The History of the Mormons in Photographs and Text: 1830 to the Present Douglas F. Tobler and Nelson B. Wadsworth

BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 30 | Issue 4 Article 15 10-1-1990 The History of the Mormons in Photographs and Text: 1830 to the Present Douglas F. Tobler and Nelson B. Wadsworth Richard Neitzel Holzapfel Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Recommended Citation Holzapfel, Richard Neitzel (1990) "The History of the Mormons in Photographs and Text: 1830 to the Present Douglas F. Tobler and Nelson B. Wadsworth," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 30 : Iss. 4 , Article 15. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol30/iss4/15 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the All Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact , . Holzapfel: <em>The History of the Mormons in Photographs and Text: 1830 to t book reviews 75 DOUGLAS F TOBLER and NELSON B WADSWORTH the cormons in photographs and text 1830 to the history of the mormons present new york st martins press 1989 294 ap 39.95 pp 3995 3995 reviewed by richard neitzel holzapfel the director of the institute of religion university of california irvine and T jeffery cottle an attorney in provo utah mormons in photoWad sworths the history odthe tobler and wadsworths of the cormons ofthe graphs and texts 1830 to the present is certainly the most impor- tant collection of historic mormon photographs available to date although published in 1989 the sesquicentennial of the invention of photography the book is essentially a translation of their 1987 zum licht we were pleased to see an english volume der weg mm version of this book the book borrows heavily from an earlier work by wadsworth through camera eyes 1975 the first major attempt to publish the photographic history of the church and in many ways superior to the tobler wadsworth effort though the latter offers many more photographs the similarities are especially notable in the chapter freezing moments of time however the two works do contain inconsistencies for example in through camera eyes the photograph of george edward anderson 9 11 is reversed from mormons 38 its appearance in the history of the cormons wadsworth provided the majority of the photographs for mormons from his twenty years of research histohistory of the cormons Wad sworths vision that rians have only recently come to share wadsworths photographs are historical documents that help illuminate the past my philosophy wadsworth writes has been to get them preserved and protected before someone decides to throw them away 8 his preservation of these treasures has been invaluable the current book is potentially a promised valley for the historian but it does not achieve that potential attempting to absorb the books wealth of material is reminiscent of the experience of the pioneers who entered the salt lake valley after the initial trail blazers beautiful vistas are in sight with little more than a hastily cleared trail leading to them the pioneers wanted to savor their travel into the valley but the burdensome trail prevented them from doing so in this book the images of the saints are powerful the daguerreotype of pioneer children 16 and the photograph of four generations of the F D richards family 230 are compelling visual reminders of the real people of flesh and bone who are sometimes lost in the black ink of historical writing but the flawed structure of the book for example inconsistencies between text and capgennan to tions and the failure to complete the adaptation from a german an american audience presents serious impediments to enjoyment Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1990 1 BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 30, Iss. 4 [1990], Art. 15 76 BYU studies minor revisions were made to the 1987 german version but it is evident that minimal effort was given to prepare it for an american audience often more knowledgeable about mormonism and certainly less concerned about german mormon history and its cormons or german scholars at first we were famous german mormons mormons had broadened beyond the delighted that a history of the cormons generally parochial view of the church but we soon discovered that this book which includes the basic mormon story never gets out of the black forest as it moves beyond the anglo american story line it ignores africa asia the pacific islands and south and central centric attitude is pervasive as shown by the eurocentric america its Euro phrasing of its discussion of polygamy though rarely preached and never practiced in europe 99 the narrow german context is also seen in the comparison of joseph smith and the german reformer ref oriner martin luther in a guileless attempt like luther joseph smith ventured to answer troubling personal questions 51 though helpful to a german audience the germanic perspective may puzzle american readers who cannot be expected to know german history very well or to translate for themselves german quotations such as those from busch and from meyer found in footnote 17 292 inherent in any photographic history is the struggle to combine text and photographs in a way that will not lose the reader who must move between the photographs and the written word leading the reader from one page of text to another when several pages of photographs divide them is difficult help is sometimes provided in this book for example the reader is informed that a quote from brigham young that begins on page 99 is continued on page 105 in other places though the difficulty of following textual material among the photographs is considerable for example the text on page 105 continues on page 112 without any indication of such a long textual gap the history presented in the text includes several oversimplificat ions and errors of fact or source checking an example of such fications inaccuracy is the authors explanation that john D lee a leading mormon in the area was hanged for his part in the mountain monnon Bit meadows affair147 affair 147 they cite arlington arrington and bittons tons the bittens mormon experience as their source but lee is not mentioned on the pages specified in the footnote and instead of describing lee as hanged arrington arlington and bitton write that he was executed by a firing squad at the site of the massacre oddly tobler and wadsworth relate the story correctly in a photograph caption on page 145 while these problems may seem small larger problems face the historian interested in using the book for research the bibliog https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol30/iss4/15 2 Holzapfel: <em>The History of the Mormons in Photographs and Text: 1830 to t book reviews 77 raphy and note sections are incomplete and contain inaccuracies and there is no index the bibliography has surprising weaknesses Wad sworths early work is not cited christian for example wadsworths andersons private journal which is quoted only once 292 is cited as a source bu (...truncated)