Acknowledgments

Hundreds of people contributed to this new history of the Church, and we are grateful to each one of them. We are indebted to the generations of historians employed by the Church who have meticulously collected and preserved the records on which this book is based. Special thanks to James Goldberg, David Golding, Elizabeth Mott, Jennifer Reeder, and Ryan Saltzgiver for creating the supplemental materials online. The digitization of sources was led by Audrey Spainhower Dunshee and completed by staff of the Church History Department’s Preservation Division and Enhanced Processing team.

All staff members, missionaries, and volunteers in the Church History Department contributed directly or indirectly to this book. In particular, we thank the following for their feedback on draft material: Matthew Godfrey, LaJean Purcell Carruth, Chad Foulger, David Grua, Kate Holbrook, Jennifer Reeder, and Brent Rogers of the Publications Division; Jenny Lund, Jacob Olmstead, Chad Orton, Benjamin Pykles, Emily Utt, and Aaron West of the Historic Sites Division; Clint Christensen, Scott Christensen, and Matthew Geilman of the Global Support and Acquisitions Division; and Christine Cox, Emily Marie Crumpton, Keith Erekson, Brandon Metcalf, and Tyson Thorpe of the Library Division. We also thank James Goldberg and Angela Hallstrom for helping shape the literary structure of the book and Catherine Reese Newton, Alex Hugie, Lorin Groesbeck, and Petra Javadi-Evans for editorial contributions. The members of the Church Historian’s Press Editorial Board provided ongoing support.

Many expert readers reviewed chapters. These include Allen Andersen, Jill Andersen, Ian Barber, Laurel Barlow, Richard Bennett, M. Joseph Brough, Claudia Bushman, Richard Lyman Bushman, Néstor Curbelo, Kathryn Daynes, Jill Mulvay Derr, Devin G. Durrant, Sharon Eubank, Christian Euvrard, J. Spencer Fluhman, Jennefer Free, Fiona Givens, Terryl Givens, Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye, Khumbulani Mdletshe, Dmitry Mikulin, Marjorie Newton, Andrew Olsen, Bonnie L. Oscarson, Darren Parry, W. Paul Reeve, Carlos F. Rivas, Cristina Sanches, Jorge L. Saldivar, Russell Stevenson, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Marissa A. Widdison, and Jared Yang. We also thank Dean Hughes, Jay A. Parry, and Larry E. Morris for helping research and write early drafts of this volume. Sarah Clement Reed, Michael Knudson, Emily Brignone, Savannah Woolsey Larson, Heather Olsen, Kristlynn Roth, and Annie Smith offered valuable assistance translating the letters of Anna and John Widtsoe.

Greg Newbold created the engaging artwork. John Heath, Debra Abercrombie, and Miryelle Resek contributed to the outreach effort. Deborah Gates, Kiersten Olson, Jo Lyn Curtis, Cindy Pond, and Debi Robins provided administrative assistance. Nick Olvera provided project management.

Members of several Church departments contributed, including a cross-departmental team made up of Irene Caso, Drew Conrad, Irinna Danielson, David Dickson, Norm Gardner, Paul Murphy, Alan Paulsen, and Jen Ward. Eliza Nevin of the Publishing Services Department oversaw the final publication process, and Patric Gerber, Alyssa Aramaki, Katrina Cannon, Heather Claridge, Hillary Olsen Errante, Stacie Heaps, Christopher Kugler, Lindsey Maughan, Taylor Nelson, Katie Parker, Benson Y. Parkinson, Heather Randall, Greg Scoggin, Preston Shewell, and Kat Tilby provided production assistance. Other contributors include Nic A. Benner, Alan Blake, Christopher Blake Clark, Matt Evans, Brooke Frandsen, Jeff Hatch, Jim McKenna, Jared Moon, Casey Olson, Benjamin Peterson, Paul VanDerHoeven, Gary Walton, and Scott Welty. Translators carefully prepared the entire text in thirteen languages.

We appreciate the contributions of Steven C. Harper, who served as general editor of Saints, and of past Church History Department executives Elder J. Devn Cornish, Reid L. Neilson, and Richard E. Turley Jr., who helped guide the project for many years. We especially thank Elder Steven E. Snow, emeritus General Authority Seventy, who served for seven years as Church Historian and Recorder and executive director of the Church History Department, and without whom this book could not have been published.