Editor's Note

With the publication of this issue, the Journal of Mormon History begins its 52nd year. I am grateful to every subscriber, reader, author, and reviewer who contribute to the Journal. Thank you.At the start of a new year and a new volume, I thought it appropriate to include a short note from the editor to introduce the issue to readers.In addition to the Journal's typically fantastic offering of scholarly articles and book reviews, this issue includes Matthew Grow's keynote address at the 2025 Juanita Brooks Conference on Utah History, a forum on John Taylor's 1886 revelation concerning plural marriage, and a reprint of an article from the Mormon History Association's founding president Leonard J. Arrington, originally published in the 1983 issue of the Journal. I hope everyone finds something engaging, new, or worthwhile in this issue.Dr. Grow's Brooks keynote address focuses on the building of the St. George Temple and the introduction of proxy endowments for the dead, a transformative moment in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It should interest most readers of the Journal, including especially those curious about the history of temples and temple work.Following Grow's address, this issue features a forum on John Taylor's 1886 revelation received while on the underground hiding from federal authorities. A digitized copy of the original revelation, written in Taylor's own hand, was recently made available to researchers via the Church History Library's online catalog, together with additional related documents. Four scholars—Martha Bradley Evans, Cristina M. Cogliano, Seth Perry, and Benjamin E. Park—each approach the revelation and related documents, their history, and their legacies from a different angle, considering genre, authority claims, the history of Mormon Fundamentalism, and plural marriage. I hope it's a preview of additional research on the document that will hopefully appear in these pages in future issues (eager and aspiring scholars, take note).Volume 52, Issue 1 of the Journal of Mormon History also includes two truly excellent articles. The first, by Hovan Lawton (MHA's new student liaison), explores the religious lives of Latter-day Saint converts in Central America during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Looking beyond the pews on Sundays, Lawton highlights the central role other church activities, including mutual, church sports, and ward and branch parties played in acculturating Salvadoran and Guatemalan Saints into the broader church and in creating and sustaining community at the local level. The next article, by art historian Nathan Rees, considers various illustrations printed in the Juvenile Instructor. Without local access to the technology needed to engrave and print original images, editor George Q. Cannon instead repurposed images from non-Mormon publications, in the process converting them into Mormon illustrations. The several images included in Rees's article are reason enough to read, but his analysis also adds considerably to our collective understanding Latter-day Saint art history.I have recently been slowly making my way through each issue of the Journal of Mormon History in chronological order, and in addition to reading and re-reading a lot of excellent scholarship, it has also offered insights into the early history of MHA and JMH, some of which were new to me. In the hopes that others will find similar benefit, included in this issue is Leonard Arrington's “Reflections on the Founding and Purpose of the Mormon History Association, 1965–1983” first published in JMH more than 40 years ago.Last but certainly not least are two insightful reviews of two important books: Rachel Helps reviews Stephen Carter's 2023 biography of Virginia Sorenson and Arcia Tecun reviews Jason Palmer's 2024 Forever Familias: Race, Gender, and Indigeneity in Peruvian Mormonism.If you have been researching some aspect of Mormon history, please consider this your invitation to submit it to the Journal of Mormon History. And if you're interested in reviewing a recently published book in the field, reach out to JMH's book review editor Amanda Hendrix-Komoto.Happy reading!