Professional historians and history enthusiasts from around the world will gather at the Utah Valley Convention Center for a ball on June 6.
They will be there for the Mormon History Association’s 2015 conference, and the dance will be a throwback to the Gold and Green Balls held by wards in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint in the early 20th century. It’s part of this year’s conference theme, “Mormon Cultures/Cultural Mormons,” and of the celebration of MHA’s 50th birthday.
The MHA was organized in December 1965 at a meeting for the American Historical Association. Led by Leonard J. Arrington, historians banded together at that conference to create a forum for people interested in Mormon history.
According to its website at mormonhistoryassociation.org, the MHA began as an American Historical Association affiliate, became independent in 1972 and began publishing its journal, the “Journal of Mormon History,” in 1974.
Now, in 2015, it celebrates its own legacy along with Mormon history, having survived and grown for five decades.
“That is quite a landmark for a totally independently funded organization, run almost entirely by volunteers,” said Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, current MHA president.
The MHA has grown to include LDS and non-LDS members, professional historians and people more interested in family history. Public relations chairman Jonathan Stapley said the MHA's mission is to be the expert source for Mormon history.
Along with the Gold and Green Ball, the conference will host a birthday party, pioneer games and a musical devotional. During the Saturday luncheon, members will present experiences and memories of the association.
Members also have the option of attending pre-conference tours, including a visit to the LDS Motion Picture Studio. A post-conference tour will explore the Tintic Mining District and the Topaz Museum. All events are meant to incorporate Mormon cultural activities into the conference schedule.
“It’s a scholarly conference, so there are going to be a lot of talks,” Ulrich said. “We hope they’ll be lively and there will be a lot of discussion, but we’re also doing some somewhat innovative things.”
Those lectures will include a presidential address from Ulrich, titled “Runaway Wives, 1840–1860,” which she said will detail the relationship between women’s organizations and plural marriage in church history. Ulrich is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and 300th anniversary university professor at Harvard University.
Colleen McDonnell of the University of Utah and Margaret Jacobs of the University of Nebraska will also give plenary lectures.
Ulrich said they have tried to incorporate more recent Mormon history into conference lectures. Although many researchers center their work on the origins of the church and its move to Utah, the church has continued to change since then.
“Anything that happened yesterday is part of our history,” Ulrich said. “So I think if you look at the program, you will see much more attention to the 20th century.”
She and Laurie Maffly-Kipp, MHA president-elect and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, along with the rest of the board members, have also been working to increase international involvement, both in research presented and attendees.
“I think sometimes we tend to look at what happens once people get to the United States rather than where they’ve come from and what is happening in the world of Mormonism in other places,” Maffly-Kipp said.
From its beginning as a dependent affiliate of the American Historical Association to its 50-year celebration, the MHA has increased its membership, and its leaders say they aim to serve all parts of that membership by presenting the most accurate and up-to-date history of Mormonism.
“There will be different types of papers and different types of voices, but the goal is to continue and further the scholarship on Mormon history,” Stapley said.
Email: jjohnson@deseretnews.com