Native Saints

Carry On

Journals of Early Sister Missionaries

The Prison Journal of Belle Harris

The Discourses of Eliza R. Snow

The Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells

The Journal of George F. Richards

At the Pulpit

The First Fifty Years of Relief Society

The Journal of George Q. Cannon

The Joseph Smith Papers

Daguerreotype Collection, ca. 1850s–1860s, PH 100, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

Eliza R. Snow, 1856

Studio portrait by Savage and Ottinger, circa 1862–1872. (PH 200, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Eliza R. Snow, circa 1862–1872

In fall 1872, Eliza R. Snow departed on an extended tour of Europe and the Middle East with other church leaders. Many women contributed money to help fund the trip. In return, Snow sent descriptive letters from overseas to be published in the Woman’s Exponent, and upon her return home, she shared many accounts of the trip. Photograph by H. Delie and E. Bechard studio in Cairo. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Eliza R. Snow in Cairo, February 1873

Studio portrait by Charles W. Carter, circa 1875. (PH 1700 4739, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Eliza R. Snow, circa 1875

Photograph by Edward Martin. (PH 8004, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Eliza R. Snow

Painting by Lewis A. Ramsey, 1909. (Church History Museum, Salt Lake City.)

Eliza R. Snow, pictured here around age eighty-one, addressed Latter-day Saint audiences well into her eighties, giving her last address just a few months before her death in December 1887. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Eliza R. Snow, circa 1885

Portraits

Though Eliza R. Snow (center) was recognized as the foremost female leader in the church, she relied on many women as collaborators and fellow workers. Elizabeth Anderson Howard (left), who served as secretary for the Big Cottonwood Relief Society, was a dear friend of Snow’s and later became her frequent travel companion. Both Howard and Hannah Tapfield King (right) attended a surprise birthday party for Snow in 1872. Photograph by Charles R. Savage and George Martin Ottinger. (Bathsheba Wilson Bigler Smith Photograph Collection, ca. 1865–1900, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Elizabeth Anderson Howard, Eliza R. Snow, and Hannah Tapfield King, circa 1865–1873

This portrait, titled “Leading Women of Zion” on the frame, was taken circa 1867 by Edward Martin. Left to right: Zina D. H. Young, Bathsheba W. Smith, Emily P. Young, and Eliza R. Snow. (PH 893, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Zina D. H. Young, Bathsheba W. Smith, Emily P. Young, and Eliza R. Snow, circa 1867

Elizabeth Ann Whitney (left), Emmeline B. Wells (center), and Eliza R. Snow (right) were integral in reestablishing the Relief Society in Utah and encouraging women’s involvement in spiritual and literary pursuits. Whitney was advanced in years and unable to accompany Snow, but Wells often traveled throughout the Intermountain West with Snow to attend meetings of the Relief Society and other church organizations. Photograph by Charles R. Savage. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Elizabeth Ann Whitney, Emmeline B. Wells, and Eliza R. Snow, circa 1876

Lithograph with montage of portraits of prominent Latter-day Saint women, including many leaders of the Relief Society, Primary, and Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association. Compiled by Augusta Joyce Crocheron, 1883. (PH 2657, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Lithograph of Prominent Latter-day Saint Women

Prominent Relief Society members, including practicing midwives and doctors, served as directors on the board of the Deseret Hospital. To offset mounting hospital expenses, directors raised funds by appealing to leaders of church organizations for subscriptions and in-kind donations. Front row, left to right: Jane Snyder Richards, Emmeline B. Wells. Second row: Phebe Carter Woodruff, Mary Isabella Hales Horne, Eliza R. Snow, Zina Diantha Huntington Young, Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde. Back row: Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp, Bathsheba Bigler Smith, Elizabeth Anderson Howard, Dr. Romania Bunnell Pratt. Photograph by Charles R. Savage. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Deseret Hospital Board of Directors, circa 1882–1884

Leadership

The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo was formally organized in an assembly room on the second floor of this dry goods store on 17 March 1842. The spacious room was regularly used for social, municipal, and religious functions; additionally, the first endowments were given in this room. The Relief Society met in this venue until the organization’s rapid growth compelled the women to relocate to a nearby grove. Photograph taken or obtained by B. H. Roberts. (Church Historic Sites [photographs], ca. 1885–1886, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Joseph Smith’s Brick Store, circa 1886

The Ogden Tabernacle, constructed of a rock foundation, adobe walls, and a red pine interior, was dedicated in 1859. Eliza R. Snow spoke here at least forty times. The first stake Relief Society was organized here in 1877. The original building was remodeled in 1896 and torn down in 1971. James H. Crockwell, Ogden City, Utah (New York: Albertype, 1893), p. [5]. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Ogden Tabernacle, circa 1893

This building, located one block south and west of Temple Square, was “one of the finest in the city,” according to historian Andrew Jenson (Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1941], 749). Eliza R. Snow delivered dozens of discourses here in various Relief Society, Primary, and Retrenchment meetings, and the building served as the setting of a birthday celebration for Snow in 1872. Photograph by Charles E. Johnson. (Courtesy Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.)

Fourteenth Ward Meetinghouse, circa 1886

The Woman’s Commission Store, a cooperative store stocked with home-manufactured goods from Latter-day Saint women, operated in this building on East Temple (now Main Street) between South Temple and 100 South in Salt Lake City. Eliza R. Snow frequently encouraged her audiences to support the store both before and after it opened. The building was also a gathering place for meetings: Dr. Romania Bunnell Pratt taught courses on women’s health here. Photograph by Charles W. Carter. (Courtesy Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.)

Old Constitution Building

After settling in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young built homes for his wives and children. Shown here (left to right) are the Lion House, a schoolhouse, and the Beehive House. Eliza R. Snow lived at the Lion House from 1855, before the home was complete, until her death in 1887. The home was in the Salt Lake City Eighteenth Ward boundaries, and Snow was called as the ward’s first Relief Society president in 1877. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Lion House, 1868

Places

Dr. Romania Bunnell Pratt, the first Latter-day Saint woman to receive an MD degree, graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia in 1877; she studied anatomy, chemistry, toxicology, microscopy, obstetrics, and ophthalmology, specializing in the eye, ear, nose, and throat. She taught courses on women’s health in the Old Constitution Building in Salt Lake City and served on the executive board of the Deseret Hospital, where she worked as a visiting physician and surgeon. Left: Advertisement, Woman’s Exponent, 15 June and 1 July 1897, p. 168. Right: Photograph by Charles R. Savage and George Martin Ottinger. (Image courtesy The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

Dr. Romania Bunnell Pratt and Notice of Midwifery Classes

Brigham Young directed local bishops to reinstate Relief Societies in 1867, and he enlisted Eliza R. Snow to galvanize the movement as both his plural wife and former Nauvoo Relief Society secretary. Their ecclesiastical partnership encouraged the growth of Relief Societies in territorial Utah and Idaho and ushered in organizations for young men and young women. Photograph by Charles R. Savage. (Courtesy L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.)

Brigham Young

Eliza R. Snow was a prolific poet, writer, and historian. She developed curriculum for children in the Primary organization and researched and wrote a biography and family history for her brother Lorenzo Snow. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City. Photograph by Alex Smith.)

Eliza R. Snow Publications, 1856–1884

The discourses of Eliza R. Snow have been gathered from more than a thousand minute books, personal journals, and contemporary newspapers, especially the Woman’s Exponent, the Deseret News, and the Millennial Star. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City. Photograph by Alex Smith.)

Minute Books, 1868–1887

Eliza R. Snow compiled and submitted this school schedule as required to receive compensation for teaching. It lists the children of several prominent Latter-day Saints, including those of Joseph and Emma Hale Smith, and provides a detailed record of pupil attendance. Snow received ten dollars in wages from township school funds after her schedule was certified for accuracy. (Nauvoo School Schedules, 1842–1845, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Nauvoo School Schedule, 12 December 1842

Eliza R. Snow was appointed secretary of the Nauvoo Relief Society at its founding meeting; she and later secretaries inscribed the organization’s minutes into a ledger. After the Relief Society was disbanded in 1845, Snow brought the volume to territorial Utah and read these minutes of the founding meeting to nascent societies. This entry was copied into minute books of several new societies to acknowledge the society’s origin and legacy. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Minute Book for the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842

Eliza R. Snow inscribed this title page at the organizing meeting for the Thirteenth Ward Relief Society on 18 April 1868. It mirrors the title page of the Nauvoo Relief Society minute book, which Snow inscribed as secretary to the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, organized in March 1842. (Thirteenth Ward, Ensign Stake, Relief Society, Minutes and Records, 1868–1906, vol. 1, title page, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Salt Lake City Thirteenth Ward Relief Society Minute Book, April 1868

National suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony visited Salt Lake City in summer 1871. The meeting lasted five hours. Though the suffrage leaders supported Utah women’s ability to vote, they did not agree with some Latter-day Saint religious beliefs and family structures, including plural marriage. Eliza R. Snow addressed a congregation in Ogden, Utah Territory, a few weeks later, differentiating Latter-day Saint women’s efforts for women’s advancement from the work of political activists. Despite their differences, Utah women and radical suffragists formed an alliance that lasted until the end of the century. Advertisement, Deseret Evening News, 21 June 1871, p. [2]. (Image courtesy The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

Notice of Woman Suffrage Lecture, 21June 1871

These minutes, kept by secretary Harriet Ann Goodridge Hardy, include reports made by teachers assigned to visit the families in the ward and assess their health and temporal needs. Recorded donations include a dozen eggs, preserved peaches, candles, sugar, and several cash donations of fifty cents. (Twelfth Ward, Salt Lake Stake, Relief Society, Record Book, 1868–1877, p. 186, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Salt Lake City Twelfth Ward Relief Society Minutes, 4 June 1874

This portrait, attributed to Latter-day Saint artist David Rogers, is one of only a handful of images made of Joseph Smith during his lifetime. Eliza R. Snow was deeply proud of her personal connections to the prophet, both as an early member of the church and as one of his plural wives. She often expressed great affection for him and helped craft his legacy and remembrance among Latter-day Saints in Utah. (Church History Museum, Salt Lake City.)

Joseph Smith, 1842

Other

Images

Publication from the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Images

Portraits

Eliza R. Snow, 1856

Eliza R. Snow,circa 1862–1872

Eliza R. Snow,circa 1862–1872

Eliza R. Snow in Cairo, February 1873

Eliza R. Snow,circa 1875

Eliza R. Snow

Eliza R. Snow

Eliza R. Snow, circa 1885

Leadership

Elizabeth Anderson Howard, Eliza R. Snow, and Hannah Tapfield King, circa 1865–1873

Zina D. H. Young, Bathsheba W. Smith, Emily P. Young, and Eliza R. Snow, circa 1867

Elizabeth Ann Whitney, Emmeline B. Wells, and Eliza R. Snow, circa 1876

Lithograph of Prominent Latter-day Saint Women

Deseret Hospital Board of Directors, circa 1882–1884

Places

Joseph Smith’s Brick Store, circa 1886

Ogden Tabernacle, circa 1893

Fourteenth Ward Meetinghouse, circa 1886

Old Constitution Building

Lion House, 1868

Other

Dr. Romania Bunnell Pratt and Notice of Midwifery Classes

Brigham Young

Eliza R. Snow Publications,1856–1884

Minute Books, 1868–1887

Nauvoo School Schedule, 12 December 1842

Minute Book for the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842

Salt Lake City Thirteenth Ward Relief Society Minute Book, April 1868

Notice of Woman Suffrage Lecture, 21June 1871

Salt Lake City Twelfth Ward Relief Society Minutes, 4 June 1874

Joseph Smith, 1842

Eliza R. Snow,
circa 1862–1872

Eliza R. Snow,
circa 1862–1872

Eliza R. Snow,
circa 1875

Eliza R. Snow Publications,
1856–1884