Weekly Progress Reports

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Weekly Progress Reports:15 September 2003:

Professor Blackmar,

In the past week I have done a good deal of revision on mytopic, and also talked to some professors at the University of Utah to discover the location of prominent archives as well astheir accessibility to me while I am in New York.

As for the topic, while getting books together aboutcontemporary Mormonism and the history of the religion atButler, I came across a photographic history of Mormonism thatincluded a

photograph that caught my eye of a replica of the Salt Laketemple. In fact, the photo was taken at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair and was the Mormon Pavilion, located at a prominentexhibition site at the fairgrounds. I realized that anexploration of Mormon representation of themselves to the restof the world at New York provided a topic of exploration that

both included an interest in the developments in the builtenvironment, Mormonism and its attachment to Salt Lake City, andit also is likely a topic that has a great deal of relevantarchival material located in New York. I am still working on howto refine a question about what made the Mormon pavilionsignificant/how it relates to the larger philosophy and self-

perceptions of Mormonism, but I think that researching andlearning more overall information about the 1964 Worlds Fair will provide some sparks of interest and allow for a morefocused direction for the subject.

Already I have found some newspaper articles about the Mormon pavilion, as well as brief historical overview of thedevelopment of the fair in the LDS publication Ensign.Although Ensign as a source certainly is biased, it does havegood general information about names, dates, course of events,

but I think ultimately the article might prove more about theMormon attitudes toward the legacy of the fair, than providehistorical facts about the fair. The author of the article is a

professor at Brigham Young University, so I plan on contactinghim and learning where the documents/archives related to hisresearch are, and if it would be possible for me to get accessto them. I have also started to enter some of the research Ihave collected into Scribe, and am learning about how the

program works and how powerful it can be. Although not the mostuser friendly program, I can see how it can certainly serve as a


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powerful tool when it comes time to writing and recalling allthe collected data.

I am now planning on writing to the two professors I was incontact with at the University of Utah and discuss with them my

idea to see if they have any suggestions of resources where Ishould look or other scholars I should contact. I also plan thisnext week to look into much of the original material printed for the fair, which Avery Library has quite a collection of. I havesubmitted a request online to meet with a reference librarian,so hopefully that will happen this next week. I assume thatKenneth Jackson would also be a valuable resource to speak with,and would certainly know the right archives for me to continuemy research.

22 September 2003:

This week I primarily acquired a good deal of secondary source material, both about the1964 Worlds Fair, and also about contemporary Mormonism. I have begun to read intosome of the secondary sources, none of which discuss the convergence of Mormons andthe Worlds Fair too directly, but instead give a broader picture of each of the twothemes. I have read a few articles in a collection entitled Contemporary Mormonism, aswell as pertinent sections relating to proselytizing in the biography of Church PresidentDavid O. McKay. On top of the things about Mormonism and Mormon architecturewhich I have read, I have ordered many articles via InterLibrary Loan which willhopefully be applicable and give a clearer picture of more modern Mormon architectural

building trends, especially regarding the population of the landscape with their wardhouses.

Pertaining to the fair, I have done some preliminary research about the Seattle WorldsFair, and have yet to find any evidence of religious groups having a presence there. The

perception that I have about the fair from the initial investigation I have done seems tosuggest that the Seattle Fair heavily stressed progressive development throughtechnology, and was very much future looking. I read the chapter about the 1964 Fair inRobert A. Caros The Power Broker, which, to say the least, gave a negative view of Moses and his operation of the fair. It did have some useful details about attendancefigures as well as the Jewish leaders attitude toward Moses and the fair at the lack of

presence that either they, or Israel had. I have also continued to go through the New York Times articles pertaining to the Mormon pavilion, some of which discuss the attitudes of

ecumenicalism which seem to be an important reason behind the selection to invite theChristian religions that they did.

I contacted both Martha Bradley, a professor at the University of Utah, whom I hadspoken with earlier, and she seemed enthusiastic about the new direction I have taken mytopic. She did suggest that I look into another Mormon Pavilion which was constructed inOsaka in the 1970s, but I have yet to look into that deeper. I also wrote to Brent L. Top,author of an article about the legacy of the fair, which appeared in the Mormon


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publication Ensign . Although he did not have specific recommendations for further avenues to explore regarding the fair, he did say that the best archives were those of theChurch in Salt Lake City, (and he assumed that there would only be newspaper articles inthe New York archives, although I am remaining more optimistic) which are open to the

public, as I discovered online. He also offered to let me have access to material he had

collected from former LDS President McAllister, which although I assume areapplicable, although I have not seen his name mentioned beyond Tops article. Therefore,I am hoping to fly home and do work in the LDS Church Archives over the election day

break, although nothing has been solidified as of yet.

In this upcoming week, I plan of continuing to read into the secondary source material,much of which will hopefully arrive in Butler during the course of the week. I also have ameeting with John Tofanelli on Tuesday morning, which I hope will expose me to awealth of new sources and avenues I have not yet explored.

29 September 2003:

Most of this week was occupied with reading up on secondary source material about thecontemporary Mormon Church, as I read through Leonard Arringtons section about themodern church in The Mormon Experience, and I also read a few sociological essaysabout the church. Michael Wolfs essay was quite helpful in giving me a better impression of the public perception of the fair, which was not particularly positive to saythe least, and he conveyed that public sentiment quite well. In going through some

primary source material, I found a useful editorial piece in Christian Century , andecumenical publication, where the author lambasted the fairs religious pavilions as he feltthat they generally did not give a very useful or informative treatment of the faithsrepresented. Although he said hardly anything about the Mormon Pavilion, he felt thatthe imitation of the Salt Lake Temple was a distasteful move.In terms of other reading material, I am making my way through books about theecumenical movement, and just picked up The Refiners Fire yesterday, and plan onreading through that this week. I also plan on getting in touch with Professor Bushmanearly this week to meet and see what suggestions/ideas he has.

Also of note, I discovered that much of the display material (artwork, sculptures) that wasused in the Mormon Pavilion was after the fair relocated the Plainview Stake Center inLevittown, NY. I am going to look into their hours, and hopefully be able to make a tripout there next weekend or shortly thereafter in order to see what sort of artistic and

physical representations of the church were placed inside the pavilion. I am unsure of what type of archival material they might have at the Stake center, but perhaps if theyhave the bulk of the pavilion material, they will also have a copy of the film What is aMormon ?

Additionally, I went through the footnotes in the Ensign article about the MormonPavilion and found some useful references to letters and files that were used from theChurch Archives in Salt Lake City. I am going to get in touch with the Archives thisweek and see if it is possible for those records to be set aside for me the days I will be intown to access them.


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I have gotten in touch with Kitty Chibnik, a librarian in Avery, at the suggestion of JohnTofanelli, who will hopefully be able to show me through much of the collection of Worlds Fair material. Although I have not heard back from her, I assume I should beable to meet with her sometime this week. Also in terms of Avery material, I have called

up many maps and other materials relating to the fair from offsite, so hopefully they willarrive shortly and have good images and commentary relating to the religious pavilions.

12 October 2003:This week I found and read into some good material about the convergence

between religious expositions and expositions. I came across a dissertation by JesseTodd, completed in 1996 about the Temple of Religion at the 1939-40 Worlds Fair in

New York, which as a last chapter had a brief discussion of the religious groups presentat the 1964 Fair. The essay seems useful to me in that it argues for the 1939 Fair as beinga moment when America establishes an inclusiveness for the Protestant-Catholic-Jewreligious grouping, and pushes other religions to the outside, making them less

representative of true Americans. Todd relies heavily on the construct developed byHerberg in Protestant-Catholic-Jew , which seems to be a quite opposite of what was seenat the 1964 Fair, with the inclusion of primarily fringe religious movements.Interestingly, Todd talks about how one of the planners of the 1964 Fair wanted tomaintain this religious exclusivity, but individual religious groups made their ownarrangements with the fair, and these three privileged religions were no longer given

primacy in the fair. I am still working through the dissertation, but it is certainly providing me with a good picture of how religion and worlds expositions have cometogether in the major fairs held in the United States.

I also had a productive meeting with Professor Bushman, who suggested aninteresting and different trajectory of Mormon mainstreaming than the one we haddiscussed. He believes that the 1964 Fair marked a true highpoint in the popularity of thechurch, which he does believe is due in part to the popular presence of the MormonTabernacle Choir. Doing some brief Proquest research, I did discover some extensivearticles highlighting the beliefs and lifestyle of members of the LDS Church thatappeared in the New York Times in the early 1960s. Perhaps these sorts of features, oneof which referred to the Mormons as a Peculiar People were aimed to debunk mythsand better incorporate them into the American mainstream, given that they appeared insuch a widely circulated newspaper. The articles overall seemed to be flattering and

positive, lending credence to Professor Bushmans trajectory surrounding the fair. Also,there are numerous accounts of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performing at the fair, asthey included a stop at the fair during a tour during the summer of 1964. I acquired abook about the history of the MTC, but it seems to be mostlycelebratory of the group itself, and does not do much to position theplace of the choir in the larger societal context.

Professor Bushman also gave me a newsletter entitled The New York LDSHistorian, which was dedicated entirely to the Mormon Pavilion. The story that I gleanedfrom the newsletter about the establishment and execution of the Fair was familiar to me,although the newsletter did have some other interesting additional articles about the filmthat was played at the pavilion, entitled Mans Search for Happiness, as well as the


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artwork that they included in the pavilion. Of interest, and which I will be able to photograph a replica of when I am in Salt Lake, is the Christus statue, which was thefirst depiction of Christ that the LDS Church associated with themselves. The fact thatthe 1964 fair was the moment when the Church adopted the most widely acknowledgedChristian icon seems significant as a major symbolic gesture towards being viewed as a

mainstreamed Christian religion. Also, the newsletter confirmed that much of the artwork at the pavilion, and even some pieces of the pavilion itself are still extant and in LongIsland. I have thus far been unable to get in touch with the person who I was referred toover the phone, but I am still trying to get in touch and get out there to photograph thedisplay materials. Professor Bushman also gave me the names of people who would begood to get in touch with and I will be contacting them shortly. He is also looking into,and getting back to me about possible archives that the LDS Church Office Building mayhave here in New York. Although I have not heard back from him, that would certainly

be a profitable find, and hopefully he would be able to get me access to them.The one discouraging piece of news I discovered when talking with the LDS

Church Archives is that they do not allow photocopying of any sort. I did not really get a

sufficient explanation of why they prohibit this, but it certainly forces me to take a newstrategy when collecting information over Election Day break. I plan on that weekend toget to the collections at the University of Utah archives, which are available seven days aweek, so hopefully there should be some good material there. I have obtained a copy of the Mormon American reference work, so I have a good idea of where to look for archival resources, especially those in Utah, which are numerous. The Todd dissertationhas also pointed me towards some useful archives about the 1964 Fair at the New York Public, so I will be able to get into some archival research before being in Salt Lake.

16 November 2003:

Professor Blackmar,

This week my research at the New York Public was very productive and yielded alot of good primary source material. In fact, I think I am now working with the mostapplicable material that the New York Public has that is related to the Pavilion.Specifically, I am now working through the folders in the Religion Boxes, which dealwith all the religious groups present and their pavilions that were at the Fair. Much of thematerial in the folders related to the Mormon Pavilion I have actually encountered at theLDS Archives in the scrapbooks there, but these folders have original brochures andother literature that have not been dissected. One piece of literature which I have not yettranscribed is the text to the film shown at the Fair, Mans Search for Happiness, whichmight have to suffice and stand in place of the actual film itself, although I am stilloptimistic that they have it at the LDS Church Archives.

In terms of content of many of the letters I encountered this week, I amdiscovering that the Fair Commissioners seemed to be most interested in having theMormons at the Fair almost as an excuse to have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir makefrequent appearances and give concerts at the Fair and in New York. Some of the earliest

planning letters talk about scheduling the Choir for week-long performances during bothyears of the Fair, and one of the Fair planners even goes so far as to suggest that the


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Choir be incorporated into the opening ceremonies, although this is quickly shot down inthe next correspondence. What I may in fact be discovering is that the popular culturalconception of the LDS Church was intrinsically linked with their association with theMormon Tabernacle Choir, as that was their most prominent public face, whereascontrastingly, the LDS Church was using the Fair as an opportunity to expound upon,

clarify, and convert others to their religious beliefs, while using the Choir as a vehicle todraw attention to them. I am less sure about the hierarchy of motivating factors to participate in the Fair from the LDS side of things, or rather I should say, that they aremore complicated and multi-faceted. However, I think much of the evidence is beginningto make clear that Mormon participation in the Fair was most attractive to Moses et algiven the renowned public reputation of the Choir.

I still have much of the folder to work through, but thus far, the material in this particular box has been incredibly fruitful and provided me with a clearer picture of theChoirs role at the Fair, and also provided many nice details about the relationship andnegotiations between the planners of the Mormon Pavilion and the Commissioners of theFair.

23 November 2003:

Professor Blackmar,

This weeks research at the NYPL was not as revelatory as last weeks, but Imade my way through some less enjoyable, but important material to take notes on.Among the interesting info I did find is that the involvement of the Mormon TabernacleChoir may have actually been originally suggested, or hinted to, one of the Fair Committee members by an LDS representative, who then expected as part of the formalinvitation to participate in the Fair, a additional invitation from Moses himself, asking theChoir to come perform. Essentially, the Church solicited the Choir invitation fromMoses. While I still think that the documents indicate that the Choir was of utmostimportance to the Fair planners, this finding adds a new twist, whereby the LDS Church

puts the Choir out as their primary representative because they are the most widelyrecognized entity.

I managed to labor through copying down verbatim the text of the film MansSearch for Happiness, which was the feature that was shown at the Mormon Pavilion.The text is an interesting and direct introduction to the main tenets of Mormonism, andhelps to give a good sense of what aspects of their religion they viewed as unique andappealing. The film focuses on the permanence of family, and makes the doctrine supportand reinforce this idea. While the language in the film is not entirely theological, it doesincorporate elements of religious doctrine in order to demonstrate and show how thereligion strongly supports family. I am hoping that the guest registers in Salt Lake Citywill have reactions to the film, so I can get a sense of how the message was understood.

I also found some interesting documents (although there are many more to makemy way through, as it is a large and unorganized folder) that discuss the original plans for religious representation at the 1964-65 Fair. It seems that the Fair planners wanted toessentially have a remake of the Temple of Religion from the 1939-40 Fair, but in thissituation, the Interfaith Movement, Inc. were the instigating group, proposing the Tower


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of Interfaith pavilion. However, a united pavilion for the Catholic, Protestant and Jewishgroups was unable to come together thanks to the costs involved, jurisdictionaldifferences, etc., and the Fair committee viewed this reality as a grim fact. Of coursethis situation needs to be fleshed out much more fully, but I think there is someinteresting material about the original intentions of religion at the Fair that will help to

reveal some of the changes in the American religious landscape in the 25 years since thelast New York Worlds Fair.

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