Item Detail
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30055
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0
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20
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English
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Where the World, Babel, and Zion Meet : Redefining the Mormon People at the 1964-65 Mormon Pavilion
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Journal of Mormon History
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July 2018
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44
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3
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Champaign, IL
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University of Illinois Press; Mormon History Association
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89-111
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For a series of general conference addresses delivered during the mid-1960s, Bernard P. Brockbank spoke on the impact of the Mormon Pavilion at the 1964–65 World’s Fair in New York. As an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and managing director of the Mormon Pavilion, he triumphantly proclaimed, “The entire image and acceptance of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have greatly improved in the eastern part of the United States and throughout the world.” For Brockbank, and many Latter-day Saints associated with the Mormon Pavilion, the edifice erected to resemble the Church’s Salt Lake Temple changed Mormonism’s public perception. Although scholars agree the pavilion helped reshape the 1960s Mormon image, they focused on the historical and political context and attributed its success to its “unique design,” and the mere “participat[ion] [of the Church] in a mainstream cultural event.”
But was there something about the space of the Mormon Pavilion that made a difference? According to historian Brent Top, 99 percent of the visitors had a positive perception of Mormonism after their visit. But why? What about the space influenced their views? The visitors left no universal answer. I suggest Henry Lefebvre’s and Edward Soja’s thirdspace can help us understand the pavilion’s impact on individuals. This theory sheds light on visitor’s responses to the Mormon Pavilion as a physical, mental, and social space and
shows how their experiences shifted their paradigm. This article first outlines the thirdspace concept. It then surveys the historical connection between Mormon community and Mormon space using the Salt Lake Temple as an example. Finally, I will apply thirdspace to the Mormon Pavilion. This will provide insights on how each space influenced the nearly six million visitors. I conclude the Mormon Pavilion was paramount in shaping public opinion about Mormon space and the Mormon community by showing Mormons as an open, genuine, familiar, and informed people.
[Author's Introduction] -
A Peculiar People : Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America
City Saints : Mormons in the New York Metropolis
Encyclopedia of Mormonism : The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
History of Mormon Exhibits in World Expositions
Legacy of the Mormon Pavilion
Making Space for the Mormons : Ideas of Sacred Geography in Joseph Smith's America
Mormonism in National Periodicals
Nineteenth-Century Mormon Architecture and City Planning
Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History : New York
Reviling and Revering the Mormons : Defining American Values, 1890-2008
Sacred Space and City Planning : The Mormon Example
Secrets and the Making of Mormon Moments
Sojourner in the Promised Land : Forty years among the Mormons
The Mapmakers of New Zion : A Cartographic History of Mormonism
The Miracle of the Mormon Pavilion : The Church at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair
The Mormon Graphic Image, 1834-1914 : Cartoons, Caricatures, and Illustrations
The Mormon Image in the American Mind: Fifty Years of Public Perception
The Mormon Pavilion : Mainstreaming the Saints at the New York World's Fair, 1964-65
To Transform History : Early Mormon Culture and the Concept of Time and Space