Church History Catalog

The church historian's office announced a new tool at the Mormon History Association conference in St. George this weekend, an online Church History Catalog.  Of particular interest are the digital collections, making available many items previously available only by visiting the library in person, or purchasing the expensive 2002 Selected Collections from the Archives DVD. Patrons may also request items to be digitized.  Some of the digitized data will be images only, however in time, searchable text will be added to many items.

Currently the "Selected Church History Manuscript Collections" contain many pages of manuscripts from the Archives, scanned in full color at high resolution.  The library plans to continue to add materials.  The site notes that "Academic libraries and serious researchers will find this publication unparalleled and unprecedented."

The site currently includes about 4,000 pages from the papers of Joseph Smith; the Revelations collection; 34,000 pages of letters and typescripts of Brigham Young correspondence; as well as thousands of pages from other selected items in the Church archives.

• Joseph Smith Collection, 1827–1844
• Brigham Young Letterpress Copybooks, 1844–1879
• Church Historian's Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877
• Church Architect's Office. Salt Lake Temple Architectural Drawings, 1853–1893
• William Weeks. Nauvoo Architectural Drawings, circa 1841–1846 - (MS 11500)

Also available is an index to the journal history of the church, a day by day history of the Church from 1830–present day taken mostly from newspapers, but also from some minutes and diary entries. Index for 1830–1972