Church History Symposium–Program

The jointly sponsored symposium at Brigham Young University, Approaching Antiquity: Joseph Smith’s Study of the Ancient World has now published the program for the event. The details are found here: http://rsc.byu.edu/symposia/churchhistory.  A number of speakers are well-known in Mormon Studies.  

Association for Documentary Editing – Meetings

The 2013 Annual meeting will be held in Ann Arbor, MI. The site is the Ann Arbor Sheraton. Dates: July 11-13. Details forthcoming.

Call for Papers for the 2013 meetings:

Richard Whately and Preaching/Teaching the Word in Mormonism

Richard Whately (1787-1863) was an academic churchman. First a Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, then the Rector of Halesworth, then Principal of St Albans Hall, then Drummond Lecturer on Political Economy at Oxford and last but not least Anglican Archbishop of Dublin.

Butterfield Award — Seeking Nominations

The Association for Documentary Editing is soliciting nominations for the 2013 Lyman H. Butterfield Award. The award is presented annually to an individual, project, or institution for recent contributions in the areas of documentary publication, teaching, and service. Nomination letters should describe the reasons for the award and should be no longer than three pages.

Nominations are due by March 11, 2013 and should be submitted to Michael Stevens at michael.stevens@wisconsinhistory.org

Church History Symposium – Joseph Smith’s Study of the Ancient World

Nauvoo Food Budget ~1844

So, feeding a family of five in Nauvoo, 1844. How much would it cost you? Here is a very rough approximation, assuming you could buy this stuff at market prices, and assuming these were fairly uniform (both false economies).

Butcher: 2lbs per day at 10 cents per pound: $1.40
Barrel of flour, $5.00, lasts about 8 weeks: 0.63
Butter, 2lbs, 31.5 cents per pound: 0.63
Potatoes, .5 bushel: 0.50
Sugar, 4 lbs at 8 cents a pound: 0.32
Coffee and Tea (yes they did use it): 0.25
Milk, 2 cents per day: 0.14
Salt, pepper, vinegar, starch, soap, soda
yeast, cheese, eggs 0.40
Total for the week: abt. $4.27.

Most in Nauvoo had gardens and these would supplement vegetable intake, though mainly the poor ate vegetables. Many had milk cows so milk and butter came at the price of effort and feed stock.

In a city, other living expenses (clothes, housing and other similar expenses) might total about $6.00. So for the week, cost of living was roughly $10.00.

Let’s say you’re a day laborer. What percentage of wages went to retail food in a week: about 80%. By 1860 this was about 75%. By 1900, about 45%. By 1930, 15%. Food got cheaper.

Nauvoo Groceries: May 1, 1844

Your grocer’s stock. Get it while it lasts, people.

Flour, superfine per barrel $4.25
Flour, fine per barrel $4.00
Corn per bushel $0.33
by the load $0.30
Corn Meal $0.374
Oats per bushel $0.25
Potatoes per bushel $0.31 to 0.374
Pork per barrel $7.00 to 8.00
Bacon per lb $0.04 to 0.05
Hams ” ” $0.05
Lard ” ” $0.06
Butter ” ” $0.124
Eggs per dozen $0.05
Mould Candles per lb $0.10
Dried Apples per bushel $1.25
Rice per lb $0.06
Molasses New Orleans per gal $0.37 to 0.40
Honey per lb $0.06
Sugar ” ” $0.06 to 0.10
Maple ” ” $0.124
Coffee ” ” $0.10 to 0.12
Tea ” ” $0.50 to 1.00
Chocolate ” ” $0.25
Cocoa ” ” $0.184
Saleratus ” ” $0.124
Glass per box 8 by 10, $3.25 10 by 12 $4.25
Iron Pittsburgh per cwt from $6.00 to 9.00
Nails Boston per cwt $6.00