Church releases President Spencer W. Kimballs journal collection

Publish date: 2024-05-09

President Spencer W. Kimball was one of the great advocates and examples of keeping a personal journal.

For the first time, the late Church president’s own journals are now open and available for public viewing, according to a Church History Library blog post.

President Kimball’s journals will be a valuable addition to Church history records, said Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as the Church historian and recorder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“President Kimball’s journals are some of the best in Latter-day Saint history,” Elder McKay said. “Just as Wilford Woodruff’s amazing journal chronicles 19th-century Latter-day Saint history, Spencer W. Kimball’s journal gives tremendous insight into the history of the Church in the 20th century.”

Who is President Spencer W. Kimball?

What’s in President Kimball’s journals?

After President Kimball’s death, his journals remained with his family until 2008, when the collection was donated to the Church History Library with the request that they be prepared for public release after appropriate review, the blog said.

President Kimball’s journals — 34 volumes assembled in scrapbook style — span multiple decades and contain a wealth of inspiring stories from his life and Church service, including the following:

Most of the 34 journals are typed and many pages include underlining, usually in red pencil with brief annotations and margin notes written in his hand. There is a gap in the journals between 1919 and 1930, after which he resumed writing regularly until 1981.

The Church expressed gratitude to the Kimball family for the donation of the journals and to the Church History Library staff for preparing them to be released.

How to access President Kimball’s journals

Digitized images of the journals are accessible in the Church History Catalog without any transcription or interpretation under call number MS 21541.

While the collection is open and accessible to the public, visitors must log in with a free Church account to view the digitized images due to copyrighted material contained in the collection, primarily newspaper clippings.

Other Church history collections

The President Kimball journals are the latest in a series of projects to provide historical materials and collections at the Church History Library. See a list of projects at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Other publications produced in recent years include:

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