On March 3, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the publication of “Rise Up and Speak,” a new volume featuring 52 select discourses of Eliza R. Snow, the Church’s second Relief Society general president and a key female figure in early Church history.
Sister Kristin M. Yee, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, expressed gratitude to the editors and others for their work to bring forth Sister Snow’s words, which have “power and strength” and point to the Savior, Jesus Christ.
“She spoke as a devoted disciple of the Savior. She spoke by the Spirit and encouraged all women to do the same,” Sister Yee said. “The works that Eliza talked about are the works that we do today as sisters in Relief Society. It tells me this work is eternally relevant ... and it carries on today. Their stories are our stories.”
“Rise Up and Speak” is the latest in a series of publications that highlight Latter-day Saint women’s history. Since 2016, historians, scholars and editors in the Church History Department have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to women’s history, producing the following works, three of which are available only in digital format at ChurchHistoriansPress.org:
- "The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History"
- "At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women"
- "The Diaries of Emmeline B. Wells" (digital only)
- "The Prison Journal of Belle Harris" (digital only)
- "Journals of Early Sister Missionaries" (digital only)
- "Carry On: The Latter-day Saint Young Women Organization, 1870–2024"
- “Rise Up and Speak: Selected Discourses of Eliza R. Snow”
Sister Yee said it’s a blessing to have these publications. Learning about and understanding the past can help Latter-day Saints prepare for the future and what the Lord has in store, she told the Church News.
“It’s such a gift that we have this history. Their experiences are our experiences. You begin to see yourself in the same places they have been in and how they did it,” she said. “It’s powerful, and it inspires me to keep going. They did it, and so can I. They had great purpose and faith, and so can I, if I choose to follow Christ.”
Sister Snow’s discourses will fit nicely with the growing collection of works showcasing Latter-day Saint women’s history, said Jennifer Reeder, a women’s history specialist for the Church History Department.
“This is one more [volume] of hopefully many to come,” she said.
Here is a look back at each publication.
‘The First Fifty Years of Relief Society’
“The First Fifty Years of Relief Society: Key Documents in Latter-day Saint Women’s History” was the first volume published by the Church Historian’s Press that wasn’t part of the Joseph Smith Papers series.
The nearly 800-page book features 78 documents, including meeting minutes, sermons from women and men, newspaper articles and editorials, political speeches, poetry, letters and journal entries. The volume also contains six sermons by the Prophet Joseph Smith.
The collection of documents, including the original minute book, chronicles the founding of the Relief Society in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois. It explains why Brigham Young chose to disband the women’s organization following Joseph Smith’s death and how it was reestablished after the Latter-day Saints resettled in Utah.
“One of my favorite parts of the book has just been seeing ordinary women, Church members, called to a specific calling and seeing all of the ways that they sacrifice, pray and work to do the good of that calling,” said the late Kate Holbrook, one of the volume editors, when the book was released in 2016. Holbrook died in 2022.
‘At the Pulpit’
In 2017, the Church Historian’s Press published a book highlighting 54 discourses of women in the Church from 1831 to 2016 titled “At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women.” Many of the speeches had never before been published or accessible.
Holbrook, who co-edited the volume with Reeder, said the title was carefully chosen. “We think the ‘At’ is important,” she said in a Church News interview, explaining that it at once conveys the immediacy of the women expressing themselves in front of congregations.
Holbrook said the topics reflect a broad diversity, all pertaining to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The discourses were uncovered in old minute books, newspapers and online recordings. Editors selected those they considered most “powerful, with strong theological analysis,” that left readers with the desire to share a quote on social media or discuss it with family.
Reeder added, “We also wanted to represent women throughout the history of the Church, so we tried to choose a couple from every decade.”
Emmeline B. Wells’ 47 diaries
In October 2022, the Church Historian’s Press celebrated the completion of a project decades in the making.
Nearly 20 years earlier, historians and editors Cherry Bushman Silver and Sheree Maxwell Bench began transcribing and annotating the diaries of Emmeline B. Wells.
Sister Wells (1828-1921) was a writer, editor, public speaker and nationally recognized champion of women’s rights. She served as the Church’s fifth Relief Society general president.
In 2017, the Church History Department arranged to support completion and publication of the diaries. The Church Historian’s Press created a website that features Wells’ 47 diary volumes that span 1844-1920, historical introductions, chronology entries, photographs and biographical information about the people mentioned in the diaries.
The monumental project was completed and celebrated in October 2022. On that occasion, Lisa Olsen Tait, a historian and editor, described the diaries as an “invaluable collection of records.”
“We believe that Church members will find wonderful stories and details about the leading sisters in a dynamic period of women’s activism and leadership in the Church, alongside many powerful personal expressions of faith from Emmeline herself,” Tait said in 2022.
Eliza R. Snow’s discourses
More than 1,200 discourses of Eliza R. Snow from 1840 to 1887 were also published online by October 2022.
Editors and historians selected 52 discourses that they felt demonstrated Sister Snow’s service and leadership in the early Church, culminating in the publication of “Rise Up and Speak” in March 2026.
Sister Snow (1804-1887), sister of the Church’s fifth President, President Lorenzo Snow, was a prolific poet, writer, teacher and historian.
Reeder, lead editor and historian on the project, said it was a “privilege to come to know Eliza R. Snow” through her discourses.
“One of the things I love about this project is feeling like I belong to this heritage and legacy of women,” she said. “When I read her words and see how diligent and urgent she is about this responsibility as a woman of God, to be a part of that, I think that’s so important, and I love that.”
Prison journal of Belle Harris
In February 2023, the Church Historian’s Press published online a transcript of “The Prison Journal of Belle Harris.”
Harris was a 23-year-old Latter-day Saint woman who refused to answer questions regarding her plural marriage to a former husband before a grand jury at a courthouse in Beaver, Utah, in 1883.
As a result, the young mother and her baby were imprisoned at the Utah Territorial Penitentiary for more than three months. While behind bars, Harris wrote about her experience in a journal. Hers is the only known record of a woman who was imprisoned on charges related to polygamy.
“It’s powerful to read and hear her words, the way she thought about her experience, the way she stood up for something that was a deeply felt religious belief,” said Matthew McBride, director of publications for the Church History Department.
Journals of early sister missionaries
In March 2024, the Church published the journals of two of the first young women to serve as full-time sister missionaries, Eliza Chipman and Josephine Booth.
The journals, only available online, feature the day-to-day missionary experiences of Sister Booth and Sister Chipman, who both served in the United Kingdom from 1898 to 1901, and as companions in Scotland from 1899 to 1900.
Along with the journals, the website features images, biographical information for many of the people mentioned in the journals, maps that show where they served and traveled, and other related sources.
Because tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints have served missions, missionary journals are an important part of Latter-day Saint literature, McBride said in 2024.
“Missionary journals in general are an important source for understanding the Church and how it has changed over time. They are also important for understanding the experience of young adults in the Church,” he said. “These are two of the earliest women to serve in this capacity, and their experience tells us a lot.”
‘Carry On’
One year later, in March 2025, the Church published the first scholarly history of the Young Women organization with “Carry On: The Latter-day Saint Young Women Organization, 1870–2024.”
The landmark publication was the first to address and contextualize the place of young women within the Church, tracing the organization’s growth from a small group of Brigham Young’s daughters into today’s global organization.
The volume chronicles the lives and contributions of past Young Women general presidents such as Ruth May Fox and Ardeth G. Kapp, in addition to featuring personal stories from individual young women around the globe.
“This is an organization for young women all over the world, between the ages of 11 and 18, to come together to strengthen belief, to find belonging and to discover who they can become,” Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman said in 2025.
