The Brigham Young Center exists to advance two closely related goals:
The Brigham Young Center operates as a nonprofit foundation supported by private funding. Though an independent institution, we coordinate with the Church History Department (CHD) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, custodian of the largest extant collection of Brigham Young, and with other repositories. The Center’s professional staff employ the high scholarly standards expected in documentary editions and in scholarly publications.
No historical figure had a greater role in the development of the American West than Brigham Young. His influence for more than three decades on the development and historical trajectory of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and on Mormon country — all of the Great Basin and beyond — was even greater. Yet few historical figures receive more criticism, and few are more routinely misrepresented and misunderstood than Brigham Young. Often the target of anti-Mormon polemics and stereotypes, he was “infamous” as well as famous in his own day. Though often uninformed and unfair, such images persist. The Center’s resources will allow him to be seen through his own papers and in his own historical context. These materials will also allow students to assess for themselves his long life and extensive work based on the original manuscripts that document that life and work as they unfolded.
