Despite its somewhat inconsistent chronological order, we have determined to reprint the series of articles in the original sequence as they appeared in the Woman’s Exponent in the 1880s. Minimal editorial efforts have been employed in presenting this edition. We have corrected obvious printing errors and have standardized spelling and capitalization. Capitalization of religious terms such as polygamy, the principle, gospel, and celestial kingdom was inconsistent in the original published articles; we have represented these words as consistently lowercase.

In the original published version, Helen Mar Whitney placed editorial marks in the text (*) when she edited primary-source material. In particular, she employed this procedure when copying material from the journal of her father, Elder Heber C. Kimball. In some cases, she supplied only the first letter of a last name in an effort to protect the person’s identity. In other cases, she eliminated long lists of names. For example, in the 15 July 1883 issue, she included material from her father’s diary dated 21 December 1845. [1] She records: “‘According to appointment on Sunday last a meeting was held in the east room. * * Seventy-five persons were present, Elder H. C. Kimball presiding.’ After mentioning the names of the brethren and sisters, he says, ‘At five minutes before eleven the song, “Glorious things of thee are spoken” was sung—Father John Smith then made a few remarks—blessed the bread and it was handed round by Bishop George Miller.’” [2]

The original Heber C. Kimball diary entry from which this was extracted is in the handwriting of William Clayton. It includes the names of all the persons present, which Helen Mar deleted in her excerpt. Also, she deleted explicit material about the temple endowment which she felt was inappropriate for public perusal. [3]

We have retained Helen Mar’s chapter divisions with their titles as published in the Woman’s Exponent. Within those chapters, the articles appear in sequence, and each concludes with the reference of the original publication data, including volume and number, date, and page information.

To preserve Helen Mar’s personality, we have kept editorial intrusions to a minimum when reproducing material from her handwritten diaries, quoted in the introductory essay, and from the 1881 autobiographical letter, which appears in the appendix. The following should be noted:

All capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are preserved as they appear in the original.

Unintelligible words and conjectural readings of unintelligible words are indicated by brackets: [?] representing unintelligible words and [Eliza R.] representing editorial addition to help clarify the full meaning of reference.

Page numbers in brackets designate the end of the page in the original: [p. 1]

Above-the-line insertions are placed in superscript: ^insertion

Letters and words crossed out in the original are crossed out: word

Editorial insertions are enclosed in brackets: [Eliza]

Underlined words in the original are underlined: Whitney

Notes

[1] Stanley B. Kimball argues that Heber C. Kimball’s 21 November 1845 to 7 January 1846 holograph diary is really composed of two “completely different records.” Through 9 December 1845, Kimball used it as a personal diary that he kept in his own hand. Thereafter, to the end of the volume, 7 January 1846, William Clayton used this book to record information relating to the Nauvoo Temple. Thus, the latter section should more properly be classified as a William Clayton diary or, perhaps, as a kind of Nauvoo Temple record”; see On the Potter’s Wheel: The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball, ed. Stanley B. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1987), xiv.

[2] Woman’s Exponent 12 (15 July 1883): 26.

[3] Heber C. Kimball, “Journal, 21 November 1845 to 7 January 1846,” 21 December 1845, LDSCA.