Relief Society Organization Timeline
Relief Society Organization Research Guide
Providing definitive dates for firsts can be challenging. It is important to note that many of the activities associated with the Relief Society initially began in the wards and stakes and were then adopted by the general organization.
This timeline is not comprehensive but rather provides a basic understanding of how the Relief Society organization started and evolved to meet the changing needs of a global Church.
1842 Organization of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo.
1843 Emma Smith organizes a visiting committee, the beginnings of the visiting teaching programs.4
1845 Lucy Mack Smith speaks at general conference.5
1845 Relief Society suspended.
1854 Brigham Young approves local wards to organize Relief Societies.6
1867 Brigham Young asks Eliza R. Snow to help bishops organize ward Relief Societies.7
1869 First Relief Society building finished (Salt Lake City Fifteenth Ward).8
1872 Term “Female” dropped from the name “Relief Society.”9
1872 First issue of the Woman’s Exponent published.10
1873 Relief Society sisters encouraged to receive medical training.11
1874 “Song of the Sisters of the Relief Society,” later to become the hymn “As Sisters in Zion,” published by Emily H. Woodmansee in the Woman’s Exponent.12
1875 Deseret Silk Association established.13
1876 Grain-saving (wheat) program established.14
1877 First stake Relief Society organized.15
1879 Emmeline B. Wells and Zina Y. Williams (Card) attend the National Woman’s Suffrage Convention.16
1880 Eliza R. Snow named as General Relief Society President.
1880 Church’s Jubilee celebration.
1882 Deseret Hospital established.17
1888 Emily S. Richards represents the Relief Society at the first International Council of Women meeting.18
1889 First Relief Society annual conference meeting.19
1891 Relief Society becomes a charter member of the National Council of Women.20
1892 Relief Society Silver Jubilee.21
1892 Relief Society becomes incorporated as the National Relief Society.22
1893 Relief Society participates in the Columbian Exposition at the World’s Fair in Chicago.
1896 Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, Relief Society member and physician, is elected to the Utah Senate, becoming the first female state senator in the United States.23
1898 First Annual Day of Relief Society.24
1898 Annual dues of 10 cents per member introduced.
1900 Relief Society sisters present Susan B. Anthony with black silk produced in Utah. Anthony had it made into the “Utah dress.”25
1901 Woman’s Exponent carries an article asking women to donate funds toward the construction of a Relief Society Building.26
1902 Relief Society–sponsored nursing classes introduced.27
1902 Introduction of Mother’s Classes.
1908 Relief Society gives money donated for a Relief Society Building to the Presiding Bishopric for a Bishop’s Building.28
1913 Relief Society motto “Charity never faileth” introduced.29
1913 Annual dues raised to 25 cents.30
1914 Last issue of the Woman’s Exponent published.
1915 The Relief Society Magazine introduced.
1916 Visiting teaching includes teaching gospel messages.31
1917 Wheat is adopted as the symbol of Relief Society.32
1918 The Presiding Bishopric sells over 200,000 bushels of wheat stored by Relief Society sisters to the United States government.33
1919 No General Relief Society Meeting held due to the influenza pandemic.34
1919 Relief Society Social Service Department established.35
1920 Relief Society Nursing School discontinued.36
1921 Relief Society General Presidency introduces uniform visiting teaching messages.37
1924 First stake Relief Society maternity hospital established in the Cottonwood Stake.38
1929 General Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary Presidents asked to speak briefly at general conference.39
1931 Colors of blue and gold adopted.40
1933 Monument to the Relief Society erected at the site of the Nauvoo Red Store, where the Relief Society was organized.41
1934 Relief Society Singing Mothers introduced.42
1937 Mormon Handicraft Shop opens,43 offering Latter-day Saint women the opportunity to sell their homemade crafts on consignment.
1942 The Relief Society centennial, a large celebration, is canceled due to World War II; many wards and stakes would plant “Centennial Trees” in honor of the centennial.44
1942 The Relief Society seal is adopted.45
1942 No General Relief Society Meeting held during general conference due to World War II.
1945 Relief Society Building plans announced; women asked to donate funds to help build it.46
1945 Relief Society no longer “incorporated” and name changes from National Woman’s Relief Society to the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.47
1947 Beginning of microfilming for the Family History Project; visiting teachers are asked to take information about family history to each home and help women to teach about it to their families during “family hour.”48
1956 Relief Society Building dedicated.49
1969 Relief Society Social Service Department discontinued and becomes part of the Church Welfare and Social Services program.50
1971 Collection of Relief Society dues discontinued.51
1971 All sisters of the Church become members of the Relief Society.
1971 Relief Society Magazine discontinued.
1974 Relief Society divests itself of hospitals.52
1975 Last Relief Society general conference.53
1978 Monument to Women Memorial Garden in Nauvoo, Illinois, is dedicated.54
1978 First general women’s meeting held.55
1978 The Relief Society discontinues its wheat program, turning over 226,291 bushels of wheat, worth $1,651,157, to the First Presidency.56
1980 Church meeting schedule consolidated into a three-hour block; Relief Society meetings are moved from weekdays to Sundays.
1980 The Primary organization takes over responsibility for nursery.
1984 The Relief Society Building becomes the office for the General Presidencies of the Young Women and Primary as well.
1984 Relief Society General President Barbara B. Smith and Young Women General President Elaine A. Cannon are speakers at general conference; women are routinely asked to speak in general conference after 1984.
1985 “As Sisters in Zion” hymn introduced.57
1987 Visiting teaching messages included in the Ensign and Liahona.58
1991 Relief Society begins to cosponsor Women’s Education Week with Brigham Young University.59
1992 150th anniversary of the Relief Society.
1992 First worldwide women’s broadcast, celebrating the sesquicentennial of the founding of the Relief Society.60
1997 Coordination of Sunday lessons between Relief Society and priesthood organizations.61
2011 Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of the Relief Society published.
2011 New Relief Society seal adopted.
2017 New revision of the Relief Society purpose statement.62
2018 “Visiting teaching” replaced with “ministering.”63
2019 Women and young women can serve as witnesses in the temple and at baptisms.64
2020 ProjectProtect, global mask-making effort to address the COVID-19 pandemic.65
Sources:
4. Relief Society minutebook, 1842 March–1844 March, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
5. General Conference Research Guide, Church History, accessed Oct. 5, 2020, history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
6. “Great Salt Lake City Relief Society, Minutes, January–June 1854,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
7. “Brigham Young, Discourse, December 8, 1867 (Excerpt),” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
8. “Sarah M. Kimball, Annual Message, circa December 1868,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
9. “F. R. Society Reports,” Woman’s Exponent, Oct. 15, 1872, 74, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
10. Woman’s Exponent, Volume 1, June 1, 1872, 1-8, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
11. “Eliza R. Snow, Discourse, August 14, 1873,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
12. “Song of the Sisters of the Relief Society,” Woman’s Exponent, Dec. 1, 1874, 98, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
13. “Annual Meeting Deseret Silk Association,” Woman’s Exponent, July 15, 1876, 29, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
14. “Committees on the Grain Movement, Minutes, November 17, 1876,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
15. “Weber Stake Relief Society, Minutes, July 19, 1877,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
16. “Home Affairs,” Woman’s Exponent, Jan. 15, 1879, 124, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
17. “Report of Deseret Hospital Dedication, July 17, 1882,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
18. “The Women of Utah Represented at the International Council of Women, at Washington, D.C.,” Woman’s Exponent, Apr. 1, 1888, 164; Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
19. “Zina D. H. Young, Discourse, April 6, 1889,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
20. “Emmeline B. Wells, ‘A Glimpse of Washington,’ March 1, 1891,” The First Fifty Years of Relief Society, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
21. Jubilee: Relief Society 1892, Jubilee: Relief Society 1892, Relief Society photograph file, circa 1920–1978; Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Sept. 10, 2020.
22. “21 March 1892—Monday,” The Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells, churchhistorianspress.org, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
23. “Woman's Work and Duty,” Woman’s Exponent, Nov. 1–15, 1896, 69, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
24. “R. S. Report,” Woman’s Exponent, Jan. 1, 1899, 87, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
25. “George Washington Association,” Woman’s Exponent, Mar. 15/Apr. 1, 1900, 118, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 6, 2020.
26. “Woman’s Building,” Woman’s Exponent, July 1901, 12, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 6, 2020.
27. “Report of the National Woman’s Relief Society,” Woman’s Exponent, March 1902, 85, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 6, 2020.
28. First Presidency administrative files, 1878–1918, Relief Society, 1902–1907, Church History Library, Salt Lake City; “Relief Society Headquarters,” Woman’s Exponent, January 1910, 45, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 12, 2020.
29. “Charity Never Faileth,” Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, accessed Oct. 12, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
30. Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 1992), 196.
31.“Important Events in the History of Relief Society,” Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, accessed Oct. 13, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
32. Relief Society Seal History (2014), accessed Oct. 13, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
33. “A Wide and Extensive Sphere of Action,” Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, accessed Oct. 13, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
34. “Current Topics,” The Relief Society Magazine, December 1918, 702. Available digitally through Internet Archive.
35. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 215.
36. “L.D.S. Relief Society Class for Training Nurses’ Aids,” The Relief Society Magazine, July 1920, 410. Available digitally through Internet Archive.
37. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 244.
38. Maternity hospital reports, 1941, Church History Library, Salt Lake City, accessed Oct. 13, 2020.
39. “Conference Speakers,” General Conference Research Guide, Church History, accessed Oct. 13, 2020, history.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
40. Relief Society Seal History (2014), accessed Oct. 13, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
41. “Relief Society Monument Unveiled in Nauvoo,” The Relief Society Magazine, Sept. 1933, 506. Available digitally through Internet Archive.
42. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 273.
43. “Mormon Handicraft,” The Relief Society Magazine, May 1937, 306. The Mormon Handicraft store and committee was formed by the Relief Society to “supplement income” and “preserve the old world crafts possessed by our converts.”
44. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 283–87.
45. Relief Society Seal History (2014), accessed Oct. 13, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
46. “General Relief Society Conference, October 3 and 4, 1945,” The Relief Society Magazine, Dec. 1945, 723.
47. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 307.
48. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 315.
49. “Benediction-Dedicatory Service,” The Relief Society Magazine, Dec. 1956, 808.
50. “Important Events in the History of Relief Society,” Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, accessed Oct. 14, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
51. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 343–46. These pages encompass all of the changes made in 1971.
52. “Hospitals Dropped as Health Services Expands Total Worldwide Program,” Ensign, Nov. 1974, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
53. “The Last Conference,” Ensign, Nov. 1975, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
54. Janet Brigham, “Nauvoo Monument to Women,” Ensign, Sept. 1978, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
55. “Important Events in the History of Relief Society,” Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, accessed Oct. 14, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
56. Barbara B. Smith, “A Prophet of Love,” Ensign, Dec. 1985, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
57. “As Sisters in Zion,” Hymns, no. 309.
58. “Important Events in the History of Relief Society,” Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society, accessed Oct. 14, 2020, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
59. Derr and others, Women of Covenant, 413.
60. Elaine L. Jack, “Charity Never Faileth,” Ensign, May 1992, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
61. Don L. Searle, “Major Curriculum Changes in Priesthood and Relief Society,” Ensign, Dec. 1997, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
62. Rachel Sterzer, “Updated Purpose Statement Clarifies Work of Relief Society, Says Presidency,” Church News, Mar. 17, 2017, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
63. Camille West, “Ministering to Replace Home and Visiting Teaching,” Church News, Apr. 1, 2018, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
64. “Women Can Serve as Witnesses for Baptisms, Temple Sealings, First Presidency Announces,” Church News, Oct. 2, 2019, ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
65. “Relief Society in Action, May 5, 2020,” Newsroom, May 5, 2020, newsroom.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.