have also served as a of MHA's on conference and as of the committee for the annual conference in that has with that as a way of my Mormon history and to my to my as editor of the journal, as well as my moving In my short contribution to this forum the fiftieth anniversary of the Journal of Mormon History, I my for the journal's future the of its history, so by the past of the Mormon History Association and the Journal of Mormon History are with the of Mormon studies as an the has been around for some time, a approach to the study of scholarly and have been organized to the work of Mormon studies and MHA and the journal have those writing about the past from a variety of As in her to this the journal's statement this the Mormon past through a variety of perspectives, including but not limited to addition to historical Mormon studies/religious studies . . . sociology, economics, geography, political science, women's studies, material culture, race studies, and an approach to the past the of MHA members and From its the organization and its journal have included trained and academic and writing from a variety of In their of and Davis and Leonard Arrington history that some of the and most important to the academic study of the Mormon past from those in academic history That statement is perhaps even more than it was years A at the of MHA and of MHA and journal in addition to trained a of religious studies and a of many of research are is and to the so many have in Mormon history. It is one of the and it is one I to as editor of the Journal of Mormon and are welcome and to submit their work to the journal, of their and As on MHA's the Journal of Mormon History from new voices and in the and support in the of and small to publishing in the for the first time, as well as those do not include a research This and and the Mormon history and Mormon studies, the two fields are not and the Journal of Mormon History is not the Journal of Mormon the Mormon History Association the scholarly organization the field of Mormon studies, similar have in the past to other to including the Association for Mormon for Mormon and Mormon in the and the for in the field have the to submit articles for publication in including BYU Studies Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon the Historical Association and the Mormon Studies in addition to journals in any number of broader In this of scholarly and the Journal of Mormon History just one many in Mormon studies, of the journal for scholarship on Mormon the of the years, and issues, I to and the journal's focus on Mormon history. In the journal will what it what it is and make into the of what it can As editor, I to and publish the research on the Mormon past. As from a variety of will a in the journal, so long as their work the guidelines of history and to our understanding of the Mormon an to on the work of those editors who and to the journal I with short statements that are to my for the Journal of Mormon History and a of some new future of the field of Mormon history is and the Journal of Mormon History has a to in the field for years to As editor, I focused on publishing the very scholarship on Mormon history, and welcome from members and from and of the past. It is an honor to work with

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