Item Detail
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26069
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3
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0
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English
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Joseph F. Smith and the Origins of the Church Historic Sites Program
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Joseph F. Smith : Reflections on the Man and His Times
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Provo, UT
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Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, BYU; Deseret Book
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342-358
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When Joseph F. Smith became President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 17, 1901, the Church owned one historic site—an acre of ground and a small monument in a cemetery at Mount Pisgah, Iowa. At his death seventeen years later, the Church boasted more than 550 acres over six Church history sites stretching from Sharon, Vermont, to Salt Lake City, Utah. This major foray into the ownership, preservation, and interpretation of historic places formed the foundation of a Church historic sites program that has expanded to include, as of 2012, approximately twenty-five key sites, dozens of markers and monuments, and nearly one hundred historic temples, tabernacles, and meetinghouses. At first glance, it appears that the acquisition of historic sites during the Joseph F. Smith administration was a calculated effort to memorialize the Church’s past. On closer examination, however, it is a much more complicated story—one in which opportunity and serendipity play prominent roles. [From the text]