History Commons^™

Covered Wagons To Ski Slopes: State Promoting Tourism During The 1947 Utah Prioneer Centennial, Jenny Showalter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Crowds of skiers and ski enthusiasts gathered at a Utah resort on March 2, 1947. Excitement filled the brisk air as spectators watched professionals cut through the lingering winter snow to compete in the U.S. Slalom Ski Championships. Skiers from all over the nation were a blur as they expertly weaved between the gates. "Romantic Alta" provided the perfect spot for the championships with her "great white blankets" of "lavish and dependable" snow nestled in the heights of the Utah mountains. The Slalom Ski Championships were only one of several athletic events held as part of the Pioneer Centennial celebrations …

Interracial Marriage In Utah During The 1960s And 1970s: With Individual Perspectives, Mark Lowe

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Racial conflict is no stranger to America's past. With the demise of slavery, many whites harbored fears of a new racial order. Through their efforts, they established an inequitable society once more, the intent of which was to promote white superiority and degrade the black community. Segregation and racial discrimination characterized the next cenrury of America's story. Blacks faced prejudice in many contexts, including education, employment, housing, and even social relationships, such as dating and marriage. Anti-miscegenation laws were a significant component of this discriminatory society. In her book What Comes Naturally, Peggy Pasco states that "opposition to interracial marriage …

Slim Winnings For Tubby Taft: Utah And The Presidential Election Of 1912, Natalie Larsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Traveling on a special passenger train from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, Utah governor William Spry waxed uncharacteristically eloquent with the reporters who hounded him for his insights on the 1914 congressional elections. Sent by the roundly Republican newspaper the Los Angeles Times, the reporters were looking to see how the dust had settled after the humiliating Republican losses two years earlier in 1912. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won a resounding victory that year, while Theodore Roosevelc's Progressive Parry won eighry-eight electoral votes, and the incumbent president William Howard Taft limped away with a meager eight electoral votes. Considering …

Rita, Rita, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Rita Alkhaledy grew up in Sadr City, a poor suburb of Baghdad. Her father is an Iraqi Arab and her mother was Kurdish Iranian. Her mother lived in fear that she would be cast out of Baghdad as being an outsider in Iraq was frowned upon. Her father served in the Iraqi army in the 80s and was gone a great deal, leading to a strained relationship. Their relationship was mended when her mother died from cancer.

After the Iraq war, Rita and her brothers realized that their lives were in danger. They had to move from house to house …

Idiris, Idiris, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Idiris is an 18-year-old Somalian refugee now living inUtah. He describes his life, mentioning that he only lived in Somalia for six years then moved to Ethiopia, where he stayed for seven and a half years.His life inEthiopia was peaceful and happy in comparison to Somalia, where Idiris and his family witnessed continuous violence. Idiris’s father eventually learned of the opportunities and education available in America and decided to move his family there for a better life, leaving behind family and friends. Coming to America, Idiris and his family did not know what their new home would be like. They …

“The Frontier Thesis In Transnational Migration: The U.S. West In The Making Of Italy Abroad,” In Immigrants In The Far West: Historical Identities And Experiences, Edited By Jessie L. Embry And Brian Q. Cannon (Salt Lake City: University Of Utah Press, 2014), 363-381., Mark I. Choate

Faculty Publications

In 1879, a young postal worker in the small town of Lendinara, Italy, decided to emigrate. Adolfo Rossi, twenty-two years old, was discouraged with his prospects in his small town near Venice. Adolfo lived at home with his mother in the heavily populated Polesine valley. Although he had a steady job, he wanted to become a journalist. In Adolfo’s words, while taking a walk along the Adige river one night, a strange idea struck my mind like a bolt of lightning. I reflected only a moment and committed myself to an audacious resolution. “No, I will not stay vegetating here,” …

"The Brave Men, Living And Dead, Who Struggled Here": Utah Veterans And The Gettysburg Reunion Of 1913, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D., Ken Nelson

Faculty Publications

Gettysburg was the defining battle of the American Civil War as Union and CSA soldiers clashed in Pennsylvania. This Utah Historical Quarterly article from Summer 2013 explains how Union and Confederate veterans of the Civil War, who were living in Utah, traveled to and participated in the 1913 50th Anniversary Reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg (which took place July 1-3, 1863). The article also includes lists of the Utah veterans who attended and additionally notes which veterans participated in the battle of Gettysburg.

We Know No North, No South, No East, No West: Mormon Interpretations Of The Civil War, 1861-1865, Richard Bennett

Faculty Publications

While peace reigns in Utah, civil war, with all its horrors, prevails among those who earnestly desired to see the soil of these valleys crimsoned with the blood of the Saints, and, if we are mistaken in the signs of the times, before the conflict between the North and South shall have ended, all they unitedly desired to see meted out to the Mormons, will be poured out without measure upon those who have initiated the war of extermination, and are now carrying it on with all the energy they severally possess. So read the lead editorial in the Salt …

Utah's Plight: A Passage Through The Great Depression, Joseph F. Darowski

Theses and Dissertations

The Great Depression marked a fateful passage in the annals of the American people. President Roosevelt's New Deal, the nation's signature response, proved to be a determined but erratic reaction. Against the backdrop of a nation deeply mired in an unrelenting international depression, dramatic events played themselves out in the lives of the men and women of Utah. Throughout, fidelity to principles of independence, self-reliance, and self-sufficiency were sorely challenged.

The people of Utah found succor in two almost diametrically opposed responses. The New Deal offered an amalgam of programs and panaceas through which the federal government attempted to deliver …

Island Of Tranquility: Rhetoric And Identification At Brigham Young University During The Vietnam Era, Brian D. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

The author argues that beyond religious beliefs and conservative politics, rhetorical identification played an important role in the relative calmness of the BYU campus during the turbulent Sixties. Using Bitzer's rhetorical situation theory and Burke's identification theory, the author shows that BYU's calm campus can be explained as a result of communal identification with a conservative ethos. He also shows that apparent epistemological shortcomings of Bitzer's model can be resolved by considering the power of identification to create salience and knowledge in rhetorical situations. During the Sixties, BYU administration developed policies on physical appearance that invited students to take on …

Faith, Femininity, And The Frontier: The Life Of Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, Amy Reynolds Billings

Theses and Dissertations

Through examining the life of Martha Jane Knowlton Coray, a nineteenth-century Mormon woman, this thesis establishes an analytical framework for studying the lives of Mormon women in territorial Utah. Their faith, femininity, and the frontier form the boundaries in which their lives are studied. Their faith was primarily defined by the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, such as a belief in a restored gospel and priesthood, temples, and polygamy. These unique beliefs also fostered an identity as a chosen people and contributed to hostile feelings from their neighbors. Persecution followed and the Latter-day Saint community …

The Symphony In America: Maurice Abravanel, And The Utah Symphony Orchestra: The Battle For Classical Music, Alex D. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Between 1947 and 1979 the Utah Symphony Orchestra was transformed from an obscure, part-time, amateur orchestra into one of the major symphony orchestras in America. By 1947 the orchestra, which had begun as a Works Progress Administration organization, was barely hanging on. The symphony struggled to remain financially solvent, performing only a few concerts per year. Thirty-two years later the Utah Symphony Orchestra was one of the most prestigious musical ensembles in the country— receiving rave reviews from critics around the world, touring extensively, and with more than a hundred albums to its credit. The remarkable growth of the Utah …

Dorothea Lange In Utah, 1936-1938: A Portrait Of Utah's Great Depression, James R. Swensen

Theses and Dissertations

In his 1978 biography of Dorothea Lange, Milton Meltzer appraised Lange's 1936 photography in Utah as nothing more than mundane work done for the benefit of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and not for her own benefit as a photographer. Yet, her work in Utah encapsulates the aspirations, goals, and styles of Lange, and gives insight into her vision as a photographer and representative of the New Deal. Through carefully composed photographs, Lange shows the hardships and hope of life in Utah during the Great Depression.

This thesis investigates Lange's photographs in order to gain a greater understanding of the …

"A Little Oasis In The Desert": Community Building In Hurricane, Utah, 1860-1930, W. Paul Reeve

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the mechanisms employed in the community building process of Hurricane, Utah. It traces the roots of the town's early settlers beginning with their arrival in southern Utah in the early 1860s through the founding of Hurricane and the establishment of its social order. This pioneering period largely ended by 1930.
Hurricane's founders were the remnants of the Mormon Church's failed Cotton Mission. Original U.S. census research shows that by 1900 close to half of the mission's colonizers abandoned the challenging desert of southern Utah. The stalwarts who remained fashioned the Hurricane Canal with the …

Aberrant Mormon Settlers: The Homesteaders Of Highland, Utah, David T. Durfey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a history of the original thirty-seven homesteaders of Highland, Utah. It covers a period of about twenty-five years, 1875-1900. The study provides an example of a aberrant community which was not established in the same, distinctive style of settlement as the typical Mormon village. In addition it describes the relationship between the original residents and non-residents of Highland with the surrounding villages of Lehi, American Fork, and Alpine.

The Southern Utah Expedition Of Parley P. Pratt: 1849-1850, Rick J. Fish

Theses and Dissertations

In 1849, President Brigham Young commissioned a fifty man company, headed by Parley P. Pratt, to explore Southern Utah for possible colonization. The four month trek spanned the coldest months of the winter, and afforded some very harrowing and hazardous experiences. These events weave a heroic story filled with excitement and adventure, while simultaneously revealing the tremendous dedication and fortitude on the part of the explorers to successfully complete their mission.

Many of the Southern Utah colonies that were initiated in the subsequent years following the expedition were based on information gathered during this seven-hundred mile expedition. In addition, their …

Utah Indians And The Indian Slave Trade: The Mormon Adoption Program And Its Effect On The Indian Slaves, Robert M. Muhlestein

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a study of the Mormon adoption program developed by the Mormons in response to the Indian slave trade in Utah, 1850-1880. It focuses on the Mormon justifications, as enumerated by Brigham Young, for the adoption policy and it links those justifications to expected results. Further this thesis compares the Mormon's expected results with the actual results of the adoption program through an analysis of historical accounts and Mormon ordinance records.

An Examination Of Mt. Pleasant, Utah, 1859-1939, Joseph G. Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the first eighty years of Mt. Pleasant's history. Religion permeated the community affecting all areas of life, from education to the economy. This analysis will demonstrate how the characteristics described by May influenced the development of this community.

A Community Study Of Coalville, Utah, 1859-1914, Norma Eileen Pyper Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is about a small Mormon community, Coalville, Utah, during the time period 1859 to 1914. Coalville is located in the northeastern section of the state of Utah in Summit County on Interstate 80.
Although Coalville remained small in population, it is worthwhile to study its origins, the people who built its institutions, its social life and economy and how it developed from a mere camping spot on the road between Salt Lake to Wyoming into a stable community. Coalville's development was significant to the growth and culture of Utah.
The founders experienced the usual pioneer struggles to conquer …

The Development Of The Smelting Industry In The Central Salt Lake Valley Communities Of Midvale, Murray, And Sandy Prior To 1900, Charles E. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis found that the three communities of Midvale, Murray, and Sandy were the center of the smelting industry in the Salt Lake Valley. These communities became the center of smelting because of their central location, the readily available water supply, and the availability of an inexpensive, efficient transportation system to ship the bullion. The smelters were surrounded by two major mountain ranges which provided a ready supply of good lead, silver, and copper ore.

The development of the smelting industry followed three separate phases or periods. The first phase was one of experimentation or period of discovery, in which …

The Development And Failure Of Historic Agricultural Communities Of Utah: A Case Study Of Johns Valley, Utah, Wayne R. Shelley

Theses and Dissertations

Many agricultural communities have developed in Utah since the first settlement, but many no longer exist today. Some of these early communities experienced a "boom and bust," while others struggled for several years and were eventually abandoned. Johns Valley is a good example of these historic communities, as it experienced rapid growth and times of success and prosperity, yet it struggled and was eventually abandoned.
The situation in Johns Valley, from its early settlement to its demise, demonstrates the hope of the people who settled there and their efforts to make Johns Valley a productive and successful area. History also …

Minerva Teichert's Murals: The Motivation For Her Large-Scale Production, Marian Eastwood Wardle

Theses and Dissertations

It is my thesis that the impetus for Minerva Teichert's prolific mural production came from the lofty ideals of the Beaux Art mural tradition which she encountered and embraced during her studies at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1909 to 1912. Furthermore, it was the great interest in mural decoration during the 1930s, spurred by government patronage, that provided Teichert with the opportunity to apply these ideals to large-scale works.
Research into the Beaux Art mural tradition has been difficult, as recent scholarship on the subject is negligible. An understanding of this early mural movement however, yields a greater …

Study Of The Pioneers Of Providence, Utah And Their Children, Hazel Mclean Tibbitts

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis poses a number of questions about the pioneers and their decendants: Where did the pioneer settlers of Providence come from? What skills and resources did they bring with them to "tame" the wilderness? Did they come as family units or as single men? What happened as the community grew and the resources were limited? Where did the settlers go or what did they do as the land became scarce? Was limited land the reason for the movement out of the community or were there other considerations? What effects did emigration have on the family ties of the second …

An Examination Of The Mormon Settlement Of Syracuse, Utah, J. Kent Tucker

Theses and Dissertations

The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the "Mormon" church, has been well researched, yet little has been written about individual community histories. This work centers on the small Mormon community of Syracuse, Utah, located about twenty-five miles north of Salt Lake City on the eastern shore of the Great Salt Lake. From its inception in 1877 through 1987, the community of Syracuse continues to be dominated by the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) influence. This thesis examines the development of this LDS Church settlement, giving emphasis to the early history of the area, …

Hoary-Headed Saints: The Aged In Nineteenth-Century Mormon Culture, Brian D. Reeves

Theses and Dissertations

This study paints a picture of prevalent attitudes toward the Mormon elderly in the nineteenth century. It identifies some characteristics of the aged population, and discusses feelings expressed by individual older persons about different aspects of their lives. It is a first step in gaining a greater understanding of how they fit into the larger pictures of old age and the Mormon Church in nineteenth century America.

The Girl Scouts In Utah: An Administrative History, 1921-1985, Jennifer L. Lund

Theses and Dissertations

Girl Scouting began in Utah in 1921 out of a desire of several wealthy women to help build the character of young girls in Ogden. Exhibiting many elements of the "social gospel" aspect of progressivism, they adopted the Girl Scout program which emphasized preparation for practical living, appreciation of nature, and development of character.
Since the first troops were organized in Ogden, Girl Scouting slowly spread throughout the rest of the state, resulting in several Councils and Lone Troops. After responding to a call for consolidation from the National Girl Scout Council the Utah Scouts made a dramatic change in …

Judicial Prosecution Of Prisoners For Lds Plural Marriage: Prison Sentences, 1884-1895, Rosa Mae Mcclellan Evans

Theses and Dissertations

The practice of polygamy among the Mormons during the nineteenth century was vigorously prosecuted by the federal government in response to the demands of those whose political and economic goals could best be served through exploitation of the national attitude toward polygamy. Hundreds of men served prison terms for practicing what they believed was their religious obligation. This study of the sentences from the prison admission records has focused on the comparative severity of the judges, examines age as an influencing factor in sentencing, and compares the sentences of the polygamists with those for crimes against person and property.

The …

Women Homesteaders In Utah, 1869-1934, Jill Thorley Warnick

Theses and Dissertations

Much of Utah's history is the story of the relationship of humans and the land. Human perceptions of Utah's land have changed over time and affected the way it has been used. The homestead movement was an important phase in the use of Utah's land. Through federal settlement acts many Utahns obtained title to public land. This study is an attempt to learn more about the relationship between women and the land and about the lives of women in Utah.
The study is based on Utah land records from 1869-1934. Most homesteading activity in Utah took place during this period. …

Provo In The Jazz Age: A Case Study, Gary C. Kunz

Theses and Dissertations

Many historians have suggested in their writings that much of the social behavior that made the decade of the twenties unique had their origins in the urban centers, leaving the small towns taking no active participation in the Jazz Age.

The purpose of this paper is to show that Provo, Utah, a small, isolated community took a very active part in the Jazz Age, contrary to what has been suggested. There was a considerable quantity of drunkenness, bootlegging, wild dancing and partying in Provo during the decade, much more than historians suggest there should have been in a community the …

Storm Over The Summit: A Political History Of Summit County To 1882, Rodney L. Peck

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a more complete understanding of Mormon politics in territorial Utah by studying the growth and development of the political process in Summit County to 1882.

The study suggests that the county was governed by a relatively small but growing group of politically minded men, many of whom also ecclesiastical trust or who were among the pioneers of the area. The study also suggests that the Mormon teaching of unity in all things and fair representation among county offices from the county's major population centers were the governing principles of Mormon political action …