From Deseret News archives:

Old Young photo donated to BYU

Published: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 10:12 p.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
PROVO — Historians believe Brigham Young sat for two photographs taken by Salt Lake City's lone commercial daguerreotypist during a single sitting in 1852, '53 or early '54.

The images captured that day are two of the five earliest-known images of Young, and one of them is now in the possession of the school that bears his name, Brigham Young University.

One of the fragile daguerreotypes is on display in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. Daguerreotype detectives like BYU historian Richard Holzapfel feared the other had been damaged and thrown away or was otherwise lost or destroyed until Bountiful residents Mark and Suzanne Richards donated it to BYU in December.

"This is a rare item. My guess is that it has to be worth at least $25,000 to $40,000," said Holzapfel, co-author of "Brigham Young, Images of a Mormon Prophet."

Historians knew one of Young's daughters gave the daguerreotype to Richards' grandfather Preston Nibley in the 1930s. Nibley included the image in a 1936 biography titled "Brigham Young, The Man and His Work."

Nibley died in 1966, and Richards was 16 when his grandmother died in 1980 and the daguerreotype passed to him.

Story continues below
"When I first got it, I didn't realize it had as much value as it does," Richards said. "The last few years, as I learned more about daguerreotypes, I thought it probably would have a lot of historical value."

An appraiser told Richards last year that the photo was worth $25,000. He decided his grandfather, who was an official LDS Church historian from the mid-1940s to the early 1960s, wouldn't want him to sell it. His thoughts turned to BYU even though he never attended the university.

"I thought because of the name of the university and its affiliation with the church and the special collections facility they have at the Lee Library, BYU was a good place to donate it so if anyone else wanted access, they could have it," he said.

This image of Young was nationally known in June 1854, when a woodcutting of it appeared in an issue of what Holzapfel described as the People magazine of the day. Young was one of the most famous Americans of the 19th century, a polygamist who led the Mormon exodus to the Utah desert. Sales of copied photographs of Young in the 1860s and '70s rivaled those of Abraham Lincoln and Civil War generals.

"Mormons were a curiosity," Holzapfel said.

Comments

You can be the first to comment on this story.

Image

Daguerreotype of Brigham Young dates to the early 1850s and is the oldest original photo of the LDS prophet that BYU has in its possession.

previousnext

Latest comments

Bring Him back to Utah where he he excelled.

I would love to be able to do the same thing, the experience of attending the...

Seer stones and interpretation,The Bible teaches us to test prophets and...

TCU stuck at fourth in BCS

TCU #1. I would take TCU over FL, Bama and TX. All those schools have had...

Rescuers reach stranded hikers

I'm with safety first on this one, happy that these kids are alive and...

Man sentenced in child beating

Is ridiculously soft on crime. Only 6 months for felony child abuse? What a...

When you have a child, you are given the responsibility for that life by the...

Letters: Founders not extremists

Anonymous | 12:12 p.m. Who said anything about their religion? I think...

Conservatives couldn't sacrifice for the wars they supported by paying for...

Health proposal not 'reform'

Samuelson is wrong. The wild increases in insurance premiums are driven by...

Advertisements
Advertisement