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Relief Society (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

 Organization

Corporate History

The Relief Society is the women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which was initially led by Emma Hale Smith in Nauvoo, IL in 1842. During the group's existance, it has been an organization dedicated to providing lessons, activities, and service opportunities for the women of the Church in both a ward and stake setting.

The Relief Society was established by various women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sarah M. Kimball's house in Nauvoo, IL in 1842. After giving their constitution to Joseph Smith, they set up various presidencies within their wards/stakes and selected Joseph Smith's wife Emma to serve as the overall president of the Society.

Between Joseph Smith's martyrdom in 1842 and 1866, the Society fell into disarray under Brigham Young's leadership of the Church. While he did allow various female-led societies to assist in the Church's exodus to Utah to assist in midwifrey (The Female Council of Health) and in developing bonds with the Native Americans, the general involvement of the Relief Society in the Church was weak.

From 1866 on, Brigham Young and later leaders of the Church made more of a concerted effort to make sure that the Relief Society would play a more predominant role in the Church. Not only did he call a new General President of the Society to lead the group (starting with Eliza Snow), but he permitted the Society to create magazines, be more actively involved in the ward, etc. Through the group's involvement of the Church, they contributed to the Church's welfare program, strengthen homes during times of war, and became Red Cross units in wartorn nations in World War I and World War II. They also worked to prevent the passage of the Equal Rights Ammendment, established the Women's Research Center at BYU, and so on.

Citation:
The Encyclopedia of Mormonism, via WWW, August 19, 2016 (Relief Society)

Found in 9 Collections and/or Records:

Emmeline B. Wells ledger book, 1892-1895

 Item — Box 2: [Barcode: 31197232549466], Folder: 1
Identifier: Vault MSS 805
Scope and Contents

Ledger book used by Emmeline B. Wells to record membership in the Utah Suffrage Association between December 23, 1892 and May 20, 1895 (pages 6-18); and a verbatim handwritten copy of the minutes of the Female Relief Society in Nauvoo, Illinois, taken from the original record created from March 17, 1842 to March 16, 1844.

Dates: 1892-1895

Female Relief Society record book

 Digital Record
Identifier: MSSSSC23
Dates: 1854

Female Relief Society record book

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS SC 23
Scope and Contents

Minute book of the Female Relief Society in Salt Lake City, Utah, which outlines the activities, resolutions and meetings of the society. The record was kept by Louisa R. Taylor, the society's secretary, and includes entries for meetings from January 9-June 13, 1854.

Dates: 1854

Joseph Field Smith Institute administrative records, 1984-2005

 Series — Multiple Containers
Identifier: UA 1214 Series 1
Scope and Contents

Contains corporate minutes, reports, schedules, agendas, photographs, letters, memoranda, suget forms, programs and clippings concerning the administrative files of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History. These administrative files deal with faculty reports, symposiums, lectures, grants, and projects of the various programs and researches of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, 1984-2005.

Dates: 1984-2005

Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History records

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: UA 1214
Scope and Contents Contains correspondence, newspaper articles, reports, manuscripts, oral histories, and other material concerning the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History, mostly from 1940-2005. Collection includes administrative files, history of the Primary and Relief Society organizations within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, social services and women in the church. The records concerning the Primary and Relief Society organizations document the beginning of those...
Dates: 1880-2005

Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History records on Women History Initiative Team, 1977-2008

 Sub-Series — Carton 3: Series 1; Series 2 [Barcode: 31197233286498], Folder: 6-59
Identifier: MSS 8009 Series 2 Sub-Series 7
Scope and Contents Contains materials related to the Women's History Initiative Team (WIT) of the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute. Includes meeting minutes, strategy notes, correspondence and memorandums, programs and schedules for seminars and symposia, faculty retreat records, published articles, poetry, information on summer fellowships and photographs from a reunion, records on the Mormon Women's History Course 390 R, records from the Eliza R. Snow film project, and lists of dissertations and published...
Dates: 1977-2008

Robert Orr papers

 File — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 814
Scope and Contents

Handwritten poems, minutes of a meeting of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a biography of Zina D. H. Young, a wife of the second president of the Church, Brigham Young. The poems were written at the death of Brigham Young in 1877. The Relief Society minutes relate to a meeting held in the 64th District school house on 7 Nov. 1893 in an unknown location.

Dates: 1877-1893

Mary A. Porter family papers

 Collection
Identifier: MSS 6198
Scope and Contents

Collection contains minutes, notes, histories, genealogy, yearbooks, and other material related to the Porter and Ashby families. Includes documentation from Mary Ashby Porter's service in the Relief Society, as well as family papers. Materials date from between 1925 and 2005.

Dates: 1925-2002; 2005

Relief Society record book

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 2058
Scope and Contents

Includes meeting minutes and financial entries. The record chronicles the Relief Society of the West Joran Ward, 1868-1877; North Jordan Ward, 1877-1892; and Taylorsville Ward (renamed from North Jordan Ward), 1892-1897. Includes a typed transcript, prepared by BYU Special Collections and Manuscripts, of the record book.

Dates: 1868-1897