Although Utah’s past is closely tied with the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, archived documents preserve the footprint left by all of the state’s religions, from Presbyterianism to Buddhism.
The Marriott Library saves original church documents from all denominations so U students can have an accurate record of their past, free of conflicts or gaps.
With these preserved original documents, “we can learn about the past — what it was really like, and not from a screen or in a book,” said Stan Larson, an associate librarian at the U. “It’s amazing the memories we can check and verify.”
Larson and a group of religious historians discussed the usefulness and challenge of collecting and preserving original religious documents during a panel discussion held at the Utah State Archives Building on Wednesday.
Larson said that a particular manuscript preserved by the library, handwritten by Joseph Smith, claims that Smith never specifically mentioned God the Father or Jesus Christ in the first spiritual vision he received, but rather referred to the more general title of “Lord.”
Documents in Joseph Smith’s handwriting are especially rare. Because of his poor penmanship, Smith often asked others to write as he dictated to them, Larson said.
The panelists agreed that a major problem that archived documents help to resolve is conflicting facts from the past.
When dates and positions in a church conflict in secondary sources, preserved primary sources identify the answer, said Frederick Burton, a historian for the Presbytery of Utah.
Frederick Quinn, author of Building The Goodly Fellowship of Faith, said that when he was looking for information for his book about the history of the Episcopal Church in Utah, the original documents and information were scattered, making accurate accounts hard to come by.
Gary Topping, an archives director for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake, expressed the same problem.
“Everything is decentralized. Everyone has their own records,” Topping said. “If it were up to me, I would take the records out of (the parish’s) hands and centralize (them).”
Archives aim to solve Quinn and Topping’s problem by keeping as many original documents as possible in one place for easy and comprehensive access. Larson encourages U students to take advantage of this asset.
As a doorway to this information, the Marriott Library mounted a small portion of its archived church documents, such as a Hebrew scroll and a copy of the Quran, in a world religions display on the first and second floors. Some documents date as early as the 1800s. The first floor displays archives from Mormonism, Lutheranism and Unitarianism, and the second floor features Buddhism, Islam, Judaism and Baha’i.
“Fifteen, 20 years ago we had all these Mormon (documents),” Larson said. “We’ve tried and been somewhat successful at bringing (in) other groups and denominations around Utah.”