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In the tradition of pageantry of the 1890s, patriotic themes loom large in the Jubilee: flags, eagles, stars, and stripes can be seen throughout the decorations and souvenirs from the event. The Jubilee, however, has another, parallel set of images in its pageantry: those related to the settling of the area by members of the L.D.S. Church. Beehives and bees for industriousness, sea gulls, Brigham Young, and other significantly Mormon symbols permeate the event. This joint demonstration of patriotism and singularity makes Utah's celebration stand out like no other in the last decade of the nineteenth century.
“ Salt Lake City has perhaps never before been so packed with enthusiastic sightseers. The streets cease to be streets about the time when parade begins – they are rivers of humanity in which the people surge to and fro, here moving rapidly for a stretch in ripples of anticipation toward some happening a block or two away, there forming a whirlpool which moves round and round some striking object of interest … “it is not a time to call up the sagebrush waste, the slinking coyote, the ox team, the dug out and log cabin filled with weather-beaten, sun-burned immigrants dressed in nameless costumes. The eye and the car are full of the present. It is a pageant that people have come to witness, a pageant that bridges the past and the present and is a prophecy of the future.” -- Deseret Evening News (July 21, 1897)
This is Still the Place: The Online Exhibit
With the generous support of the Utah Humanities Council, the Pioneer Memorial Museum is proud to present this online exhibition, a gathering of artifacts and documents relating to the Pioneer Jubilee of 1897. The primary Artifact Exhibit features objects held by the museum that were made for or used at the Jubilee. Having an online exhibit allows us to display views of the objects from a variety of angles, and -- in the case of the poetry book -- allows visitors to browse through the pages of a publication over 100 years old. We also would like to draw your attention to the pins designed and commissioned for the Jubilee from Tiffany & Co. from New York City. The exhibit displays each of the eight pins currently held by the museum.
Additional content includes the entire events program from the celebration, a virtual tour and catalog of the Hall of Relics, a photograph of surviving pioneers, a short quiz to test how much you remember from the exhibit, and a timed matching concentration game.
We invite visitors to contact us in regards to any Jubilee artifacts or documents they may own and would like to include in our examination. Please direct your feedback to pioneermemorialmuseum@gmail.com. Thank you and enjoy browsing through this fascinating historical event. To see these and many other pioneer artifacts, visit us at Pioneer Memorial Museum, 300 North Main in Salt Lake City.
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