The Church Historian’s Press

Photos

Circa 1860s. Horne acted as president of the Ladies’ Cooperative Retrenchment Association from 1870 to 1904, president of the Salt Lake Stake Relief Society from 1877 to 1903, and treasurer of the Relief Society general board from 1880 to 1901. She also served as chair of the executive committee of the Deseret Hospital from 1882 to 1894.

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

Circa 1867. Young served as the Relief Society general president from 1888 to 1901. She was also the first matron of the Salt Lake temple in 1893.

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

Circa 1880s. Freeze joined the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association general board in 1898. She worked at the Salt Lake temple as well as the Bureau of Information on Temple Square. She also participated in the Utah Women’s Press Club.

Photograph by Fox and Symons. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Circa 1875. Snow was a poet, a world traveler, and a renowned leader of Latter-day Saint women. She effectively linked the Nauvoo Relief Society to the resurgence of the organization in Utah Territory by preserving the Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book and traveling throughout Mormon settlements to help organize women and encourage them to speak.

Photograph by Charles Carter. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Circa 1880s. Barney practiced obstetrics and medicine in Utah. She was deeply committed to the work of women’s rights and religious liberty. She spoke at a mass meeting on March 6, 1886, in Salt Lake City: “Oh, that my voice could reach the ears of those uninformed and misinformed of the United States. I would ask them to listen to the testimony of the ten thousand wives and mothers of Utah, with large, intelligent, loving families, of beautiful, pure children.”

(Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Circa 1890s. In her role as secretary for the Relief Society general board, Kimball coordinated a collection of autobiographical records of men and women in 1880. This time capsule effort celebrated the anniversary of the founding of the church and was retrieved in 1930. The artifacts were distributed to the oldest living female descendants of the original authors.

(Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Circa 1906. Leatham worked as a guide at the Bureau of Information on Temple Square until 1911, when she married James Jensen. They lived in Bingham, Salt Lake City, and Sandy, Utah, where Leatham served in various auxiliary presidencies on the ward and stake level.

(Photograph in family possession. Courtesy Mary Austin Ungerman.)

Circa 1910s. Flygare served as president of the Weber Stake Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association from 1911 to 1922. In addition to her YLMIA service, she also served as the first president of her ward Relief Society. She and her husband, Christian Flygare, were active in community organizations and city government.

(Photograph in family possession. Courtesy Steve Coray.)

Circa 1930. The final editor of the <i>Young Woman’s Journal,</i> Brandley was a popular writer and speaker as a member of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association general board, on which she served from 1924 until her untimely death in 1935.

(Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Shown speaking at general women's meeting, 1983. A writer, editor, and television and radio personality, Cannon actively endorsed the creation of a magazine for young people in the church and served as an associate editor when the <i>New Era</i> began publication in 1971. She also petitioned for young women to have Sunday religious instruction in addition to their weekday meetings. The church adopted this policy in 1980 while she was Young Women general president.

Photograph by Marty Mayo. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

1995. Bennion served on the general boards of the Young Women and Relief Society in the 1970s and 1980s.

Photograph by Busath Photography. (Courtesy Francine Bennion.)

Shown delivering a general conference address, 1996. Okazaki was a prolific writer and popular speaker. A former elementary school teacher and principal, she frequently employed visual aids when she spoke.

Photograph by Welden C. Andersen. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

2016. Sitati is a former teacher and employee of Kenya’s Ministry of Education. With her husband, Joseph Sitati, the first black African general authority, Sitati has addressed church congregations around the world.

Photograph by James Findlay. (Courtesy Gladys Sitati.)

Circa 1876. Whitney (left) and Snow (right) were members of the Nauvoo Relief Society and served together when the general board of the Relief Society was organized in 1880. Emmeline B. Wells (center) edited the <i>Woman’s Exponent</i> and worked as the general secretary and then general president of the Relief Society in later years. These three women traveled often to speak to different congregations.

Photograph by Charles R. Savage. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Shown with a grandchild, circa 1852. Drusilla Hendricks was an early proponent of the Relief Society. She reminisced that before the Relief Society was organized in Nauvoo, she dreamed that women were holding meetings and keeping records of their work. Hendricks joined the Nauvoo Relief Society on April 14, 1842, and was appointed to a visiting committee in the Second Ward in Nauvoo.

(Photograph in family possession.)

Circa 1905. The first YLMIA general board was organized in 1880 under Elmina S. Taylor. The board members traveled, coordinated the efforts of local associations, corresponded with local units, conducted training, developed curriculum and programs, and spoke at MIA June Conferences starting in 1896. Included in this photo are the following women who are mentioned in <i>At the Pulpit:</i> Maria Y. Dougall (seated row, first on right), Emma N. Goddard (seated row, second from right), Ann M. Cannon (seated row, third from right), Mattie Horne Tingey (seated row, fifth from right), Ruth May Fox (seated row, sixth from right), May Booth Talmage (first standing row, fifth from right), and Minnie J. Snow (second standing row, first on right). Tingey was YLMIA general president at the time this photo was taken.

(Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

1908. Smith (right) was the Relief Society general president from 1901 to 1910. She was the last Relief Society general president who was also a member of the Nauvoo Relief Society. Wells (left) succeeded Smith, serving as Relief Society general president from 1910 to 1921.

Photograph by Olsen and Griffith. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Shown with sons Philip and Richard, circa 1916. Some eighteen years before this photo was taken, Knight was one of the first single female church members to serve as a missionary.

Photograph by Larson and Bygreen. (Photograph in family possession. Courtesy Jennifer Whatcott Hooton.)

Shown at Social Service Training in Anaconda, Montana, circa 1920. Lyman, bespectacled in the center of the front row, became a trained social worker after formative visits to Hull House in Chicago and was a leader in implementing social service work within the Relief Society. Lyman served on the Relief Society general board for thirty-six years, including her time as president.

Photograph by Montgomery Studio. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

1962. With members of the presidency at the head of the table (left to right: Madsen, Spafford, and Sharp), the Relief Society general board poses in the six-year-old Relief Society Building. Board members trained Relief Society units throughout the world, oversaw temple clothing production, published the <i>Relief Society Magazine,</i> and created Relief Society curriculum.

Photograph by J. M. Heslop. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

1989. Kapp served as Young Women general president from 1984 to 1992. This presidency oversaw the creation of the Young Women theme and Young Women values, and they updated the Personal Progress program. Jack was Relief Society general president from 1990 to 1997. Pictured here, left to right, are Malan, Kapp, and Jack.

(Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

1994. The goal of Beckham’s presidency, which served from 1992 to 1997, was to help “every young woman to become a righteous, problem-solving woman of faith.” Parkin later served as the Relief Society general president from 2002 to 2007. Pictured here, left to right, are Pearce, Beckham, and Parkin.

Photograph by Busath Photography. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Shown as a missionary in Queenstown, South Africa, circa 1980. A native of South Africa, Brummer (pictured here, second from the right) was the first Latter-day Saint missionary fluent in the Xhosa language.

(Photograph in family possession. Courtesy Judy Brummer.)

Circa 1885–1886. The founding meeting of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo took place on the second floor of this dry goods store on March 17, 1842. The red brick store became a location for women to gather and share needs, concerns, and spiritual ministry.

Photograph taken or obtained by Brigham H. Roberts. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

Circa 1886. Several different types of women’s meetings were held in this hall in Salt Lake City, including retrenchment meetings and Mutual Improvement Association June conference sessions.

Photograph by C. E. Johnson. (Courtesy Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.)

1962. The first Relief Society general conference was held in 1889. This photograph of the Salt Lake Tabernacle shows a large crowd at one of the sessions of the October 1962 conference, at which Louise W. Madsen spoke.

Photograph by Ross Welser. (Church History Library, Salt Lake City.)

2016. The Marriott Center holds plenary sessions of BYU Women’s Conference, which began in 1976. The image of Sandra Rogers, international vice president of BYU, appears on the large screen.

Photograph by Maddi Driggs. (Courtesy Daily Universe [Provo, UT].)

In her address "Gaining Light through Questioning" (see chapter 7 of the bonus discourses), Julie Willis references this circa 2014 photograph of Mount Moran, a mountain in Grand Teton National Park in western Wyoming.

Photograph by John W. Barrott. (Used with permission.)