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SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon History Association (MHA) will celebrate its 50th anniversary at its annual conference this week.
The conference will take place Thursday through Sunday, on the third floor of the Utah Valley Convention Center, 220 West Center Street in Provo, and the public is welcome.
The MHA's acting executive director, Mary Ellen Robertson, said participants will enjoy activities such as an opening reception, sessions about history related to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a gold and green ball, an awards ceremony, a musical devotional, local tours and more.
The conference begins Thursday at 7 p.m. with the opening reception, which includes a welcome by Provo Mayor John Curtis. The reception is open to the public and will include food and a chance to mix and mingle, Robertson said.
The conference continues with sessions Friday and Saturday at 9 a.m., several of which will celebrate the 50th anniversary by looking back over the organization's history and noting the achievements and growth it has seen, Robertson said.
Sessions also include topics like Legacies of Leonard Arrington, founder of MHA, Cultural Dynamics in Territorial Utah, Mormons and Cultural Conflict, and The Unfamiliar Saints: Insights from the Joseph Smith Papers.
Two plenary speakers, who are not members of the LDS Church, will address attendees. Colleen McDannell from the University of Utah will speak Friday at 9 a.m. and Margaret Jacobs from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will speak Saturday at 11 a.m.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, current president of MHA, Pulitzer prize winner and Harvard University professor, will give her final presidential address at the presidential banquet Saturday night before president-elect Laurie Maffly-Kipp, from Washington University in St. Louis, steps in.
Sunday, attendees will hear a musical devotional at 9 a.m., featuring various artists and the Utah Baroque Ensemble and MHA members performing the commissioned song for the 50th anniversary, "The Sum of Every Praising Voice" by Daniel Carter.
About 700 people are expected to attend the conference, including members of different religions, people from across the country and around the world, and 33 “local history specialists in different parts of the world for the LDS Church,” according to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.
“I think that the history of Latter-day Saints is very, very well-documented,” Ulrich said. “The early Latter-day Saints really thought they should be remembered, and they kept records. The Church History Library, The Utah Historical Society library, the universities' libraries throughout Utah have some of the richest repositories of the history of Latter-day Saints — one of the most important religions founded in America.”
Robertson said this event “gives people a more broad sense of the issues that are occurring in Mormon History,” adding that the conference will not only cover history from long ago but Latter-day Saints who are making history now.
“There are lots of historical topics whose influence is not confined to the pages of history but is relevant and important and interesting to Mormon folks now,” Robertson said.
The Mormon History Association, a “non-profit organization that’s dedicated to exploring issues in Mormon history,” is not an official organization of the LDS Church, Robertson said.
The association was organized in December 1965 at the American Historical Association meeting in San Francisco.
MHA, which has grown over the years, “publishes a journal of Mormon history that collects scholarly research specifically on Mormon history topics,” Robertson said.
The MHA member registration fee for the conference is $195, the non-member fee is $250, and the student registration fee is $95 (students must show ID). For those wanting to go to Friday only, it’s $135; Saturday only is $125. Registration is available on site.
Limited tickets are available for the membership luncheon, the Mormon Women’s History Breakfast and the Presidential Banquet, but there is an unlimited registration for the conference itself.
Some of the founding members of MHA will attend the Mormon Women’s History Breakfast and share their experiences.
For more information about the conference schedule, click here.
