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In 1894, Congress voted to invite Utah into the Union. President Grover Cleveland signed the Enabling Act, which allowed Utah to officially form a Constitutional Convention. Utahns moved with enthusiasm as they had been waiting for the opportunity to become a state for decades. They held an election to choose the delegates and convened the convention in March of 1895.

This blog post was written by Eric Schubert, a 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. He is a junior at Elizabethtown College and working on his history and political science degree. In today’s day and age, various historical databases can tell us so much about the lives of those who lived before us. By picking a record

We are pleased to announce that two more years of death certificates are now available online as digital images. The years 1968 and 1969 first became publicly accessible 50 years after the dates of death on the certificates.  The State Archives works closely with the Office of Vital Records and Statistics in the Utah Department of Health. The OVRS is

Dr. Hubert F. Andrews had just graduated from the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons when he settled in Gunnison, Utah, in the summer of 1899, taking a job as a Sanpete County quarantine doctor. A year earlier in 1898, Utah’s State Board of Health directed local governments to form their own health boards to oversee the diagnosis of contagious

This blog post was written by Jack Tingey, a 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. Jack graduated from BYU with a BA in history and an emphasis on 19th century American history. In the spring of 1927, Esau Walton awaited forced sterilization under Utah’s eugenics laws. In May of that year, the state corrections board had ruled

The traditional function of a map is to convey information about geography in a two-dimensional way and on a scale that is comprehensible to the user. Maps document relationships of places and geographical features to one another and allow for calculation of distances. They can show lakes, roads, rivers, towns, and even invisible jurisdictional boundaries. But the richest maps are

This blog post was written by Emily Stoll, a summer 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. She is a senior at Weber State University and working on her public history degree. On April 21st, 1897, the Pleasant Valley Coal Company located in Castle Gate, Utah, was robbed in broad daylight. Considered to be one of the

An infographic visualizing the last year in the Digital Archives with information on number of items, statistics on use, and notable additions.

The Latter-day Saints settled the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and for the next fifty years they and following settlers fought for statehood. It took seven attempts to finally realize that goal. 1849 The Latter-day Saints settled the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Part of the appeal of the land was that it belonged to Mexico. They felt they had

In the last post, we explored the political obstacles that prevented Utah from becoming a state until 1896. There was another large obstacle that made Congress wary of giving Utah statehood: polygamy. Polygamy started in April of 1841 when Joseph Smith married his first plural wife. By the time the Latter-Day Saints moved from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Salt Lake