In This Issue

Photo Gary Topping.

Almost lost amid the parades, speeches, and other kinetic excitement of the Golden Jubilee in July 1897 was the meeting of a few dozen Utahns at the Templeton Hotel in Salt Lake City Gary Topping. to create a state historical society. Yet, when the last float was nothing more than a fading image in a wide-eyed child's memory and the final hyperbolic speech had dissipated into the summer air, the organizational work of those history-minded visionaries was already beginning to prove itself as the greatest legacy of that grand celebration.

From its modest beginnings of a century ago, the Utah State Historical Society has grown to 3,000 members, developed a research collection of over a million items, published over 250 issues of Utah Historical Quarterly, led the historic preservation movement in Utah for a quarter century, offered grants and technical assistance in support of local history initiatives, created energetic antiquities and museums programs, and much more Such growth and success did not occur without setbacks, frustrations, and other difficulties. Fortunately, men and women of foresight, commitment, good humor, and an enduring love of Utah history have always been there to guide the organization along the path outlined on July 22, 1897.

It is time to tell the story of those me n and women. The editorial staff of Utah Historical Quarterly commissioned Gary Topping, a former Historical Society staffer and present professor of history at Salt Lake Community College, to do the job Employing all the skills of the true professional, Dr Topping spent two years examining the pertinent sources, interpreting the facts with reasoned and mature judgment , placing all key developments within larger contexts, and packaging it all in a lively, entertaining narrative. His achievement is more than worthy of that great promise which animated the Society's perspicacious founders a century ago. Find a cool and quiet place, turn the page, and enjoy a nifty trip down history's lane.