Archival treasures in new home
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In a sense, the Church's historical documents and artifacts might be considered its crown jewels, since so much of the doctrine and theology of the Restoration is intertwined with its history.
Now, for the first time in that history, those historical treasures have a home in a new building expressly designed for that purpose.
As this issue of the Church News appears in print, the new Church History Library is to be dedicated by President Thomas S. Monson at its location at 15 E. North Temple in Salt Lake City, across the street from the Church Office Building. The dedication is at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 20, with overflow seating available in the nearby Conference Center Theater.
After four years of construction, the 230,000-square-foot facility was unveiled beginning June 11 with a news media tour followed by a public open house the next two days. As part of the open house, some rare and important items from the library's collection were displayed, including a page from the dictation manuscript of the Book of Mormon, written by one of Joseph Smith's scribes as the words came from the mouth of the Prophet.
In a ceremonial moment, the last item of the library's 600,000-document collection was placed on the shelf of one of the temperature-controlled vaults. It was one of 100 scrapbooks kept by President David O. McKay, documenting his world travels in 1921 as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve.
Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy, Church historian and recorder, was joined by Alan Ashton, President McKay's grandson, in placing the volume on the shelf.
"There probably is no organization, secular or religious, of our age or size that has an archive comparable to what the Church possesses here," said Elder Jensen in welcoming news media representatives to the tour.
"You can imagine all of the planning that's gone into this building in trying to take into account our needs and the future," he said. "Our hope is this will last at least for 30 years, and perhaps with digital technology or whatever its successor may be, we'll go even further into the future."
Elder Jensen said moving the collections from the previous location in the east wing of the Church Office Building has been akin to moving the legendary Fifth Army of World War II fame. "We have a couple of hundred people and over a million historical items."
Planning occupied two years, with the aid of a computer system whereby all of the holdings were identified and labeled with bar codes, checked out of the old building, and checked into the new, Elder Jensen said. He added that the move was accomplished in 19 days, "and we haven't lost a single item or misplaced or damaged any of our treasures."
The Church Historian emphasized that one of the hopes of the department with the design of the new building is "to offer a very welcoming presence to the public."
"Previously, we have been a department inside of a building," he explained. "Now, we have a choice location on a very prominent corner with a very welcoming front door."
He pointed out that the lobby and the main floor library area with a smaller, more private reading room "are designed for the public as it enters here, members of the Church as well as non-members with an interest in Latter-day Saint history, to feel welcome here and to feel that what we have here is available."
The vast bulk of the collections are accessible to anyone doing research, with some rules governing access, mainly having to do with privacy and confidentiality, rules typical of archival or library institutions, Elder Jensen said.
He displayed some representative items from the archival collection, including:
A first-edition copy of the Book of Mormon, published in 1830.
The Church's new Spanish-language translation of the Bible, one of the most recent additions to the collection.
An annual history submitted by the Curitiba Brazil Stake in 1998, typical of such local-unit histories that show "how the hand of God is at work in individual lives."
A scrapbook of President Ezra Taft Benson's post-World War II visits to Europe as he, as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, directed the Church's humanitarian efforts.
The only known copy of a rare Book of Mormon edition containing French and German translations on facing pages. The books were published in 1852 under the direction of apostle John Taylor simultaneously in France and Germany, Elder Jensen said.
A copy of the 1835 hymnal published by the Church containing the hymns selected by Emma Smith, wife of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The copy was given by printer W.W. Phelps to his wife, Sally, with her name embossed on the book. "One could only imagine that Sally Phelps sacrificed while her husband did his publishing, and as husbands do, maybe this was his effort to make it up to Sally a little bit," Elder Jensen commented.
"There is great value in what we have decided to store and preserve here," Elder Jensen said. "Church History is tasked with the mission of collecting the history of the Church and of preserving it and of sharing it. Again that's why this building was built: to welcome the public here to enjoy and become acquainted with and to draw from these things, not only the information they contain but the connection it provides to our past, helping us remember what our Church was and is and will one day be."
Here are some highlights from the news media tour of the new facility.
An introductory video presentation, “The Story Lives Here,” demonstrated that the Church History Library provides insight and inspires faith and hope in visitors “as they connect with the people, places and events in Church history.” It dramatized an incident from a journal entry of Joseph Millet, a Latter-day Saint pioneer who wrote of providing flour to the family of a destitute neighbor who had prayed for guidance and was inspired to go to the home of Brother Millett. He wrote in his journal, “You can’t tell how good it made me feel to know that the Lord knew that there was such a person as Joseph Millett.”
The Millett journal is in the library collection.
Twelve storage rooms in the library maintain a stable and secure atmosphere where conditions temperature and humidity are closely controlled to help protect items such as motion picture films, photos, journals, books, Church records and other materials. Ten are kept at 35 percent relative humidity and 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Two are kept at minus 4 degrees, to preserve such materials as color film that degrades quickly.
Visitors may use any of a number of patron terminals to access commonly referenced historical photos and documents with digital finding aids.
Various pieces of equipment are used to play back audiovisual materials produced with technology from different time periods, ranging from early wax cylinders through wire recordings, reel-to-reel and cassette tape phonograph discs and motion picture film to the latest digital technologies, said Richard E. Turley Jr., Assistant Church Historian and Recorder. The earliest item, he said, is a March 1897 wax cylinder recording of the voice of Church President Wilford Woodruff.
Microfilming is still used extensively, with some 20,000 rolls in the Church’s archives accessible to the public, but the Church History Department is transitioning to digital imaging, Brother Turley said. Responding to a question, he said there are plans to make some information accessible on line to users via personal computer.
In the Records Center, non-current records of the various Church offices are temporarily held until it can be determined whether they have long-term value. About 5 percent end up in the library’s permanent holdings, Brother Turley said.
Administrative offices are on the top, or fourth floor of the building.
Conference rooms scattered throughout the building are wired for sound and audiovisual production. Satellite broadcasts and conferencing can thus be conducted from the rooms.
The Joseph Smith Papers Project, which will include six series of items about Joseph Smith, was featured on public tours of the new library. It applies the highest scholarly standards of documentary editing. Publications of such quality are given the Church Historian’s Press imprint.
The Church Historian and Recorder is scripturally charged to collect, preserve and share historical materials. The new library is a manifestation of the fulfillment of that mandate, Brother Turley said.
Prominent historians and other individuals have been made aware of the completion of the new library. Some will be using it to do research, Brother Turley said.
A conservation laboratory in the library is used to help preserve, reconstruct and rebuild highly valuable materials that have degraded. They are washed, cleaned, revamped and de-acidified. For example, unusable acetate negatives are reclaimed so that photos can be reprinted from them. The laboratory is located on the top floor with natural lighting from the north for color matching.
Digital media also degrade over time, though the content can be replicated indefinitely. “We’re looking carefully at technologies that allow us to preserve digital information in perpetuity,” Brother Turley said. “For the time being, the best technology is a process of continually migrating the information from one medium to another before it rots.”
