Church History Museum, History museum in Salt Lake City, United States
The Church History Museum is a light gray stone building in Salt Lake City with a flat roofline and a facade divided into vertical bays by projecting piers. A rectangular canopy projects above the central entrance, and the central wall bears a large, shallow relief sculpture divided into panels with circular and figural motifs. Dark glass doors and windows fill the ground-level entrance.
Florence S. Jacobsen, a church curator and former general president of the Young Women, pushed for the museum, which was dedicated and opened on April 4, 1984, with 63,500 square feet of space. It closed in October 2014 for a year-long refurbishment and reopened in September 2015 with exhibits centered on Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, including a replica of the Newel K. Whitney Store and a 220-degree theater.
The museum tells the story of the faith community through personal possessions and photographs that show how believers lived and practiced their religion across different time periods. You see handwritten letters and everyday objects that reveal what mattered most to people in this faith tradition.
The museum sits in downtown Salt Lake City near Temple Square and maintains regular visiting hours with extended access several days each week. Budget enough time to walk through multiple floors of galleries, and note that some sections may have limited accessibility or require advance planning.
The museum holds the printing press that produced the first edition of the Book of Mormon in 1830, along with a chair carpenter Brigham Young built before his baptism in 1832. A 220-degree theater places viewers among trees in upstate New York, where Joseph Smith said he saw God and Christ.
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