The Church History Department (CHD) manages the historical and publishing activities of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
(LDS Church). This includes the
Church History Museum
The Church History Museum, formerly the Museum of Church History and Art, is the premier museum operated by the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and ...
, Church Historian’s Press, and various research and collection projects. LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr., an LDS Church
general authority, has been the
Church Historian and Recorder
Church Historian and Recorder (usually shortened to Church Historian) is a priesthood calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The role of the Church Historian and Recorder is to keep an accurate and comprehensive record of th ...
(CHR) since August 1, 2019.
History
The position of CHR is based on revelations
Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he ...
said he received, which are included in the
Doctrine and Covenants
The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Chur ...
, calling for keeping records and preparing a church history.
Oliver Cowdery
Oliver H. P. Cowdery (October 3, 1806 – March 3, 1850) was an American Mormon leader who, with Joseph Smith, was an important participant in the formative period of the Latter Day Saint movement between 1829 and 1836. He was the first baptized ...
, the first in this position, originally recorded meeting minutes,
patriarchal blessings, membership information, priesthood ordinations, and a narrative church history. For a time, the callings of Church Historian and Church Recorder were separate, but in 1842 these callings were merged and now the Church Historian also acts as the Church Recorder.
In 1972, the Church Historian's Office was renamed as the Historical Department.
In 2000, this department was merged with the Family History Department to become the Family and Church History Department.
On March 12, 2008, the Church Historian separated again from the Family History Department to become the CHD.
A new
Church History Library
The Church History Library (CHL) is a research center and archives building housing materials chronicling the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The library is owned by the Church and opened in 2009 in downt ...
(CHL) was constructed in 2009 and it holds a collection that includes 600,000 photos, 270,000 books, pamphlets, magazines and newspapers, 240,000 collections of original, unpublished records, journals, diaries, correspondence and minutes, 23,000 audio-visual items, 4,000 oral histories and millions of digitized pages.
Marlin K. Jensen
Under the leadership of
Marlin K. Jensen
Marlin Keith Jensen (born May 18, 1942) is an American attorney who has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 1989. He served as the official Church Historian and Recorder of the church fr ...
, who served as CHR from 2005 to 2012, the CHD embarked on a number of projects including ''
The Joseph Smith Papers
''The Joseph Smith Papers'' (or Joseph Smith Papers Project) is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all manuscripts and documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint ...
'', construction of the CHL, the Family and Church History Department dividing into the Family History Department and the CHD, and numerous additional changes.
* Technological modernization: Thousands of the LDS Church's historical documents were mass digitized and made freely available online, including the Joseph Smith Papers. Historian
Jan Shipps
Jo Ann Barnett Shipps (born 1929), known as Jan Shipps, is an American historian specializing in Mormon history, particularly in the latter half of the 20th century to the present. Shipps is generally regarded as the foremost non-Mormon scholar ...
called this "a change that is so epochal it would be very hard to turn it back." In addition to developing a new church-wide system for digitally collecting and managing records, the CHL's searchable catalog was made available online.
* International history: The CHD decentralized its collecting of international church history. Church Historians were called for individual
areas
Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an op ...
and countries, and oral histories were to be gathered from
mission president
Mission president is a priesthood leadership position in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). A mission president presides over a geographic area known as a mission and the missionaries serving in the mission. Depending on ...
s and area presidents when they were released. Before this time, little had been done to gather international church history. Jensen saw this project as "one of the significant accomplishments in this period of time."
* Historical professionalism: Jensen worked to make the CHD authoritative and trusted within the church, as well as by "historians who write from different points of view". Jensen strained to make archive materials more publicly available and to set the tone of "unflinching honesty ... for a whole new generation of LDS academics." He attended academic conferences and was the first LDS general authority at the
Mormon History Association
The Mormon History Association (MHA) is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the study and understanding of all aspects of Mormon history to promote understanding, scholarly research, and publication in the field. MHA was founded i ...
annual meeting.
Church Historian and Recorder
The CHR is a priesthood calling in LDS Church, with its role being to keep an accurate and comprehensive record of the church and its activities. The CHR gathers history sources and preserves records, ordinances, minutes, revelations, procedures, and other documents. On April 10, 2019 LeGrand R. Curtis, Jr., who had been serving as an Assistant Executive Director of the CHD, was announced to replace
Steven E. Snow as the CHR. Snow will be released from full-time service and designated as an
emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
general authority in October 2019.
Church History Museum
A museum of church history was planned as early as 1843 in Nauvoo, Illinois. The current Church History Museum in
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
was opened in April 1984. A major proponent of the creation of the church museum was
Florence S. Jacobsen, a church
curator
A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...
and a former
Young Women General President. The Museum underwent a major renovation in 2015 and since its opening 30 year prior had welcomed more than 7.5 million visitors, hosted more than 100 different exhibits, and sponsored nine editions of the International Art Competition.
[Hesterman, Billy]
"Renovating History"
'' Provo Daily Herald'', Utah, 24 September 2014. Retrieved on 5 August 2019.
Church Historian’s Press
The Church Historian’s Press was announced in 2008 by the Church History Department. The Joseph Smith Papers was the first publication to bear the imprint. The press publishes works of Latter-day Saint history, documentary editing projects—which offer direct access to primary documents—narrative histories, and topical studies.
Publications
*''Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days'' (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, September 4, 2018)
*''At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-Day Saint Women'' edited by
Kate Holbrook
Kate Holbrook (January 13, 1972 – August 20, 2022) was an American historian and writer. She worked as the managing historian of women's history in the Church History Department (CHD) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS ...
and
Jennifer Reeder
Jennifer Reeder (born 1971, Ohio) is an American artist, filmmaker, and screenwriter. Her short film ''A Million Miles Away'' (2014) was nominated for a Tiger Award for Short Films at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and screened at the ...
(Church Historian's Press, March 1, 2017, )
*''The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women's History'' edited by Jill Mulvay Derr, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Kate Holbrook, and Matthew J. Grow (Church Historian's Press, February 19, 2016, )
*''The Joseph Smith Papers'' edited by Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen (Church Historian's Press, September 1, 2008, )
References
External links
Church History Official Website
{{Authority control
History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Organizational subdivisions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints