Challenges facing Church history
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PROVO, UTAH
Compiling the history of the 20th century international Church has its own set of challenges, some of which were described in two presentations at a session of the Feb. 27 Church History Symposium at BYU on "Preserving the History of the Latter-day Saints."
Mark L. Grover, a subject librarian at BYU who has spent 30 years gathering the history of the Church in Latin America, lamented that original records and documents are often in jeopardy of being destroyed by those who don't understand or appreciate their significance.
But Michael N. Landon, an archivist with the Church History Library and Archives, sounded a note of optimism regarding more recent efforts to preserve the history of the Church in Latin America.
Brother Grover said early members in international areas know the value of their documents, but their children do not always have the same appreciation for their experiences. "Stories of bishops or stake presidents running out of space or moving to new buildings who discard historical documents are recounted in every place I have visited. Luckily, some early members of the Church have saved these documents, often retrieving them from garbage cans."
He added: "Local, often amateur historians, in general have a great passion for the story of the Church in their countries and are providing a yeoman service to historians."
He presented examples of three approaches.
One is that of Nestor E. Curbelo, a Uruguay-born Church member whose work in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a Church Institute director evolved into a passion for Church history, beginning with the need to provide information on local Church history to his students.
Other approaches are represented by private historians and collectors and by missionary historians such as those who have served in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he said.
Brother Landon said, "For me, the urgency in collecting, preserving and disseminating the history of the Church in Latin America relates to purpose: What is it that we expect Church history to do for us?"
He said the value of preserving Church history can be found in one phrase of the Church History Department's purpose statement: "To help God's children make and keep sacred covenants."
With that in mind, some Church members in Latin America may be dismayed to learn that a recent survey indicated archival records from there represent just 14 percent of the total housed by the Church History Department, Brother Landon said.
"Does this mean that the history of the Church in Latin America is being lost?" he asked. "Some significant historical material surely has vanished, but much of it is still intact in private possession, and there is an increasingly greater probability that digital technology will improve the preservation odds."
