Tag Archives: temples

Mormon history

Mormon History Coloring Book, 1923: August, “Temple Building”

8 Comments

Temples were such scarce buildings in 1923 that the Children’s Friend increased its monthly coloring book page-allotment to seven that August, including a drawing of the Mesa Temple’s foundation in order to have a full catalog of Latter-day Saint temples. Beyond that, it is remarkable how well the Children’s Friend‘s unknown artist was able to depict the distinctive, complex architecture of each temple in a few outline strokes.

As with all other entries in this series, these pictures were intended to be colored and mounted by Primary teachers and used as visual aids during their lesson that month.

Continue reading Mormon History Coloring Book, 1923: August, “Temple Building” →

Mormon history

The Mesa Arizona Temple Frieze

36 Comments

The first three temples of the 20th century (Laie Hawaii, dedicated 1919; Cardston Alberta, dedicated 1923; and Mesa Arizona, dedicated 1927) share an architecture that is radically different from the spired, crenelated pioneer temples of the 19th century. Joseph F. Smith is said to have described their boxy, spireless shape as resembling Solomon’s temple; others have compared them to Herod’s temple, or as reminiscent of Mesoamerican buildings. The architecture was also inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style architecture.

Although resembling each other somewhat – perhaps more in contrast to other temples than in actual resemblance to each other – each of these three temples has unique architectural details and decoration. This post pictures one of the unique features of the Mesa Arizona Temple, the frieze that runs around the building under its cornice, just above the columns and deep-set windows of the facade. (The frieze – pronounced freeze – is a ribbon of carved decoration. This picture, taken just after completion and long before the landscaping had matured, shows well both the stark, geometric temple architecture and the placement of the frieze – carved human figures on the sides and corners, with a geometric design across the front above the columns and windows.)

Continue reading The Mesa Arizona Temple Frieze →

Uncategorized

A Temple Hymn

33 Comments

“A Temple Hymn” is the name chosen by George Manwaring for a poem he wrote celebrating the near-simultaneous 1877 dedication of the St. George Temple and announcement of the temple to be built in Logan.

We want to see the temple
With towers rising high,
Its spires majestic pointing
Unto the clear blue sky;
A house where Saints may gather,
And richest blessings gain,
Where Jesus, our Redeemer,
A dwelling may obtain.

Continue reading A Temple Hymn →

Mormon history

To Members Far from Temples, 1916

14 Comments

One of the chief draws for the Saints to gather has been to enjoy access to temples, both for oneself and one’s deceased family and friends. Obviously many Saints lived and died far from Temples. That number only continued to grow once Church leaders began to ask members to build up the Church in their own lands, and not to move any central gathering place.

While Saints could begin to perform temple ordinances for their deceased friends beginning with the 1877 completion of the St. George Temple, and while this work received renewed emphasis after Wilford Woodruff’s 1894 teaching that each member was responsible for his direct ancestors as far as the information was available, there was no systematic plan for extending temple privileges to the ancestors of members who lived far from temples. In 1916 Joseph F. Smith took steps to remedy this problem. Continue reading To Members Far from Temples, 1916 →

Mormon history

Polynesians in the Desert

7 Comments

Today nearly 25,000 Pacific Islanders – Tongans, Samoans, Guamians, native Hawaiians, and others – enrich life in Utah. Polynesian roots run almost as deeply into Utah history as those of any other group.

Mormon missionaries sailed to the Pacific Islands in 1843, four years before Brigham Young arrived in Utah. Converts in Hawaii gathered at Palawai and Laie, anticipating eventual relocation to Utah – “I hookahi na puuwai a hui ma Ziona” (“Let us be of one heart till we gather to Zion”) was an oft-repeated motto. Until 1884, however, Hawaii’s monarchs prohibited emigration. Continue reading Polynesians in the Desert →

Uncategorized

Tsune Ishida Nachie: Preaching the Gospel, Redeeming the Dead

27 Comments

It isn’t clear why Tsune Nachie accepted employment in the LDS mission home in Tokyo. The 49-year-old widow, a convert to the Church of England for some 20 years, had long experience working for Europeans and commanded a larger salary than the Mormons could offer her. Yet in the summer of 1905, she became the cook and housekeeper for the elders who had been laboring in Japan since Heber J. Grant had opened the mission in 1901. After four years, they had baptized only seven converts, few of whom remained long with the church. But they had established a successful Sunday School for children in the neighborhood, and one of them – Elder Alma O. Taylor – was slowly translating the Book of Mormon, and they hoped the work would pick up its pace.

Tsune Nachie was born at Komasawa, near Tokyo, on the 6th of April, 1856, one of eight children of Tokuzo Ando and Cho Ishida. Continue reading Tsune Ishida Nachie: Preaching the Gospel, Redeeming the Dead →

biographical, Mormon history

Annie Griffith Burbank: Amongst the Gentiles

7 Comments

Annie Griffith was born on August 27, 1837, in Georgetown, Essex Co., Massachusetts, on the Merrimack River near the New Hampshire state line. She lived in that county all her life. Her father, William Griffith, was a shoemaker; her mother, Sarah M. Hills, raised Annie and her younger brother Frank.

Annie was married in 1858 to John Burbank, a shoemaker like her father. Her only child, whom she named William Henry, was born a few months later.

In about 1862, some now-unknown missionary passed through the neighborhood preaching the gospel. Annie believed his message and was baptized. Continue reading Annie Griffith Burbank: Amongst the Gentiles →

Mormon history

Before there were temples in California

3 Comments

It may not have the pathos of a third world once-in-a-lifetime temple excursion, but the first California-to-Arizona stake temple trip exhibits the same determination, the same longing for temple blessings felt by any group of Latter-day Saints who live at a distance from a temple.

The 1930 trip by the Saints of Long Beach, California, was several months in the planning. Bishop Thor Neilson worked with several members to prepare for receiving their own ordinances, and Merlin Steed, leader of the Genealogical Society of Long Beach, helped other members gather information for doing proxy work for their ancestors. The Saints gathered at the Long Beach chapel early on the morning of February 18, 1930, where Bishop Neilson prayed for safety as they traveled. At 5:10 a.m., a caravan of five automobiles was underway. Continue reading Before there were temples in California →

Mormon history

Catherine Garber Laine: The Role of Her Lifetime (Redux)

4 Comments

Catherine Garber was born in Ohio in 1851, the middle of eleven siblings who remained close friends all their lives. As a young woman Catherine became a stage actress, joining troupes that traveled from town to town, playing for a day or two before traveling on to the next town for another short stay.

Catherine soon became such an accomplished actress that she progressed from the rural Midwestern circuits to the larger cities of the east coast. She adopted the stage name Kate Andrews and was managed by Rhea, Janansbek, Peel and Duff – names that are now forgotten but who were among the brightest stars in the theatrical world of their day. Continue reading Catherine Garber Laine: The Role of Her Lifetime (Redux) →