He has a secret, you know, a detail not mentioned in any of the many articles descriptive of the Los Angeles Temple, or in J. Michael Hunter’s excellent summary of Angel Moroni statues in the November 2000 Ensign article. It’s a detail revealed by sculptor Millard F. Malin to fellow artist Jack Sears in a 1956 interview regarding the modeling and casting of the angel that now stands atop the Los Angeles Temple.

Millard Fillmore Malin (1891-1974) was born in Salt Lake City. He served a mission to New Zealand commencing when he was only 17 years old. He attended the University of Utah upon his return, studying human anatomy at the medical school and drawing under the Utah artist Edwin Evans, but he dropped out before graduation in order to work and save money for his ambition to study art in New York City. He succeeded in that goal, studying in New York chiefly under the sculptor Herman A. MacNeil. While he was still a student there, he was hired by Gutzon Borglum – best known as sculptor of Mount Rushmore, and born in Idaho to Mormon parents who soon left Mormonism and moved to the Midwest – to assist him in creation of the monument at Stone Mountain, Georgia.

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Yes, you read that right. Constipation.

Several of the responses to queries in the “She Had a Question” series refer to constipation as the source of more human ills than most of us have heard of. Every time we laugh about that, I threaten to post a certain article from the 1911 Young Woman’s Journal.

Well, here it is.

Constipation.
By Katie Grover.

Constipation is a serious condition, and if neglected often leads to dangerous and even fatal results. It is the cause of more sickness and disease than any other known source. Nowadays it is rather remarkable to run across a person who does not have to resort to laxatives or enemas.

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So said the Lord through the Prophet Joseph Smith on the day the Church was organized. We have been a record-keeping people ever since, to a phenomenal degree – not that we have notes on everything to the level of detail we might sometimes want, but the records available for searching, whether held by the Church Archives or deposited in other repositories (university libraries, state archives, historical societies, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the archives of other Restoration churches, etc.), or remaining in private hands provides such an abundance of ever-accumulating material that we may never fully assimilate all there is to understand.

For the past two weeks, and continuing on into May and June, the holdings of the Church Library and its Archives are being carted – by dolly, by library cart, by fork lift – from their old location in one wing of the Church Office Building through underground corridors and tunnels to their new home in the just-completed Church History Library just east of the Conference Center and just north of the Relief Society Building. The new building has been specially built as an archives building, balancing the competing interests of state-of-the-art technology to preserve and protect this wondrous but fragile heritage, with the need for access by students, scholars, and the interested public.

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Carl Kjar (sometimes Kjaer; 1887-1946), the Deseret-born son of a Danish father and a Swedish mother, was called as a missionary to Norway, arriving there in May 1908. A year later, he was stationed at Haugesund, a town of about 6,000 on the southwest coast of Norway. The Haugesund branch, of which Elder Kjar was president in 1910, had enjoyed relative success, with 16 having been baptized there in the preceding few months.

Norwegian law required that before a citizen could join a minority religion, he had first to withdraw officially from the state church. Elder Kjar was arrested and charged with responsibility for having violated that law in the case of two small girls – one the daughter of Mormon parents, and thus never enrolled as a Lutheran in the first place; the other a child whose former pastor had refused or neglected to follow through on the request made to have her membership withdrawn.

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2009 Gospel Doctrine
Lesson 16: “Thou Shalt … Offer Up Thy Sacraments upon My Holy Day”
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The Primary children of June, 1923, learned the motto “Obedience to the True Leader Brings Protection” in support of the month’s theme, “Response to Good Leadership.” Teachers told stories about obeying babysitters, and following the directions of crossing guards, school leaders, and church officials. And because the overall program for the year concerned Church history for the early years of Utah settlement, the children heard stories relating to the Utah War.

These drawings, printed in the Children’s Friend for use as teaching aids — and just as suitable today as coloring book pages — include a family packing to abandon Salt Lake City before the army arrived. In the background, a man carries straw into a building so that it could be burned should the army begin looting. And in a surprisingly broad-minded gesture, one of the drawings pays tribute to the good behavior of the soldiers who, despite Mormon fears, obeyed their own leaders and marched through the city without the slightest misbehavior; the last verse accompanying that picture refers to Col. Philip St. George Cooke, former leader of the Mormon Battalion and then (1858) entering Utah with the Utah Expedition, who reportedly doffed his hat in tribute to his former comrades.

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They look so formal in their black-and-white portraits — who could guess our grandparents got a kick out of these ticklers in the Church magazines of 1921?

Too Many of His Kind

“Is he a live wire?”

“No, he’s a short circuit.”

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Below is the full text of a lesson taught in the Church’s adult Sunday School classes on August 4, 1935. I do not know the author; the lesson was distributed anonymously with the quarterly “Gospel Messages” leaflet issued by the Deseret Sunday School Union Board, as were all other Sunday School lessons in that era. I haven’t changed a single word, not even the occasional outdated vocabulary.

Let’s have a lively discussion. I’ll be happiest if we can talk about this lesson and don’t merely repeat previous ‘nacle debates on race –  anything about the ideas in this lesson, how it might have been received in 1935, how it would be received today, whether it matches your preconceptions of what was taught in 1935 — rather than the origin of the priesthood restriction, charges of Brigham Young’s racism, and the current availability of BRM’s Mormon Doctrine. Thanks for your understanding.

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What occupied the minds of the girls and young women writing for advice to the “Girl Queries” department of the 1918 Young Woman’s Journal? The ongoing war, their own looks, soldiers, and young men generally.

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Or so offered this 1913 advertisement in the Juvenile Instructor:

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Some few online comments attached to recent news reports of the rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips held by Somali pirates have complained that Navy officers sought permission from President Obama for the Seals to fire upon the pirates. “Since when does the American military have to ask the president for permission to do their duty?” they snarl.

Well, since just about always, of course. It is part of the genius of the Founding Fathers to place the military under civilian control, and part of the patriotism and gallantry of the American military that they submit to civilian control, sparing us the revolutions and “temporary” military governments that have plagued some countries. We are not at war with Somalia or its citizens, no matter how criminal the behavior of some of those citizens; the Bainbridge was not under attack with the need to defend itself; no Navy officer aboard that ship or in the Seals’ chain of command had the right to take deadly action on his own authority. That authority was held by the civilian commander-in-chief of the armed forces – the president of the United States.

I don’t suppose that’s news to any Keepa readers. I mention it as the springboard to another incident in another time where a military commander gave a similar civics lesson to a civilian politician, where that officer’s quiet insistence that civilian authority must take responsibility for ordering military action – without dodging that responsibility by passing it off to the military – possibly saved Mormon lives.

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The first three temples of the 20th century (Laie Hawaii, dedicated 1919; Cardston Alberta, dedicated 1923; and Mesa Arizona, dedicated 1927) share an architecture that is radically different from the spired, crenelated pioneer temples of the 19th century. Joseph F. Smith is said to have described their boxy, spireless shape as resembling Solomon’s temple; others have compared them to Herod’s temple, or as reminiscent of Mesoamerican buildings. The architecture was also inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style architecture.

Although resembling each other somewhat – perhaps more in contrast to other temples than in actual resemblance to each other – each of these three temples has unique architectural details and decoration. This post pictures one of the unique features of the Mesa Arizona Temple, the frieze that runs around the building under its cornice, just above the columns and deep-set windows of the facade. (The frieze – pronounced freeze – is a ribbon of carved decoration. This picture, taken just after completion and long before the landscaping had matured, shows well both the stark, geometric temple architecture and the placement of the frieze – carved human figures on the sides and corners, with a geometric design across the front above the columns and windows.)

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Lesson 15: “Seek Ye Earnestly the Best Gifts”

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1910: The Story of the Restoration (Young Ladies’ MIA Lessons)

Lesson 11: The Spiritual Gifts

Less than a month after the organization of the Church in 1830, there happened at Colesville, New York, one of the most remarkable manifestations in the history of the modern world. Joseph Smith had gone to Colesville to visit at the home of Joseph Knight. The Knights were Universalists. They were interested, however, in the message of the young Prophet. One of them, particularly – a son named Newel Knight – seemed to be much affected by the Prophet’s teachings. Says the Prophet in his simple narrative:

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It’s 1925, and Latter-day Saints around the world are gathering in front of their chapels, under nearby trees, and on picturesque hillsides. Enjoy another page from our extended family album –

Sacramento, California

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Funny Bones, comin’ atcha from the church magazines of 1923:

Change

“Do you notice any change in me?”

“No. Why?”

“I’ve just swallowed a nickle.”

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In 1939, the Millennial Star featured a regular “Gospel Queries” column; many of the questions appear to have been submitted by non-members. Answers were provided by missionary David Sjodahl King (1917- ), son of Senator William H. King (D-Utah), and himself elected a congressman from Utah 1959-63. He served as ambassador to Madagascar 1967-69; LDS mission president to Haiti 1986-89; president of the Washington, D.C. temple 1990-93; and now as stake patriarch.

Q: How many missionaries are there in the British Isles?

A: At the present time there are 148, eleven of them lady missionaries.

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”Aviva Levine” is the pseudonym used by a woman who told of her conversion to the Church almost 50 years ago. Because I do not know her real name, I cannot update the story she told in 1964, and can only hope that her new life continued as it began.

Aviva was born in Hungary in 1932, the daughter of an observant Jewish father and a non-religious, possibly Gentile mother. She was exposed in her early childhood to Jewish practice – including the presentation when she was 7 of a beautiful silver-covered Haggadah, the Passover prayer book – but in 1942, when she was 10, Aviva and her mother were separated from her father by World War II. Her father died because he was a Jew; Aviva and her mother, being (or passing as) Hungarians, survived. In part because religion was unimportant to her mother, and in part because she could see little reason to practice a religion that had led to her father’s death, Aviva abandoned any pretense to Jewishness. She emigrated to the United States soon after the war, and Aviva grew to young womanhood thinking nothing of religion.

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In 1922, the older teens and young adults of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association discussed a lesson entitled “The Destiny of the Unmarried.” The text of that lesson is presented below.

Before you read further, clarify your expectations, as a Church member in 2009 familiar with Church teachings. Do you expect this lesson to praise, condemn, or console the unmarried? to defend a conscious choice of lifelong spinsterhood? to warn against the eternal consequences of such a choice or fate?
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In keeping with the “Be Thrifty” admonishment of another post this morning, and because a cooking segment on one of today’s morning news shows demonstrated what they called “Wacky Cake” (my mother called it “Snack Cake” and others call it “War Cake”), I’m posting a dozen variations of an easy, tasty, relatively cheap cake that all our grandmothers knew. These are “thrifty” cakes because they need no frosting; call for no butter, milk, or eggs; and you almost certainly have all the ingredients for almost all the varieties in your cupboard right now (some won’t have maraschino cherries and probably not pumpkin unless you’re looking for a way to use leftovers during holiday pie-baking season, but there are versions here that don’t call for even that level of “exotic” ingredient).

These cakes are easy enough for small children to make, and are fast enough that you can put one in the oven as soon as you get up and have it baked in time to pack in sack lunches.

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Conference speakers urged us to be financially wise, to distinguish between wants and needs, to free ourselves from economic bondage. This morning Keepa jumps aboard that bandwagon with a Primary song from the depths of the Great Depression, 1934.

Incidentally, Beatrice F. Stevens, the author and composer, is the same woman who recalled her childhood experiences with raising silkworms in an earlier post.

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Boyd O. Hatch of Salt Lake City, married, father of three, was launching a new career in 1946. After a year in the Army to fulfill the ROTC requirement after his 1939 university graduation, followed by four years of active duty during World War II (he was discharged with the rank of major), Boyd was home again and working in the medical field. He had established a medical photography laboratory at the University of Utah and ran a private business making diagnostic slides for a growing client base of hospitals and doctors, and had won appointment as a bacteriologist for the State of Utah.

As part of his preparation for work in bacteriology, Boyd was injected with a serum intended to protect him from the rabies he would likely encounter in his work for the State. A rare and complicated reaction followed, and Boyd found himself fighting for his life against paralysis and a virulent lung infection. Even after his release from an eight-month hospital stay, he required round-the-clock nursing care – provided by his young wife, Bessie – and multiple daily drug injections.

And this once active outdoorsman, boxer, and fencer was paralyzed from the waist down.

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I’ll bet you’ve never heard the story of Adam’s fall told as if Adam were a hired gardener fired as the result of a financial crash, forced to make his way forward through an economic depression. Read on . . .

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Many devoted students of the Bible sometimes regret that so little is told of the life of the Savior. And yet the words of the gospels glow with a lasting brightness which has become the heritage of all who believe his word. The brief paragraphs which tell the Easter story are among the most beautiful in the Bible, and surely they are of utmost significance, for they bear the message of everlasting life.

It is of particular interest to women that the narrative of Easter mentions several of the faithful sisters who were followers of the Master. (more…)

While our magazines, especially in recent years, have often published images of the Crucifixion and Resurrection on interior pages, Easter themes have been remarkably absent from magazine covers. With the exception of some additional floral covers, below are all I was able to find after searching through decades of all of our magazines. Sparse as is the collection, there are still some striking covers for you to enjoy this beautiful Easter morning:

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Daffodils
New Era, April 1975

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Welcome back for more humor from the church magazines of the past:

A Problem

Boy: “Can a person be punished for something he hasn’t done?”

Teacher: “Of course not.”

Boy: “Well, I haven’t done my geometry.”

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From 1943:

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These questions and answers are from the Juvenile Instructor of 1891. Some of them appear in columns headed “Editorial Thoughts,” some of which are explicitly signed The Editor, marking them as the work of George Q. Cannon.

One of our correspondents informs us that an Elder, preaching to the people in the place where he lived, stated that the cause of so much sickness and death among the little ones of that settlement last fall and spring was the non-observance by the people of the Word of Wisdom. Our correspondent states that he had been called upon to part with three of his children, and he asks if the doctrine which the elder taught is correct, as it causes him to feel very badly, because he has not been a strict observer, he admits, of the Word of Wisdom.

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A frequently-voiced Bloggernacle regret is that so many of our wards fail to note, much less celebrate, Easter Sunday – was it Kevin Barney who reported an Easter Sacrament service devoted to tithing?

This neglect is not by policy but due to a too-widespread lack of imagination on the part of those who plan ward meetings. It is a neglect that has existed, apparently, for 50 years or more. Witness this question submitted to the editorial board of the Instructor magazine in December 1962:

Q. When was the policy established of not having special programs, but rather continuing with normal Sunday School activities on Easter and Christmas?

A. There has never been a policy of not having special programs on these two occasions.

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BYU Easter Conference

Saturday, April 11, 2009
9:00 a.m. to noon
Auditorium, Joseph Smith Building
(south end of BYU campus)

Public Invited
Free Admission

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In commenting on last Thursday’s post, Keepa’ninny Alison noted that that day was the anniversary of her baptism. She consented to share her conversion story here:

An atypically hot summer’s afternoon in a Scottish suburb found me looking curiously through the glass doors of a Mormon Church building. A kindly lady came out and asked if she could help me. I told her I wanted to join the Church, and, seeming a little taken aback (probably feeling a LOT taken aback), she invited me in and introduced me to a young man who she felt would be able to answer any questions I had.

His name was Jim, and he was preparing to serve a mission. His calling as ward librarian had fortuitously brought him to the meetinghouse that day, and he supplied me with copies of the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price, the last two of which I had been most curious to see for myself.

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The Great Chilean Earthquake of May 22, 1960 (magnitude 9.5), with severe fore- and aftershocks, was the largest earthquake measured during the 20th century. Callous as it is to say, this quake caused relatively few deaths – probably fewer than 3,000, including those killed during the quake itself, during the mudslides and volcanic eruptions which followed in Chile, and as a result of the tsunami that claimed victims from northern California to Hawaii to the Philippines to Japan. Still, it is remembered as one of the century’s great disasters, in part because new technology allowed the temblor to be recorded and measured precisely, because television carried almost-live images to the rest of the world, and because jet aircraft allowed the world to respond immediately.

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