As the Journal of Mormon History starts publishing its fiftieth volume, this forum looks back at its almost half-century run. During those years, the journal has published articles about the churches that trace their beginnings to Joseph Smith Jr. In this essay, I examine the history and content as the journal grew from a small yearly volume to four quarterly issues per volume of nearly three hundred pages each, and transitioned from a privately published journal to one of many produced by the University of Illinois Press. In the early years, articles focused on traditional history. Gradually it accepted articles from many disciplines reflecting the change in broader disciplines of history and religious studies. To tell this story, I divide those years into three periods. In the beginning, academic members of the Mormon History Association volunteered to edit a yearly journal. From 1991 to 2015, Lavina Fielding Anderson shepherded major...
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