Relief across the years
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This society is not only to relieve the poor, but to save souls. — Joseph Smith, Relief Society minutes, June 9, 1842.
Whenever a ward Relief Society gathers to assemble hygiene kits destined for a developing land, or each time visiting teachers share a gospel lesson or, perhaps, deliver a meal to a local family in need, a hopeful pronouncement more than a century old is being fulfilled.
Read the words of Emma Smith on March 17, 1842, at the founding meeting of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo: "We are going to do something extraordinary."
Since that historic day, countless acts of love, service and compassion have been performed by Relief Society members across the globe. The "extraordinary" has happened.
"This service has been extraordinary, and it has created a legacy of sisterhood and expanding opportunities for the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," said Marjorie Conder, curator of a new exhibit at the Museum of Church History and Art celebrating the history and mission of the Relief Society.
Entitled "Something Extraordinary: A Sampler of Women's Gifts," the exhibit is a multi-media, artifact-rich history of a storied society charged with relieving the poor and saving souls. One particular historic object — an 1842 minute book used by the founders of the Relief Society to record the proceedings of its meetings — anchors the exhibit located on the museum's upper floor. Selected quotes from the minutes are posted throughout the exhibit. Conjoined with the many paintings, sculptures, textile arts and historical photos that form the exhibit, the minute quotes demonstrate the spirit of Relief Society found in each act of service.
Sister Conder hopes the exhibit will also help visitors recognize the empowerment that Relief Society has offered since its inception. Years before womens' suffrage was realized in the United States, LDS women were enjoying social, political and economic opportunities via the Relief Society.
Visitors will want to take time to study the 1842 minute book placed near the beginning of the exhibit. When the Relief Society was organized by Joseph Smith on the second floor of his red brick store, the Prophet told the women "the minutes of your meeting will be precedents for you to act upon — your Constitution and law."
Much of the minute book was penned by Eliza R. Snow, the secretary of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. Sister Snow would carry this priceless document across the plains in 1847 and preserve it until her death, according to the museum. She drew up the minutes to assist bishops in re-establishing ward Relief Societies in Utah and surrounding areas.
The exhibit is organized around three familiar Relief Society tenets: Love One Another. Observe the Covenants. Let Your Light So Shine.
Some 60 objects ranging from dramatic works of art to everyday objects are displayed, standing as tribute to the contributions of Relief Society sisters worldwide.
Highlights include a Utah Woman Suffrage Songbook (circa 1880); artist Minerva Teichert's "Manti Temple World Room Study Sketch;" a trio of white dresses representing the pivotal passages of blessing, baptism and wedding; and a "twice made dress" made of Utah silk and passed from a provident mother to her daughter. Also on display is a Grammy Award presented to Church convert Gladys Knight, who later gave the trophy to President Gordon B. Hinckley.
E-mail: jswensen@desnews.com
