Joseph Smith

Visiting the sites of two 19th-century utopian experiments in the American Midwest.

A visit to the site of Joseph Smith’s divine revelation makes for a different kind of public history experience.

A great-great-grandson of Joseph Smith Jr. found the Mormon prophet’s photo tucked inside a locket passed down for generations.

When the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith ran for president, he wasn’t seeking further glory but a policy change in religious liberty.

Miles Harvey on the life and times of James J. Strang.

Less about morality than about rights, the Mormon War of 1858 hinged on the issue of polygamy, pitting a Utah community against federal authorities.

History and controversy in the architecture of the Latter-day Saints.

Perpetual outsiders, Mormons spent 200 years assimilating to a certain national ideal—only to find their country in an identity crisis.

The Mormon church is still grappling with a racial past.

A reconsideration of Robert Frost at 150.

Wednesday night will bring a brilliant meteor shower, but the far bigger Leonid shower 190 years ago had people believing Judgment Day was at hand.

We're born with a hunger for connection with our ancestors – both biological and spiritual.

From origin stories to blood-purity statutes, we have long enlisted genealogy to serve our own purposes.

Why three religious groups traded monogamy for celibacy, polygamy, and complex marriage.

The debate regarding which Bible kids should read in school was about whether Catholic immigrants should have the full rights of American citizenship.

How stories of abuse in minority religious communities have influenced American culture.

A digital exhibit on the history and legacy of the canal.

The militant abolitionist's execution set a precedent for armed resistance against the federal government with implications for those who had condemned him.