In This Issue

When the Mormon Tabernacle Choir stepped onto the international stage with its award-winning performance at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, little did anyone realize that in the coming years the choir would become an American institution. Today radio and television programs, tours, special performances, and concerts provide opportunities for millions to experience the treasure of religious and secular music performed by the choir. The invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877 and subsequent improvements brought new opportunities for the choir to share music through the millions of copies of its more than 160 recordings. How it all began and how the first recordings were produced and marketed, is the subject of our first article in this issue. The 1909 recordings of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir were a pioneering endeavor marking the first successful attempt to record a four-hundred voice choir. That success helped gain for Utah recognition as a cultural center. It also inspired groups and individuals that through music and other cultural pursuits, life could be more fulfilling.

The philanthropy and community service of those who secured their wealth from Utah’s mines and related activities are a recognized part of the state’s history. Individuals such as Thomas and Jenny Kearns, David and Mary Keith, John and Mary Judge, Alfred and Elizabeth McCune, Jesse and Amanda Knight, are perhaps the best known. Add to the list William and Jeannette Ferry, the subjects of our second article. While the Kearns, Keiths, and Judges were Catholics; the McCunes and Knights Mormons, the Ferrys were devout Presbyterians. Already in their fifties, they came to Utah in 1878, settled in Park City, and built an impressive Victorian mansion at the mouth of Thayne’s Canyon. Later, they moved to Salt Lake City where Jeannette became involved in the anti-polygamy movement and William an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1886 and Utah governor in 1904. Their most lasting legacy is their support for the fledgling Westminster College in donating land for the campus and the construction of the women’s dormitory appropriately named Ferry Hall.

A view of Westminster College in 1914 looking east from the west gate toward Converse Hall on the left and Ferry Hall on the right. SHIPLER COLLECTION, UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. (RIGHT) Part of the crowd at the new stadium (now Lavell Edwards Stadium) for a BYU football game in the mid 1960s.

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.

Our last two articles for this issue reveal the difficult challenges in administering religious and educational institutions. In 1926 when John A. Mitty became the third bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake, following Lawrence Scanlan and Joseph S. Glass, he faced what his biographer calls “A spreading perception of financial hopelessness,” among those to whom he was assigned to minister. The letters and notes from Bishop Mitty offer a glimpse of the frustrations, disappointments, burdens, and imperfections of a dedicated leader.

Four decades later, Ernest L. Wilkinson encountered his own frustrations at Brigham Young University. Returning to his post as university president following an unsuccessful campaign for the United States Senate, Wilkinson undertook a dual effort to promote patriotism, capitalism, anti-communism, and obedience, and thwart a perceived encroaching socialism and procommunism encouraged and abetted by some members of his own faculty. The misguided spy episode, the subject of our last article, proved to be a bitter experience for all involved—students, faculty, and administrators. It left a blemish on what was an unprecedented record of growth and the emergence of the “Y” as a nationally recognized and respected university. For some, the BYU spy episode foreshadowed another tragedy that followed a few years later when the nation learned of the Watergate break-in that culminated in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in August 1974.

We conclude this issue with an In Memoriam tribute to a beloved gentleman and historian, Brigham D. Madsen, who died on December 24, 2010, at the age of ninety-six.

FRONT COVER: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, shortly after Utahʼs admission to statehood. CHURCH HISTORY LIBRARY, FAMILY AND CHURCH HISTORY DEPARTMENT, THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS.