VIDEO—Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, “‘Huddling Together’: Rethinking the Position of Women in Early Mormonism”

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has spent much of her career investigating the lives of nineteenth-century women. But it wasn’t until her most recent project that she turned her attention to women of her own faith tradition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Having grown up in the LDS faith she encountered many familiar things through her latest research. But she also discovered much to “trouble the old stories,” things that cast new light on what it as like to be a Mormon in the early days—especially for women.“There’s a lot to learn from this story,” Ulrich explained in a recent lecture at Brigham Young University. “It’s a sad story. It’s a very sad story. People are working through horrible conflicts and confusion. And people got hurt. But there’s something about the resilience of these interesting women…It’s an uplifting story.”In celebration of Women’s History Month, the Maxwell Institute co-sponsored a lecture in March by Dr. Ulrich in partnership with the BYU Women’s Study Program and BYU’s Department of History on her book A House Full of Females. The lecture, “‘Huddling Together’: Rethinking the Position of Women in Early Mormonism,” is now available on the Maxwell Institute’s YouTube channel.

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About Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich was born in Sugar City, Idaho. She holds degrees from the University of New Hampshire, University of Utah, and Simmons College. She is 300th Anniversary University Professor at Harvard University and past president of the American Historical Association. Her book A Midwife’s Tale received a Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize. She is immediate past president of the Mormon History Association. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her latest book is A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870.