Daily Feature

Each weekday, we spotlight content from BYU Studies: articles, reviews, web updates, staff picks, etc. These spotlights are called “Daily Features.” To read the full text for the feature, click the “Read More” link from the front page. You can download the article or other item for free during the week that it is featured.

Book Review Nels Anderson's World War I Diary
March 5, 2015
by Kenneth L. Alford
This daily feature is an introduction to a full book review by Kenneth L. Alford. To read the full text of this review, follow the link below.

With the centennial of World War I beginning in 2014, Nels Anderson's World War I Diary, edited by Allan Kent Powell, is a timely and engaging firsthand account of America's involvement in "the war to end all wars." This account sees the war through the eyes of a Latter-day Saint private fighting with the American Expeditionary Force in Europe.

Anderson notes, "Writing a diary requires a lot of work and it requires a lot of scheming to find the time to write. Often I could get no candles to write by so had to get by . . . Read More
History of the Church Series
March 4, 2015

This daily feature is an introduction to a full article by Milton V. Backman, Jr. Each Wednesday we focus on an aspect of church history, beginning in New York in the early 19th century and progressing throughout the year . . .

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Special Feature
March 3, 2015

We want to draw your attention to a valuable resource available on our site: the New Testament charts from the book Charting the New Testament (FARMS, 2002). These instructional charts display significant concepts about the chronology, history, and cultural . . .

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Additional Features
On March 5, in the life of Joseph Smith
On this day in 1834

Perrysburg, Cattaraugus County, New York. Joseph Smith and Parley P. Pratt traveled to the home of the Freeman Nickerson family in Perrysburg, New York, where they held a meeting to recruit volunteers to help the Missouri Saints return to their homes in Jackson County, Missouri.


On this day in 1842

Nauvoo, Illinois. Nauvoo City Resolutions: Established that if any person's property is subjected to a sheriff's, marshal's, or constable's sale, they will have the privilege to redeem the sale by paying the principal and fifteen percent on the principal within thirty days of the sale. Required parents to keep their children at home on Sundays or pay a five dollar fine for every offense. Required the owners of any "carrion" who had died to remove the animal from the city bounds and to bury it three feet under the ground.


On this day in 1842

Nauvoo, Illinois. Nauvoo City Ordinances: Established the position of a Sealer of Weights and Measures whose duty it was to enter every store, shop, and market every six months and examine the scales, weights, and measures to ensure they are working properly. Several fines imposed for improper equipment use or failure to comply with this ordinance. Appointed "a City Register whose duty it [was] to record all deeds" and other instruments of writing presented to him. Fees for recording established.


On this day in 1842

Nauvoo, Illinois. Joseph Smith wrote a resolution for the Nauvoo City Council, moving that city inhabitants "shall keep their children home on Sundays and from skayting on the ice and from marauding upon their neghbours property and any persons refuseing to do the same shall pay five dollars fine for every offence for the same &c."


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LDS FAQ Angle Moroni
Who was Joseph Smith?

Willie Handcart
On this day in 1856:

View text of the company journal with an entry for every day of the journey here.

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