Remembering the Provo Tabernacle

Gordon Daines — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 16:53:05 +0000

Tragedy struck in Provo early this morning as the historic Provo Tabernacle suffered major damage due to fire. Construction of the tabernacle, with its unique octagonal towers at each of the four corners, began in 1883 and was completed in 1898 at the cost of $100,000. The tabernacle quickly became the community and religious home of Provo. The following historic images of the tabernacle come from the photograph collections held by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections. They capture the beauty of the building and highlight the importance that it holds for the Provo and Utah County communities.

The Brigham Young University orchestra performs at the Provo Tabernacle in 1938.

Image of the interior of the Provo Tabernacle, ca. 1910.

A meeting held in the Provo Tabernacle, ca. 1920.

An orchestra practices in the Provo Tabernacle, ca. 1940.

Postacard image of the Provo Tabernacle, 1906.

A view of the Provo Tabernacle from downtown Provo, 1900.

Another view of the Provo Tabernacle from downtown, ca. 1900.

The Provo Tabernacle in the early 1900s.

For more information about the photograph collections documenting the Provo Tabernacle, please contact the Photo Archivist at (801) 422-4170 or tom_wells@byu.edu.

Welcome to the Photograph Archives in Special Collections

Andrew — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:26:37 +0000

“FROM DAGUERREOTYPE TO DIGITAL: CELEBRATING 170 YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHY” is a new exhibit in the L. Tom Perry Special Collection’s exhibit room, level 1 in the Harold B. Lee Library. This exhibit is geared for everyone, from children to adults. Come and enjoy a rare opportunity to see actual vintage photograph from the 1840′s to the present.
One hundred and seventy years ago, decades of research and experimentation came together and photography was born. From these early developments, began the never-ending quest to discover better methods of creating photographic images. This exhibit uses photographs and artifacts from the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, to show some of the many discoveries as photography evolved from the early days of the daguerreotype to the digital age in which we now live. This exhibit runs from August 2009 to May 2010.

The Photograph Archives in Special Collections contains historical images, negatives, and prints from the dawn of photography in the 1840′s to the present. Well over 1,000,000 images including original prints, glass-plate negatives, and film negatives reflect the full range of subjects in which manuscripts are collected, with special emphasis given to the history of photography in Utah and the American West.

The Photograph Archives especially collects the work of Utah photographers, images of Mormonism and the settlement of Utah, and the photographic history of Brigham Young University. The names of some of the photographers represented in this Utah segment of the collection include Charles Roscoe Savage, George Beard, George Edward Anderson, Charles Ellis Johnson, Joseph Bagley, Elfie Huntington Bagley and more recently, J. M. Heslop.

In addition to documenting the history of Utah and western photography, the Photograph Archives devotes attention to the history of American photography. As the archives collects the photographs of individual photographers, it attempts to acquire complete archives of original negatives and prints. The collections comprise virtually every type of photographic record, material, process, format, and size. To preserve the fragile nature of the photographs for future generations, a 1,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art cold-storage facility has been constructed. Within this controlled environment, the expected life of BYU’s photograph collections will last well into the new millennium.

Lark, Utah Photographs MSS P 780

Remembering the Provo Tabernacle

Welcome to the Photograph Archives in Special Collections