Category: History

BYU in Playboy

From the September 1982 edition of the Sunstone Review. BYU’s Wilkinson Center bowling alley comes in dead last according to the October Playboy’s ranking of “sex on campus” among 20 American universities. BYU’s sexual temperature was a frigid 4 degrees while the “frontier free-for-all” University of Texas (Austin) boiled at a libidinous 212. In fourteen …

Read more

Before the Bombs: A Mark Hofmann Interview

In September 1982, the Sunstone Review published an interview with Mark Hofmann. At the time, Hofmann was known for having found a series of extraordinary historical documents. One was the Anthon transcript, which contained symbols Joseph Smith allegedly copied from the golden plates and sent to New York scholar Charles Anthon. Another contained an alleged …

Read more

Household Codes and “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”

By M. David Huston M. David Huston lives and works in the Washington, DC metro area. He is a husband and the father of four children.   Although it remains outside the LDS Church’s canonized scripture, “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (hereafter, “the Proclamation”) is framed authoritatively. It ascribes “divine design” to the …

Read more

The Children’s Friend on Mushrooms

Recently I saw Ardis Parshall of Keepapitchinin post the August 1925 cover of The Children’s Friend (the official publication of the LDS Church’s Primary organization). What made the image interesting was the fact that it showed two children sitting with their dog in front of a gigantic mushroom. The mushroom had windows and doors in …

Read more

Daniel Webster Jones: A Western Hero

By Victoria Riskin Victoria Riskin is an award-winning television writer, former president of the Writers Guild of America West, and the author of Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir.     Or download the audio file here: Daniel Webster Jones: A Western Hero     A statue of Daniel Webster, the great American …

Read more

Polygamy and the Early Mormon Hawaiian Mission

By John J. Hammond John J. Hammond has a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He taught political science and philosophy at Kent State University for thirty-five years, retiring in 2007. For the past fourteen years, he has enjoyed researching Mormon topics.     Or right-click here to download the audio.   …

Read more