Thus Clarissa Beesley, a member of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association (YWMIA) general board, imaginatively set the scene for her 1944 retelling of the founding of the young women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in commemoration of the YWMIA's seventy-fifth anniversary. Originally known as “Junior” or “Young Ladies” Retrenchment associations, the organization had adopted the title Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Associations (YLMIA) in 1877 to mark its parallel status with the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, organized in 1875. At the turn of the twentieth century, the young women's and young men's organizations began to operate on a joint basis as the recreational and cultural outlet for adolescent Latter-day Saints and became known collectively as “the MIA.” In 1934, the young women's organization replaced the old-fashioned “Young Ladies” with the more modern “Young Women's” in its title.

By the time Beesley wrote her account,...

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