Ground was broken for the Brigham Young University Museum of Art in 1991, and the museum was opened in October 1993. The museum cost $15 million and was financed entirely by private donations. It was designed by LA architect James Langenheim and…

The Centennial Carillon Tower was built and dedicated in 1975 to commemorate the one-hundred-year anniversary of the founding of Brigham Young University. President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Spencer W. Kimball dedicated the…

The Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum was opened in 1978. It is named for naturalist and businessman Monte L. Bean, who funded the construction of the building and donated some of his own collection to the museum. Brigham Young University acquired…

In 1967, Brigham Young University’s Tribe of Many Feathers club hosted the first Miss Indian BYU pageant. Significantly different from most beauty pageants at the time, this pageant selected a candidate who faithfully represented her Native culture…

In the early 1900s, a common Latter-day Saint legend described how settlers in Provo were told by Native Americans that they had seen angels who declared that the people in this town would be blessed. Some of those blessings came about through…

The Joseph F. Smith Building was completed in 2005. It replaced the Joseph F. Smith Family Living Center which had housed the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, a School of Nursing, and the Departments of Sociology and Psychology. The new…

The Joseph F. Smith Family Living Center was completed in 1957, the largest building on BYU’s campus at the time at 94,000 square feet and with 244 rooms. The Living Center was built to help BYU become a “leader in the field of family relations.” In…

In 1970, BYU President and former attorney Ernest L. Wilkinson suggested to leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the creation of a law school, and in March 1971, Harold B. Lee announced that one would be established at BYU in…

Between 1928-1990, BYU Presidents lived in a residence on campus. The first BYU Presidents lived in the small neighborhoods surrounding campus. President George H. Brimhall lived in a home on 100 North, now known as the John R. Twelves House, and…

The Ernest L. Wilkinson Student Center was completed in 1964 and named for Ernest L. Wilkinson, sixth president of BYU (1951–1971). As the number of students increased, both students, faculty, and administrators felt that campus needed a student or…

After the Japanese military bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, some Americans feared that US citizens of Japanese descent might engage in espionage for Japan. This racially charged wartime hysteria led President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066,…

Violence seemed inevitable. The tension building between the Ute Native Americans and White Mormon settlers over the past year had reached its peak. When church members first entered the Utah territory in 1847, they chose to settle in the Salt Lake…