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Show We expect to send by the Elders who go down to the States a block of Sanpete stone to the Washington Monument, engraved 'holiness to the Lord,' with a Beehive, Horn of Plenty, and the word 'Deseret' in letters across the base," wrote Brigham Young to an agent of the Church in Washington, D.C., during the late summer of 1852.l The beehive had already become a symbol of the ambitious kingdom of God that the Mormons were attempting to build in their new mountain home. The beehive has remained a familiar motif. It can be seen on the neon sign of the Beehive Bakery in Salt Lake City, a bakery operated by a German immigrant who specializes in traditional rye bread. It adorns Brigham Young's 1850s home, the Hotel Utah, the official seal of the state of Utah, and the logos of the Utah State Highway Patrol, Brigham Young University, and Deseret Industries. Once one starts looking, the list extends indefinitely-the eagle gate, newel posts and doorknobs on houses, fire hydrants, sidewalks, clothing, quilts, and all kinds of businesses bear the motif. The beehive is not the only symbol associated with the Mormon experience in Utah which can be found once the listing begins. Documenting the history of these symbols and determining the way in which they function among the general populace is more difficult, however. Many of these motifs originated as institutional symbols of the mid-nineteenth-century Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Because the Church and the state were one and the same in early Utah, the beehive has evolved as an official symbol of the state of Utah. But the symbols are also used more informally on businesses and in homes. The problems of defining the term folk art have already been discussed within this catalog. Rather than retracing such ground and looking for a definition of what might be a legitimate "folk" symbol, it seems more fruitful to admit as a basic premise that the line between folk art and institutional art within the Mormon community would be tentative at best. In fact, drawing such a line would distort the unique contours of the Mormon community; it is best understood as a unique intertwining and meshing of the formal or institutional and the folk. Nor does this essay offer a definitive treatment of the history and meaning of folk symbols. Rather, as a framework for the visual listing of these striking motifs, we shall suggest a historical context and outline possible interpretations. Perhaps this will stimulate further discussion of an important and interesting subject. Leaders of the nineteenth-century Mormon Church consciously attempted to create symbols to buttress theology, ethics, and the economic kingdom-building of the Latter-day Saints. The symbolic language which was used was not unique to the Mor- 110 |
