Florence Foremaster, a 25-year-old Latter-day Saint living in St. George, Utah, received a call to the California Mission in the spring of 1916. Along with her formal call, she received information on how to obtain her half-price train ticket – the cost would be $17.50 – and the following “Suggestions” for missionary clothing, books, and money.
These were the instructions sent to all missionaries serving in the United States, including sisters:
SUGGESTIONS MADE FOR MISSIONARIES APPOINTED TO LABOR
IN THE UNITED STATESCLOTHING: Missionaries should not purchase their clothing at home. They can get it when they reach the mission field. Varied climates in the different missions make it advisable to have clothing suited to the particular locality in which the elder labors. Any Elder, however, having a good black suit or blue suit, a good overcoat and Derby Hat, should take them along. Each missionary should have three or four pairs of garments to start out with. White, or light-colored shirts and black ties are preferable. Grips, fountain pens, etc., can be purchased in the mission field to good advantage. A trunk is unnecessary.
The foregoing paragraph does not apply to Elders appointed to labor in the California Mission. They are advised to take one good black suit, coat cut good length – not Prince Albert, a black Derby Hat, white shirts, a light-weight overcoat; cravenette preferred, one that will shed the rain; and three or four pairs of garments.
BOOKS: Books especially selected for missionaries can be obtained at mission headquarters. Missionaries are recommended not to purchase them at home. Anyone, however, who already has a Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, or any other Church works which will be of service in the mission field, may take them along.
MONEY: It is not advisable to carry loose cash more than is necessary to pay expenses to missionary headquarters. Money not needed on the journey should be taken in the form of a check, bank draft, money order, or it may be sent ahead to the mission office. Missionaries should be provided with sufficient means to buy needed clothing and books upon their arrival in the mission and to cover the expense necessary to take them to their field of labor.
Missionaries are requested, before leaving Salt Lake City, to visit the Bureau of Information on the Temple block, where they will be made acquainted with all the points of interest by competent guides.
Every Elder, while in Salt Lake city and on his way to his mission, should be very particular as to his general deportment and careful to avoid useless argument or heated discussion with anybody. Undue familiarity with strangers should also be avoided.
All missionaries should be neat in appearance when traveling to their fields of labor.
MISSION ADDRESSES:
Eastern States: 33 West 126th St., New York City.
Northern States 2555 North Sawyer Ave., Chicago, Ill.
southern States: 711 Fairview Ave., Chattanooga, Tenn.
Central States: 302 South Pleasant St., Independence, Mo.
Western States : 622 West Sixth Ave, Denver, Colo.
Northwestern States: 264 East 25th Wt., Portland, Oregon.
California: 152 West 25th St., Los Angeles, California.
Even when I served,1978-80, the White Handbook just assumed that Missionary = Elder, though there were a few sister-specific provisions, and senior couples I think were disregarded completely. For example, the handbook included rules for writing to “your parents” and “your girlfriend,” with no acknowledgment that some missionaries would be writing to their children and grandchildren, and others might have a boyfriend or no relationship of that sort at all.
I served in the descendant of the Eastern States Mission, but I didn’t realize (or had forgotten) that the mission home was in Harlem in 1916. I know it was in the church-owned mansion at 973 5th Avenue before moving into the building that now houses the temple, and before that, it had been at the location of the original Brooklyn building.
For a time in-between (1935 plus a few years), the mission home was on Riverside Drive (I wouldn’t know that off the top of my head, except it came up in a project just yesterday).
By the time I was assembling my mission wardrobe in 1981, the pre-mission instructions did cover sisters’ wardrobes, too, and even in such detail that they sent information with the then-popular Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall color schemes to help us coordinate our clothes.
Yes, Riverside Drive sounds familiar now that you mention it. And I think the mission HQ was in Philadelphia for awhile, but I don’t know when that was.
I think my pre-mission instructions would’ve included instructions to sisters (or else the sisters got a different list). It’s possible I even still have the instructions in my mission box. I’m kind of a packrat.
But I remember the White Handbook being written with the assumption that all missionaries are young elders, except for perhaps a paragraph addressing dress length, conservative colors, etc. for the sisters. It didn’t say that elders should wear white shirts, and sisters should wear conservative dresses. It just gave default instruction to wear white shirts and ties, followed by special instructions for the sisters. Even at the time, I was bothered by the idea that the default is male.
I’m a little surprised at the request to stop by the Bureau of Information — I’m trying to imagine whether missionaries in other states were regularly asked about point of interest on Temple Square, or if this was an attempt to remedy some misinformation that missionaries were spreading.
I’m going to have to dig through my letterheads, Left Field, looking for the Pennsylvania headquarters years. I think that might have been just post-World War II?
Good point, Mike R. Just guessing, I think your second potential explanation may br closer to reality — maybe not to remedy misinformation, but rather to model missionary work. The Bureau of Information in that era wasn’t just tour guides, but was an active, proselyting missionary effort, not as subtle as today’s tours (however heavy-handed we may find them). This was several years before the first Missionary Home opened with any sort of pre-mission training, so perhaps it was thought useful to have incoming missionaries see how old-timers did outdoor preaching like so many of the elders would soon be doing? I wonder … and I’ll be watching for further clues.
Wikipedia has Roy W. Doxey being called to preside over the ESM in Philadelphia in 1944 and being released in 1948. Those years correspond to the information in my old NYC Mission handbook. 1948 is the date I have for the purchase of the 5th Avenue Building, so around 1944-1948 seems like a good target for the time in Philadelphia.
Here are some interesting photographs and floor plan of the 5th Ave. building. Possibly the only Mission Home ever to include a wine cellar.
https://www.bhsusa.com/closed/manhattan/upper-east-side/fifth-avenue/townhouse/1264274
That is spectacular.
The only thing I can offer in pale rivalry to the wine cellar is that the chapel in Geneva had a bomb shelter in the basement. They used it for the branch-then-ward library.
A steal @ $42 million.
I remember that it frustrated me In the MTC in 1976 that the song we sang at every gathering was Ye Elders of Israel. Not sure when they changed that to Called to Serve.
Ha! Sally, my first mission president had a mission theme song that we sang at every gathering. It took on a different meaning when the sisters, led by our irrepressible Sister Carrie Lord, mimed hugging and kissing when we stood and sang, “Give me some men who are stout-hearted men and I’ll soon give you ten thousand more …”
Ardis, I cannot believe I didn’t know your first mission song was “Stout Hearted Men”, too…although whenever our president announced we would sing it , he would call it “Stout Hearted Men AND Women” 😀