Utah State Historical Society

What is the Utah State Historical Society?

The Utah State Historical Society (USHS) is Utah’s official historical association, under Utah’s Division of State History.1 The USHS works in conjunction with the Utah State archives to collect material pertinent to Utah’s state history. The society also publishes Utah’s flagship academic journal, the Utah Historical Quarterly. Mormon Studies researchers will find a massive amount of material concerning the relationship between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the state government, including local municipalities.  

Visiting the Research Center

The reading room in the Research Center for the Utah State Archives is currently open for appointment only.  

What Researchers Should Know
  1. The Utah State Archives is accepting appointments to view collections in their reading room. A patron must email historyresearch@utah.gov to schedule an appointment.  
  1. The Utah Division of State History will soon move its historical collections to temporary locations due to major retrofitting of the Rio Grande Depot. Patrons can continue to submit requests for information or place image orders at historyresearch@utah.gov. 
  1. If a patron has questions about the collections in the archives, they can use the “Ask Us” feature to get customized help.  
Utilizing the Library Digitally

The USHS and the state archives use an online library catalog to search for collections. The USHS has preserved and digitized over 300,000 images to be searched in their digital collections. They also provide a collection of digital exhibits.  

Personal Documents & Certificates, Elias Hicks Blackburn Papers, 1849-1908
Important Collections

Many of the collections owned and operated by the USHS and the Utah State archives are government documents. However, they also have unique manuscript collections that are incredibly useful to researchers.