This issue of Utah Historical Quarterly highlights medicine and public health in Utah and adjacent areas historically settled by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Treating and preventing sickness, promoting health and healing, and nurturing and prolonging life are key features of the human experience, even though the meaning of health, methods of delivering and receiving healthcare, and identities of healers and patients change over time.
The articles in this issue appear chronologically and illustrate themes, both basic and complex, in medical and public health history. Brooke LeFevre examines infertility and reproductive medicine among Latter-day Saint women in the late nineteenth century. Having children strongly informed her definition of wifehood and marriage, prompting Elizabeth Pickett Tolman to embrace church teachings—specifically the doctrine of plural marriage—in hopes of conceiving a child. When miraculous means failed, Tolman turned to plant-based methods traditionally favored by the Saints as well...
