New Featured Collection Articles
The Church History Library has published several articles spotlighting frequently used collections in our holdings: the Featured Collections page. Learn how it can help your research.
The Church History Library holds millions of records related to Church history. Out of those millions of records, our librarians frequently recommend some collections that are especially helpful in certain circumstances. For example, if someone is just beginning their research journey, there are several collections that provide an overview of Church history events in a given time period; if someone is interested in researching biographical information of early Saints, there are collections focusing exclusively on that.
Since these collections get used so frequently, we have created a page of Featured Collections to highlight them. This page contains articles discussing how to use these valuable resources in regularly encountered research situations. Over the past year, we have steadily added more articles to the page, and more will be added in the future. Currently, these are the articles available on the page:
The Church History Library holds many photographic collections of missionaries and the areas around the world where they labored. If your research involves finding photographs from a particular mission—or even of a particular missionary—check out this article.
Initially published by the Southern States Mission in the early 1900s, Liahona, the Elders’ Journal grew to cover events from missions throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico over several decades.
This two-volume index contains biographical entries on Latter-day Saints (and other individuals not affiliated with the Church) who lived in Arizona, Southern California, Idaho, northern Mexico, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and southwestern Canada.
Throughout its history, Church members have published many magazines and newspapers about Church events and doctrine. Some of these periodicals were official publications, and some were not. Some began as nonofficial publications and were later adopted as official. These periodicals can be a treasure trove of information. Find out more about them here.
The Historical Department Journal History of the Church is a scrapbook-style daily history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1830 to 2008. It is arranged by date and contains biographical and historical information as well as messages from Church leaders.
Originally published as serialized articles in the Deseret News, the Encyclopedic History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints contains brief sketches of branches, wards, stakes, districts, conferences, and missions. It also has information about historical locations, periodicals, and railroads.
Tyson Thorpe, one of our librarians, helped develop many of these articles. “As a librarian,” he says, “I have found these collections are useful in a variety of ways. I have used the Journal History to help someone find specific dates, the Encyclopedic History to help them prepare for a ward anniversary or find the ward wherein their ancestor lived. I have even used some of the Church magazines and newspapers in my own research as I attempted to document my grandfather’s missionary service in South Africa.”
Please check out the Featured Collections page and see how its curated articles can inform your research. Also, watch the Church History Library website for announcements of additional articles that will be added in the future.