Daughters of Utah Pioneers
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The International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP) is a women's organization dedicated to preserving the history of the original settlers of Utah, including Mormon Pioneers. The organization is open to any woman who is "...over the age of 18 years, of good character, and a lineal or legally adopted descendant of an ancestor who came to Utah before the completion of the railroad on May 10, 1869."
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[edit] History
The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers was organized in April 1901 in Salt Lake City. Annie Taylor Hyde, a daughter of John Taylor, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, invited a group of fifty-four women to her home seeking to perpetuate the names and achievements of the men, women and children who were the pioneers in founding this commonwealth. (Carter, 11:329-428) Although the original organizational structure and titles of officers were based on those of the Church's Relief Society, the DUP followed the lead of other national lineage societies, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, in acting as a nonpolitical and nonsectarian organization. In 1925, the now International Society of Daughters of Utah Pioneers and its local units were legally incorporated.
[edit] Achievements
In later decades, the DUP has worked to conserve historical sites and landmarks, to collect artifacts, relics, manuscripts and photographs, and to educate its members and the general public. The society maintains small meeting and display halls in the intermountain west, eighty-six of them in Utah, and manages an extensive and valuable collection in its Salt Lake City museum. Numerous books have been published by the society, including community and family histories, cookbooks, history texts, children's stories, and a four-volume collection of biographical sketches "Pioneer Women of Faith and Fortitude" (1998).
[edit] Organizational structure
DUP headquarters are located in the Pioneer Memorial Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah. The international organization is administered by a corporate board. Membership is organized into "companies," whose presiding officers oversee the activities of "camps" of ten or more members in a geographic area. In 2006, the DUP consists of 185 companies overseeing 1,050 camps in the United States and Canada with a total living membership of 21,451.
The current officers of the DUP were installed in 2001 and consist of President Mary Johnson, 1st Vice President Bette Barton, 2nd Vice President & Museum Leader Edith Menna, and Corresponding Secretary Frances Moore.
[edit] References
- Carter, Kate B., editor. "The Daughters of Utah Pioneers", article within the 12 volume series, "Heart Throbs of the West." Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, Salt Lake City, 1939-51.
