Historians need diaries from women
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In the broad field of LDS pioneer diaries, there is a scarcity of available writings by the women among the Saints, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher said at the Sons of Utah Pioneers Mormon History Symposium Nov. 16.
"When Davis Bitton compiled his guide to Mormon diaries, he and his students found about 3,000 diaries in various repositories in Utah and elsewhere," she said. "When I went through looking for women's diaries in that 3,000, I found 300. Now I don't believe that for every 10 men only one woman kept a diary."Sister Beecher of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute of Church History at BYU believes that a certain mindset is to blame for the situation. "We think with our family pride, `We'll put Grandpa's diary in the archives, but who would want Grandma's?' "
As a result, she said, "these diaries are in your attics and in the attics and the basements and the boxes of members of the Church worldwide . . . . So my plea is that you find not only the men's diaries but the women's as well."
Appropriate repositories include university libraries and the archives at the Church Historical Department, she said. Such institutions not only will preserve the writings for others to study but also will make a photocopy for the donating family to keep, she added.
