Memory and Archive
Highlights from section 1 of Work and Wonder
Johann Schroeder (German, unknown), Early View of Nauvoo, 1859. Oil on metal, 10 x 13 inches. Church History Museum.
Early View of Nauvoo
Johann Schroeder, a German artist, recorded this view of Nauvoo, Illinois, more than a decade after the Saints’ departure from the city. Members of the Church settled the city in 1839. By 1846, increased hostilities prompted the Saints’ exodus west. Remnants of the Nauvoo Temple crown the hillside in Schroeder’s depiction, with only parts of the entranceway visible following the fire and tornado that devastated the structure.
Schroeder’s inscription “Icarian Community” reflects the prominent utopian-minded group that moved into Nauvoo and added to the infrastructure left behind by the Latter-day Saints. An Icarian sawmill and wash house are visible in the foreground, as is their schoolhouse adjacent to the temple lot. Because of its visibility, the city remained a point of general interest along the river. Beginning in 1853, the site was often visited by Latter-day Saint missionaries and convert-immigrants on their cross-country journeys.
Fannie Nampeyo (Native American, Hopi-Tewa, 1900–1987), Migration Pot, 1952. Ceramic, 8.25 x 13.5 inches. Church History Museum.
Migration Pot
Fannie Nampeyo’s Migration Pot is an object of familial legacy and a rich visual record of Hopi-Tewa artistic tradition. The stylized waves and birdlike shapes across the surface of the pot reflect a pattern that the artist’s mother had created in the early 20th century. Fannie wove these traditional designs into her own pot, thereby continuing the tradition of Hopi imagery.
Fannie’s mother—the great Hopi-Tewa artist Nampeyo, who, with her husband, Vinton Pollacca, was the first of a grand Latter-day Saint tradition among her people—created an almost identical pot circa 1930. It was based on ancient Hopi shards found while excavating the Hopi village Sikyatki and is held by the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.
Duncan McFarlane (British, 1818–1865), The Ship Brooklyn, 1845. Oil, 24 x 36 inches. Church History Museum.
The Ship Brooklyn
When Brigham Young announced the migration of the Saints to the American West in 1845, a group of Latter-day Saints from the eastern United States traveled by sea, taking with them heavy equipment and other necessary farming tools for the Saints traveling by land. Led by Samuel Brannan, 238 settlers boarded Captain Abel W. Richardson’s ship Brooklyn and left New York on February 6, 1846. They traveled on the 125-foot-long converted cargo ship for five months, sailing around Cape Horn to reach San Francisco Bay on July 31, 1846.
The Saints would cultivate the San Francisco Bay for over a year before joining the larger group of Latter-day Saint settlers in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Richardson commissioned McFarlane’s painting of the ship before he sailed to California.
Joseph Lajabu Banda (Malawian, born 1979), Go Where You Want Me to Go, 2022. Acrylic, paper, wood, and chitenge cloth, 28 x 27.5 inches. Church History Museum.
Go Where You Want Me to Go
Joseph Banda’s vibrant painting captures the memory of sights and sounds on a busy afternoon in a Malawian village. People pass through the town; some stop to talk as others work to sell produce and food items, gather water, tend herds, or grow crops. Two Latter-day Saint missionaries walk through the village; they represent those missionaries who traveled far from their homes to teach Banda and others the gospel. The image also represents Banda’s commitment to serve willingly in the Church as elders quorum president and branch president. As Banda has expressed, though someone might not initially understand why they have received a certain assignment, through humble service they come to recognize the Lord’s purposes.
Jacqui Larsen (American, born 1962), The Children Sing: Syracuse, New York, 2018. Mixed media on panel, 34 x 37 x 4 inches. Church History Museum.
The Children Sing: Syracuse, New York
Jacqui Larsen’s mixed media work, The Children Sing: Syracuse, New York, recreates Larsen’s experience sitting on the church pew with her family every Sunday and singing hymns. The artist layered textures, sounds, and materials to rearticulate moments from the past into the present. These include a copy of The Children Sing songbook published by the Church in 1951, crayon rubbings of the hymnbook, illustrations, and small cuts of music notes, for example. No single object takes precedence; instead, the eye bounces gleefully from triangle to triangle, absorbing everything at once, as if making the viewer experience Larsen’s memory alongside her.
Manti Relief Society (Various), Hair Wreath, 1888. Hair and other material, 35 x 29.25 x 6.5 inches. Church History Museum.
Hair Wreath
This wreath is made entirely of human hair. The Victorian age gave rise to the use of hair to create mementos of loved ones, art for the home, and jewelry. In Hair Wreath, individual strands of hair are transformed into the shapes of flowers and branch boughs and then chained together into a wreath encircling the potted floral arrangement at the center. This offering, a collaborative project by members of the Relief Society, not only commemorates the Manti Utah Temple at its dedication but also the love and friendships forged by the artists. It expresses the values of sisterhood, beautification, and dedication of one’s talents to the Church.