Interpreter's new General Conference Index is woefully incomplete

[drumdude]

I’m pleased to announce two new items that have appeared on the website of the Interpreter Foundation. The first was created by Alan Sikes. It will be, I think, a very helpful resource for many people:



“Introducing the General Conference, Improvement Era, and Journal of Discourses Bibliography Collections”

Have you ever had questions like the following, while preparing a talk or article or when just curious:

[Question] Are there General Conference talks mentioning “many mansions”?
[Answer] There have been 79 General Conference talks that include this specific phrase, the first in a 1921 talk by Elder David A. Smith of the Presiding Bishopric, as reported in Conference Report: 92nd Semi-Annual Conference October 1921, pg. 141 and the latest in a talk by President Dallin H. Oaks titled “Divine Love in the Father’s Plan,” delivered at the Sunday Afternoon Session of the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, April 2022.

The phrase was also used in 25 talks included in the Journal of Discourses, including one by Joseph Smith: “Character and Being of God—Creation—Salvation of the Dead—The Unpardonable Sin—Resurrection—Baptism of the Spirit, Etc,” delivered at the Conference held near the Temple, in Nauvoo, April 6, 1844 after the death of Elder King Follett.

[Question] When were airplanes first mentioned in General Conference?
[Answer] The first mention of ‘airplane’ was in a talk by Elder John A. Widtsoe in the October, 1926 Conference and the latest was by Elder Dale G. Renlund in the October, 2022 Conference. There are a total of 160 mentions of ‘airplane,’ with only 9 of them by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf!

The first mention of airplanes in the Improvement Era was in an article by Dr. Joseph M. Tanner titled “Problems of the Age: Dealing with Religious, Social and Economic Questions and their Solution. A Study for the Quorums and Classes of the Melchizedek Priesthood” in the April, 1918 magazine.

[Question] What was the first talk given by President Russell M. Nelson in General Conference?
[Answer] In the Priesthood Session of the October, 1968 Conference, then Elder Russell M. Nelson, President of the Bonneville Stake, spoke on “Placing Our Homes in Order.” Since then he has spoken 108 times in General Conferences.

All of these questions were answered using three new collections that have been added to the Interpreter Foundation Bibliography database at https://interpreterfoundation.org/bibliographies/:

General Conference – Indexing the April, 1880 Conference and all of the Conferences since October, 1897. Access is provided to:

Transcripts of talks from 1942 through 2022
Audio recordings of each session from 1936 through 1970 and of each talk from 1971 through 2022
Videos of talks from 1971 through 2022 plus a few videos from earlier Conferences
PDF and image versions of the Conference Reports from 1880 through 2011
Content searches of all of the indexed Conferences

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeters ... ation.html

Unfortunately it is missing the original Ronald L. Poelman 1984 conference talk. The one which was dropped down the memory hole.

Can someone please email Daniel the original recording? I'm sure he wants to correct this oversight.

[consiglieri]

The first use of the phrase “many mansions” in General Conference was in 1857, not 1921.

And the speaker was not George A Smith but Orson Hyde.

Are you sure you’re quoting DCP correctly?

[drumdude]

General Conference – Indexing the April, 1880 Conference and all of the Conferences since October, 1897.

A living prophet is more important than a dead one. And any conference talks before 1897 are apparently not important at all!

[consiglieri]

Ah. Much thanks!

Then I guess DCP’s statement that 1921 was the first time this phrase was used in General Conference is in error.

[consiglieri]

So what’s DCP’s beef with general conference talks prior to 1879 anyway?

It completely misses all statements of Brigham Young, who died in 1877, without being so crude as to use that year as the arbitrary line of demarcation.

[IHAQ]

I don’t understand the need to have gone to all that effort when the Church already provides the archive on things like General Conference. It’s searchable. This is what I got when I entered the search term “many mansions” and filtered the results by “General Conference”:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/sea ... y+mansions

It generated 100 hits (which might be a set limit)

Interpreter has produced and announced something that already exists - and in a better format, and in an official Church resource.

[drumdude]

The first comment:

can we subscribe and how much? This amount of work can’t have been done without great experience and cost

[Tom]

[Question] When were airplanes first mentioned in General Conference?
[Answer] The first mention of ‘airplane’ was in a talk by Elder John A. Widtsoe in the October, 1926 Conference and the latest was by Elder Dale G. Renlund in the October, 2022 Conference. There are a total of 160 mentions of ‘airplane,’ with only 9 of them by Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf!

The first mention of airplanes in the Improvement Era was in an article by Dr. Joseph M. Tanner titled “Problems of the Age: Dealing with Religious, Social and Economic Questions and their Solution. A Study for the Quorums and Classes of the Melchizedek Priesthood” in the April, 1918 magazine.

Orson Whitney mentioned "aeroplanes" in the October 1910 conference:

In the month of January, 1847, the Latter-day Saints were encamped upon the banks of the Missouri river. They had been expelled from the State of Illinois, and a band of pioneers was being selected for the journey across the plains to the Rocky Mountains. The word and will of the Lord was given through President Brigham Young, commanding the people to organize themselves into companies, with captains of hundreds, and fifties, and tens, preparatory to their journey to the West. That was the word of the' Lord to our parents and grandparents. The Prophet Joseph Smith had predicted that the Latter-day Saints would be driven westward and become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains, and President Young, as his successor and executor, gave that word and will of the Lord at Winter Quarters, but is it the word and will of the Lord to you and to me? Are we to hitch up ox-teams, in this day of railroads and automobiles and aeroplanes, and go wandering off to California, or to Mexico, or to Canada, and justify ourselves by pointing to the word of the Lord given in January, 1847, upon the banks of the Missouri? Why no; the fallacy is apparent at a glance.

Joseph Fielding Smith, in the April 1911 conference, referred to airplanes without using the term:

During the greater part of the past week and extending into this week, out near the lake, there is what is called an aviation meet. Men with machines of marvelous construction are flying in the air. They will do so today. I trust no Latter-day Saint will be there on the Sabbath day, disregarding the divine law. I have heard that two of the men who have been flying out there, who are representing the Wright brothers of Ohio, have refused to take part in the program on the Sabbath day. I hope this is true: it comes to me merely as a rumor. I understand that these men, Orvil and Wilbur Wright, will not take part nor permit those who represent them to take part in any such exercise on the Sabbath day, thus setting an example to others; setting an example of righteousness to the Latter-day Saints and to all the world, and showing that they are not afraid, even in the face of opposition and ridicule, perhaps, to keep this commandment which God has given them.

Joseph Fielding Smith explicitly mentioned “airplanes” in the October 1917 conference. And there were a few others who mentioned “airplanes” in conference before the October 1926 general conference.

There were several references to "flying machines" and "aeroplanes" in the Improvement Era prior to 1918. For example, here is a news item featured in the November 1908 issue:

Traveling in the Air.—On the 21st of September, Wilbur Wright, who, with his brother, Orville Wright, shares the distinction of having attained the greatest success in the construction and management of aeroplanes, flying machines, made the new world's record at La Manes, France. He remained in the air one hour, thirty-one minutes and fifty-one seconds, and covered a distance of nearly sixty-one miles. The feat was witnessed by ten thousand spectators, among whom was the American Ambassador Mr. White, who warmly congratulated Mr. Wright upon his achievements.

[consiglieri]

An inferior product for a superior price

[Tom]

There's an issue with it. I searched for "aeroplanes" using the Interpreter index and Whitney's 1910 general conference address did not come up as a result.

Interpreter should have asked members of this board to test the product before its release.