Category: Images

A Mormon Image: Weighing Eternity

by A Mormon Image • February 17, 2010 • 16 Comments

An oft-quoted passage from our Bible Dictionary states that “only the home can compare with the temple in sacredness.” This statement has been concretely validated in the birth of our children. No experience I have ever had has compared in holiness with our experiences of welcoming our children into this world and into our home. For me, this picture captures a great deal of what my faith is. The baby, a few minutes old, is being weighed. In the mirror you see my wife (taking the picture), myself, our baby, and the midwife mediator who helped us bring our daughter into the world. It very much reminds me of the temple and our covenants. My own pose is for me a visual demonstration of what I hope I am doing as a father. In this picture, as in my life, there is no separation between my religion and my family, my God and family, my home and the sacred, our raising a family and our worship. Perhaps this is a luxury, even within Mormonism. But even without our fantastically blessed experiences, I think this would remain my ideal. by James Olsen This photograph is part of our ongoing series highlighting Mormon images. Comments to the post are welcome; all comments should be respectful. In addition we invite you to submit your own images to the Mormon Image series. Other images in the series can be found here. Rules and instructions,…

Letting Go

by Maren Mecham • January 22, 2010 • 6 Comments

Thanks so much for all the fun. Before departing, I leave this layered perspective on parenthood and then return you to your regular T&S, already in progress.

Sacred Spaces, Holy Ground

by Maren Mecham • January 20, 2010 • 9 Comments

We, the children of our Heavenly Father, naturally make places where we can draw closer to Him. Almost all of us do it- in some way- all over the world. The thoughts and efforts we put into these holy places reflect our theology, values, hopes and desires.

A Mormon Image: Smiles

by A Mormon Image • November 20, 2009 • 7 Comments

“…make the world a better place by smiling all the while.” (Primary Song #267)

From the author of salt lake architecture and green mormon architect blogs.

A Mormon Image: Memorial

by A Mormon Image • November 11, 2009 • 7 Comments

from Bill of Wasilla, who writes:

Dad is the man who lies in this flag-draped coffin. I will not say too much about him for now, except that he was a good father and that, thanks to him, and many more like him, most of them gone now, the evil dream of a man named Hitler died in flames and blood.

We buried Dad on June 2, 2007. He died on Memorial Day.

A Mormon Image: Guardian Angel

by A Mormon Image • November 4, 2009 • 4 Comments

This is a statue of an angel in the cemetery where my first baby is burried. I like that she’s smiling. Death is heartbreaking but it’s not only sad. I am also filled with hope when I think about my son. He is alive and happy and we can be an eternal family. It has always been such a comfort to know that.

Kirsten Obert
Springville, UT

A Mormon Image: House of Learning

by A Mormon Image • November 2, 2009 • 6 Comments

My sister studies outside the John Taylor building on the campus of Brigham Young University- Idaho.

“..seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” D&C 88:118

by Blake

A Mormon Image: Preparing for the Wedding Reception

by A Mormon Image • October 20, 2009 • 24 Comments

Photo by L-s Sus, who writes:

The picture is of my wife and son and was taken at my sister’s wedding. It captures many themes that resonate with my concept of Mormon identity: Family, Motherhood, Nurturing, and Beauty. It also reminds me that we have benevolent heavenly parents who reach down and give assistance, and that we are just children in the grand scheme of things.

Photo Series: A Mormon Image

by Kaimi Wenger • October 18, 2009 • 12 Comments

In an effort to increase the beauty-to-blather ratio around here, we’d like to kick off a new series of posts featuring photos and other images which carry meaning to us because they resonate with our Mormonness. And we’d like to include all of you in this project. That is, we’re inviting you all to send in submissions for the new T&S series, A Mormon Image.

An Image from General Conference

by Nate Oman • April 4, 2009 • 32 Comments

[photo credit: Stallion Cornell]

What My Father Did

by Nate Oman • March 16, 2009 • 34 Comments

A few weeks ago my father retired after spending three decades working for the Church Historical Department. I’m no doubt guilty of an excess of filial piety, but I think that the Church and Kingdom are better for the work that he did.

Lifestyles of the Middle Class and Boring

by Julie M. Smith • June 11, 2005 • 20 Comments

I figure that if Nate can go on and on and on about his garden, I might be indulged if I take you on a tour of my house.

Mormon Images: Office Decor and the Place of Mormonism in American History

by Nate Oman • September 20, 2004 • 34 Comments

A few weels ago I finished my stint at the public trough and left the service of the federal courts. I know work for the law firm of Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood in Washington, DC. The identity of the firm is significant only because this is the firm (and office) where Rex E. Lee practiced law for many years. There is actually a three-foot tall bronze statute of Lee outside the office’s moot court room (named in Lee’s honor). As you might expect, the firm’s DC office hosts a sizable continent of LDS attorneys and their office decor reflects the the trajectory of Mormonism within American society.

A Mormon Image: Gadfield Elm Chapel

by Nate Oman • June 27, 2004 • 6 Comments

One of the interesting factoids of church history is that for a brief period in the 1840s there were more Mormons in Great Britain than in the United States. Beginning with the mission of the Twelve to England, Mormon missionaries were very successful in Britain, especially in the so-called “potteries” region around Manchester. (Momon missionaries didn’t seem to do so well in London, and Wilford Woodruff had some choice things to say about the city in his journal.) The greatest missionary success came among the so-called United Brethren. The United Brethren were a splinter group that had broken off from Methodism. (Methodism had become very popular in Britain, especially among the working class, in the late 19th and early 19th centuries.) The United Brethren were worried about issues of divine authority and Christian primativism. When Wilford Woodruff preached to a congregation of the Brethren in Preston, England, the whole congregation joined the Church, and Mormonism spread like wild fire among other United Brethren and Methodist congregations around Britain. This humble church, located in the vicinity of Worcestershire, England began as a United Brethren chapel. When the congregation largely converted to Mormonism, it was donated to the Church in 1840. Hence is is one of the oldest — perhaps the oldest — Mormon building outside of the United States. When it was acquired by the Church in 1840, it was the only Mormon chapel in the world. (The Saints in Nauvoo…

A Mormon Image: Joseph in the New York Review of Books

by Nate Oman • May 27, 2004 • 4 Comments

For those ever-so-hip, black-turtleneck wearing New Yorkers in our midst, I felt that I would do what I could to relieve any anxiety that you might have about the potential un-hippness of Mormonism. Hence this image of Joseph Smith, which appeared in no less an oracle of Manhattan sophistication than The New York Review of Books. I have to confess that I am a bit mystified as to the significance of the shovel. A reference to money digging perhaps? Digging up the Gold Plates? Who knows. Interestingly, Joseph did visit New York City once in his life. It has been a while since I read the journal entry, but as I recall he thought it was a facinating place, but full of sin and ready for a good smiting by the Almighty. Not a bad description all in all.

A Mormon Image: The Vault

by Greg Call • April 16, 2004 • 7 Comments

The Granite Mountain Vault lies hidden away on the north face of Little Cottonwood Canyon in Salt Lake City. Built by the Church in the early 1960s, the Vault lies under 700 feet of stone, and was meant to withstand a nuclear blast. Contrary to the ramblings of your crazy uncle, it safeguards mainly genealogical microfilm. There is an manmade lake inside that keeps humidity at the optimal level. Alas, it is no longer open for public tours.

Temple Murals Errata

by Nate Oman • March 18, 2004 • 11 Comments

In my post below, I wrongly stated that the Ghana temple was the first one to have murals. My bad. Los Angles (1956) was the last temple to have murals before the recent spat of temple building. The Winter Quarters Temple didn’t have murals, but it has very large, framed paintings in the ordinance rooms. This paved the way for the Columbia River Temple, which was the first recent temple to have true murals. Since then, murals have been included in the temples listed in this comment. In addition, there have been murals in the Monteray, Mexico temple, and the Nauvoo Temple (although these were commissioned after the temple was dedicated).

A Mormon Image: Ghana Temple Murals

by Nate Oman • March 17, 2004 • 6 Comments

Beginning with the Saint George Temple, our temples use to include murals. Generally the endowment would progress from a creation room, to a garden room, to a world room, to a telestial room, and finally to a celestial room. From the Saint George Temple to the Los Angles Temple, the practice was to put murals on the walls of the creation, garden, and world rooms showing some version of creation, garden, and world. Then for a long period of time, these murals disappeared from our temples. With the Ghana temple, they are back.

A Mormon Image: Elijah Abel

by Nate Oman • March 10, 2004 • 16 Comments

Elijah Abel is generally thought to be the first black Mormon. (Click on the picture to the right for a larger image.) He was most likely born into slavery and escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad. In 1832 he was baptized by Ezekial Roberts. In 1836 he was ordained an elder, most likely by Joseph Smith. He was later ordained a Seventy and during the course of his life he served at least three proselyting missions. He came west with the Saints, settling in Salt Lake City, where he worked on the Salt Lake Temple as a carpenter, although Brigham Young refused to allow Elijah to recieve his temple endowment. He died in 1884. Both his son and grandson were ordained Elders. For more information on Elijah Abel and other black Latter-day Saints, check out www.blacklds.org.

A Mormon Image: PETA Goes After the Mormons

by Nate Oman • March 9, 2004 • 47 Comments

Vegetarians seems to be making a serious bid for Mormon converts. Check out this story and this bill board: I can only assume that they have been reading T&S. For extended commentary, including links to the Church PR Deptartment’s reaction go to A Soft Answer.

A Mormon Image: Mormons on the Picket Line

by Nate Oman • February 26, 2004 • 37 Comments

Mormons have a well-deserved reputation as a conservative bunch. Hence, I have to include this wonderful image of leftist Mormons on the picket line.

A Mormon Image: Polygamists in the Pen

by Nate Oman • February 5, 2004 • 12 Comments

In one of the comments below, Judy Miller of the Utah State government asked about the image of the prisoners in our masthead. A large, framed version of this photograph hangs in my office, so I thought I would say a little about it.

A Mormon Image: Fremont’s Map

by Nate Oman • January 29, 2004 • 1 Comment

Shortly before his death Joseph Smith began making plans to move the main body of the Saints to someplace in the American west. After his assination, Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve continued to flesh out these plans, ultimately choosing to move the Saints to the Great Basin. In making their plans they depended on the reports of John C. Fremont and on the maps of the American west that his expeditions had created. Here is one of them.

A Mormon Image: Irish Football

by Nate Oman • January 14, 2004 • 4 Comments

The following picture was sent to me by a law professor that I know at Notre Dame. The picture was taken during the Notre Dame v. BYU football game last fall, which was held in South Bend.

A Mormon Image: The Angel in the Mountains

by Nate Oman • January 6, 2004 • 3 Comments

Mormonism managed to make it as National Geographic’s photograph of the day.

A Mormon Image: Quilting the Tree of Life

by Nate Oman • December 22, 2003 • 4 Comments

What counts as art is an interesting question. We have a bias toward thinking of art in terms of oil paintings, bronze statues, or marble carvings. One of the unfortunate effects of this bias is that it makes much of the art done by women invisibile. You’ll note that most of the work done in those mediums has been done by men. However, if we expand our sense of what constitutes art, there are mediums where women clearly dominate. Consider quilting.

A Mormon Image: Temple Murals and Art Missionaries

by Nate Oman • December 12, 2003 • 11 Comments

While many members don’t realize it, there is actually a fairly strong tradition of impressionistic painting among Mormon artistists. The origins of the tradition go back to the decision of the Church to send some budding young LDS artists to Paris as “Art Missionaries” in the late 19th century. This painting, a study for the mural in the Garden Room of the Salt Lake Temple, is an example of this impressionist tradition.

A Mormon Image: The All-Seeing Eye

by Nate Oman • December 8, 2003 • 34 Comments

During the nineteenth-century all-seeing eyes were a common Mormon image. They seem to have been borrowed from Masonry and represented the presence of God. Accordingly, the symbol was frequently associated with temples, and appears in numerous places on the interior and exterior of the Salt Lake Temple. This image, however, is much earlier and comes from the St. George Tabranacle.

A Mormon Image: The 19th Ward Chapel

by Nate Oman • December 5, 2003 • 4 Comments

When Brigham Young laid out Great Salt Lake City in the 1840s, he modeled it on the Mormon experience in Nuavoo. Thus, the city was divided into wards, which were combined to form the original Salt Lake Stake of Zion. In all there were nineteen of these wards, and they continued to be the core units of the Church in Salt Lake for many, many years. This chapel, built in 1890, housed one of those original wards.

A Mormon Image: A Photograph of Joseph?

by Nate Oman • December 3, 2003 • 19 Comments

Some believe that this image is a photograph of the Prophet Joseph Smith. If they are right, it is the only known photographic image of Joseph . . .

Page 2 of 3

« 1 2 3 »