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Rick Turley, 35 Years of LDS Church History (Season 1, Ep. 4 - Part 2)
Date: December 2, 2019 (Season 1, Episode 4 - Part 1: 31 min. & 15 sec. long and Part 2: 19 min. & 58 sec. long). Click here for the Utah Dept. of Culture and Community Engagement version of this Speak Your Piece episode. Are you interested in other episodes of Speak Your Piece? Click Here. This episode was co-produced by Brad Westwood and Chelsey Zamir, with help (sound engineering and post-production editing) from Conner Sorenson (Studio Underground) and Jason Powers (Utah State Library Recording Studio).
This reissued SYP episode is an interview with Richard E. Turley Jr., former Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, with SYP host Brad Westwood in 2019. Turley discusses his thirty-five-year long career in Mormon history including the creation of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. In this near decade quest, Turley and the Church History Department (hereafter CHD) tracked down every known and newly discovered historical source (books, manuscripts, letters, government documents, etc.) about the church founder, in every conceivable location, and then digitized them, ensuring instant digital availability to anyone around the world. During Turley’s tenure the church also created regional history centers across the globe, and digitized millions of other manuscripts, photographs and historical records. To see the church's vast holdings on-line, without a paywall, click on digital holdings.
What is in Part 2 of this episode? The LDS Church has such a broad footprint across the world, how is this history sorted out for the world, beyond Utah? At the time Turley started his position with the Church Historical Department, it was a single destination location to both see and donate LDS Church-related items in Utah. His job made traveling around the world to see artifacts possible, and so Turley became increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of purchasing and moving artifacts and documents away from their original places of origin to a facility in the US. For instance, Turley notes, many documents are written in the local language and bringing them to Utah where users wouldn’t even understand the document didn’t make much sense. Instead, Turley decided to create a series of record repositories around the world where donations could be made and the items could be kept in, or near, their original locations. This effort also allowed for digitization of donated items, making the materials widely available to the world.
Bio: Richard E. Turley, former Assistant Church Historian (and before this, Executive Director) of the Church History Department. Among other works, Turley co-authored in 2008 Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy with Ronald W. Walker and Glen M. Leonard, and in 1992 Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case.
Do you have a question? Write [email protected].
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By Brad Westwood, Senior Public Historian, Utah Dept. of Culture & Community Engagement
4.6
1717 ratings
Date: December 2, 2019 (Season 1, Episode 4 - Part 1: 31 min. & 15 sec. long and Part 2: 19 min. & 58 sec. long). Click here for the Utah Dept. of Culture and Community Engagement version of this Speak Your Piece episode. Are you interested in other episodes of Speak Your Piece? Click Here. This episode was co-produced by Brad Westwood and Chelsey Zamir, with help (sound engineering and post-production editing) from Conner Sorenson (Studio Underground) and Jason Powers (Utah State Library Recording Studio).
This reissued SYP episode is an interview with Richard E. Turley Jr., former Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, with SYP host Brad Westwood in 2019. Turley discusses his thirty-five-year long career in Mormon history including the creation of the Joseph Smith Papers Project. In this near decade quest, Turley and the Church History Department (hereafter CHD) tracked down every known and newly discovered historical source (books, manuscripts, letters, government documents, etc.) about the church founder, in every conceivable location, and then digitized them, ensuring instant digital availability to anyone around the world. During Turley’s tenure the church also created regional history centers across the globe, and digitized millions of other manuscripts, photographs and historical records. To see the church's vast holdings on-line, without a paywall, click on digital holdings.
What is in Part 2 of this episode? The LDS Church has such a broad footprint across the world, how is this history sorted out for the world, beyond Utah? At the time Turley started his position with the Church Historical Department, it was a single destination location to both see and donate LDS Church-related items in Utah. His job made traveling around the world to see artifacts possible, and so Turley became increasingly uncomfortable with the concept of purchasing and moving artifacts and documents away from their original places of origin to a facility in the US. For instance, Turley notes, many documents are written in the local language and bringing them to Utah where users wouldn’t even understand the document didn’t make much sense. Instead, Turley decided to create a series of record repositories around the world where donations could be made and the items could be kept in, or near, their original locations. This effort also allowed for digitization of donated items, making the materials widely available to the world.
Bio: Richard E. Turley, former Assistant Church Historian (and before this, Executive Director) of the Church History Department. Among other works, Turley co-authored in 2008 Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy with Ronald W. Walker and Glen M. Leonard, and in 1992 Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case.
Do you have a question? Write [email protected].