A Great and Marvelous Work—
Part Four: 1898–1951

Images of an Era:

Gaining Strength

13 Sept. 1898: Lorenzo Snow (right) became fifth President of the Church.

17 May 1899: President Lorenzo Snow received revelation emphasizing tithing.

10 Oct. 1901: President Lorenzo Snow died.

17 Oct. 1901: Joseph F. Smith (below) became sixth President of the Church.

Jan. 1902: First issue of the Children’s Friend was published.

29 Jan. 1903: Elder Reed Smoot of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was elected to United States Senate; controversy arose over his ties to the Church.

15 Oct. 1903: Brigham Young Academy became Brigham Young University.

5 Apr. 1904: President Joseph F. Smith issued “Second Manifesto.”

1905: LDS Hospital opened in Salt Lake City.

23 Dec. 1905: Joseph Smith Memorial dedicated in Sharon, Vermont.

1906: Sunday School organized classes for adults.

1906: Joseph F. Smith was the first Church President to visit Europe.

20 Feb. 1907: Senate voted to allow Reed Smoot to retain his Senate seat.

1908: Bishops’ tithing storehouse closed; most tithing paid in cash.

Nov. 1909: First Presidency issued statement, “Origin of Man.”

1911: Church adopted Boy Scout program.

1912: Revolutions in Mexico forced Saints in nine Latter-day Saint Mexican colonies to evacuate.

Fall 1912: First LDS seminary (below) established at Granite High School, Salt Lake City.

1913: Boy Scout organization made part of the MIA program.

28 June 1914: Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary triggered World War I.

Jan. 1915: First issue of Relief Society Magazine published.

1915: Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage published.

1915: First Presidency counseled members to hold regular family home evenings.

30 June 1916: First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued statement, “The Father and the Son.”

2 Oct. 1917: Church Administration Building (below) completed.

3 Oct. 1918: President Joseph F. Smith received “Vision of the Redemption of the Dead” (D&C 138).

11 Nov. 1918: World War I ended.

19 Nov. 1918: President Joseph F. Smith died.

23 Nov. 1918: Heber J. Grant became seventh President of the Church.

27 Nov. 1919: Hawaii Temple dedicated.

6 May 1922: Station KZN (later KSL) broadcast message from President Heber J. Grant—first time the Church taught the gospel by radio.

26 Aug. 1923: Alberta Temple dedicated.

1925: Mission home to prepare missionaries opened in Salt Lake City.

Fall 1926: First institute of religion established at Moscow, Idaho.

23 Oct. 1927: Arizona Temple dedicated.

15 July 1929: Mormon Tabernacle Choir began weekly network radio broadcasts which became “Music and the Spoken Word.”

29 Oct. 1929: Stock market crash led to the Great Depression.

1930s: Church junior colleges (except Ricks College in Idaho) were transferred to states.

6 Apr. 1930: Centennial of the organization of the Church celebrated.

4 Apr. 1931: Church News section of Deseret News commenced publication.

7 Apr. 1936: Church security program initiated help for the poor during Great Depression; became Church welfare program.

Apr. 1937: Church challenged members to store a year’s supply of food.

1938: Deseret Industries program established.

1938: Genealogical Society of Utah (now Family History Department) began microfilming genealogical records.

1 Sept. 1939: Hitler’s invasion of Poland marked the beginning of World War II in Europe.

6 Apr. 1941: Assistants to the Twelve first called.

7 Dec. 1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led United States to declare war.

14 May 1945: President Heber J. Grant died.

21 May 1945: George Albert Smith (left) became eighth President of the Church.

2 Sept. 1945: World War II ended.

23 Sept. 1945: Idaho Falls Temple dedicated.

6 Nov. 1945: Spanish temple sessions began in Arizona Temple (first non-English temple sessions performed).

28 Jan. 1946: Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles set apart as president of the European Mission and charged to attend to the temporal and spiritual needs in war-torn Europe.

Sept. 1946: Elder Spencer W. Kimball of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called to lead Church Lamanite Committee.

1947: Church membership reached 1 million.

24 July 1947: Centennial of the pioneers’ arrival in the Salt Lake Valley celebrated.

1950: Early-morning seminaries inaugurated in California.

1950: Building missionaries erected schools in the Pacific.

25 June 1950: Korean War began when North Korean troops invaded South Korea.

4 Apr. 1951: President George Albert Smith died.

Historical photos courtesy of LDS Church Archives, except as noted

Tithing scrip issued by the Cache Stake in Logan, Utah. (Courtesy of Museum of Church History and Art.)

Lorenzo Snow, by Lewis A. Ramsey

A marching band sponsored by the Boy Scouts assembles for a presentation in front of the Church Administration Building.

Left: The Joseph Smith Memorial was dedicated in Sharon, Vermont, 100 years after the Prophet’s birth. Below: This mother and her children were among Saints from nine LDS Mexican colonies forced to evacuate their homes in 1912.

John A. Widtsoe, later of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and his wife, Leah, gather with two of their children in 1912. (Photo courtesy of Utah State Historical Society.)

Above: The Hawaii Temple, dedicated in 1919. (Photo by Craig W. Dimond.) Right: President Heber J. Grant with his counselors, President J. Reuben Clark Jr. (left) and President David O. McKay (right).

A home for newly called missionaries was established in Salt Lake City in 1925.

Above: Members enjoy an outing near Cardston, Alberta, Canada, after the dedication of the Alberta Temple. Below: Elder Richard L. Evans, later of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, delivers the “Spoken Word” accompanying the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast.

Above: Bishops’ storehouses were especially helpful in providing food and other goods for the needy in the 1930s. (Photo courtesy of Wide World Photos.) Left: In this photo, circa 1939, a woman studies family history records on one of the earliest known microfilm readers. Below: Deseret Industries stores began selling secondhand goods in 1938.

President George Albert Smith. (George Albert Smith, by Lee Greene Richards.)

Above: The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1931. Below: Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (left), who traveled to Europe following World War II, surveys Nazi aircraft wreckage.