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Another
Witness of the Light:
The Museum of Church
History and Art Showcases
Two Twentieth Century Photographers
by Scot Facer Proctor
George
Edward Anderson and Scot Facer Proctor
Gallery
2: New York/Pennsylvania Period
Personal
Notes
Something
is so powerful to me about photographing the holy sites of the New
York/ Pennsylvania period of Church History. I feel a movement in
my spirit. The weather is always on the run. It is impossible to
predict the kind of day you will be shooting, except as a photographer
you always know your series of shots in western New York will be
diverse. Yet, there is more. It is hard to explain, but something
about the very land or properties of the Smith family seems to speak
to even the faint of hearing.
A Promise
Over twenty years ago I had a sacred experience when I
first started documenting Harmony, Pennsylvania where Joseph and
Emma lived and had a little 13 acre plot of land. I got there late
one evening after an arduous voyage through the weather of northern
Pennsylvania. A storm had been raging all around me. Since my favorite
time to shoot is early morning, especially the first twenty minutes
of light, I make it a habit of sleeping out on the very place where
I will be shooting, usually under an overhang of rock, or under
a tree or behind some old structure. I like to sleep out in the
elements because it gives me a better feel for the Saints who once
lived in these places.
This night
was horrible. The wind was blowing hard, the rain was coming down
in torrents, and the occasional crack of thunder and flashes of
lightning kept things a little tense. In the inclement darkness
I ran over by the Aaronic Priesthood monument to see what I could
see with the aid of a little flashlight. Behind the monument and
surrounding that setting were some fairly good-sized pine trees.
Because they looked like good protection, I grabbed my sleeping
bag with a garbage bag around it, dashed back to behind the monument
and slipped underneath a tree. It was actually quite dry and protected
and except for the trains that went right by the spot periodically,
I enjoyed a reasonable night's 'rest.'
The next morning
things didn't look good. The rain had stopped but the area was completely
socked in with thick, gray, billowing blankets of stormy clouds.
I could see I was not going to get any good pictures of Harmony,
and since I only had a couple of hours in my itinerary before I
had to be on my way, I dropped to my knees and had a prayer-a prayer
that would change my life.
I was simple
in my approach. I basically said, "Dear Heavenly Father, I have
come to this sacred and holy place of Harmony Pennsylvania. My desire
is to shoot some beautiful pictures full of light. There is no light
at all. If you will give me light as I need it, I promise I will
use these pictures to testify of Joseph Smith and the Restoration
whenever I can and wherever I go. I thank thee for the blessings
thou wilt send, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." I got up from
my prayer with full confidence the light would come, and I focused
my Nikkormat on one of the angles to which I had taken a fancy.
Immediately the clouds opened up in a spot, the light came, I shot
away, the clouds closed. I went to a different angle, set up, the
light came, I shot, the light departed. This happened for the entire
time I was there. The light only came when I needed it. Oh, now
some would say, "You were lucky, the winds were in your favor, those
clouds were probably thinning out, and you just happened to get
the light when you needed it." Not so. I was blessed to have the
light when I needed it. I knew that it was a gift from the heavens.
I could not deny it. Such a simple blessing from the heavens, but
this would determine a great deal of my future. Maurine and I have
had the blessing of giving over 200 firesides on the Restoration,
have spoken to well over 120,000 people, have published three books
on the Restoration (with photographs) and continue to do all we
can to use our photographs to bless other people's lives.
The
Museum of Church History and Art Display
When Robert Davis of the Church's museum came to me and presented
the idea of displaying my photographs and those of Brother George
Edward Anderson, I felt the tug of the promise I had made at Harmony.
These are not the pictures I shot that special day, but they have
come from the same motivation and desire to testify. These pictures,
they say, will be seen by over 350,000 people in the next few months.
That delights me to think that I can testify, though I am not there,
by using these photographs, each one which I consider a gift from
the heavens.
I have never
taken the skills and art of photography for granted. I consider
the capturing of light a gift from God and always return thanks
for all that is given to us. I remember hundreds of times shooting
in the Middle East, Central America and the British Isles when we
prayed to ask the Lord to touch our pictures with light. I remember
thinking one time after about six weeks of shooting that I wasn't
sure we had been blessed with as much light as we had asked. When
we saw the hundreds of rolls of film developed, the panoply of images
became an overall witness to what we had experienced on the shoot
but had not been able to see so clearly day to day. They were touched
by beauty and light. And so it is, and so it goes.
I give thanks
that the Lord allows me to take these pictures. I acknowledge His
hand in these images and pray that they, along with the incredible
images of my brother of the early twentieth century, George Edward
Anderson, will touch you and bless your lives.
Click
for Enlargement
The Smiths had
made the 350 miles journey from New England to western New York
to the rich and fertile soils of the Genesee country. Here land
was selling for $2 or $3 an acre and wheat was being raised abundantly.
Just off the right edge of the picture is a little school where
a young man was teaching the Smith children and others back in the
late 1820's-his name-Oliver Cowdery. On the left top edge of the
picture, with binoculars, one can see the Smith farm and the Sacred
Grove from this small drumlin.
Click
for Enlargement
Joseph and his
father and brothers used to work in this very field. When they first
purchased the land it was covered with virgin forest, 100-120 trees
per acre, many of them 300-500 years old at that time. In the first
short while after living on the farm (approximately eighteen months)
the Smiths cleared 30 acres of forest. Felling trees and pulling
stumps is about as hard of work, physically, that there is. The
Lord had a plan for little "lame" Joseph who was only recently off
four years of crutches from the leg operation.
Click
for Enlargement
This little
creek runs right through the middle of the Smith farm in Manchester,
New York. It has three names extant, Hathaway Brook, Crooked Creek
or Stafford Creek. Which one is right depends on who you talk to.
I have documented that this stream has never run dry in 94 years
(which can be projected backwards to Joseph's time and one could
figure it was just as trustworthy then). I was curious where this
creek comes from. Its source is right out of the back side of the
Hill Cumorah. I think it's significant that the water that fed the
Smith farm was from that place.
Click
for Enlargement
The frame house
of the Smiths in Manchester was built over a period of about four
years. Started by Alvin Smith, oldest brother of Joseph, who would
pass away in the midst of the construction, it would be completed
by Mr. Stoddard who just lived down the road. Alvin had wanted to
provide a comfortable home for his parents in their old age-Lucy
was now 45 years old. Joseph Sr. was 50.
Click
for Enlargement
This sculpture
of the Angel Moroni by Avard Fairbanks sits high atop the Hill Cumorah
overlooking the place where the Palmyra Pageant is performed each
year. I don't know of any place on earth (save the temples) where
there is a statue dedicated to an angel who returned to the earth
and brought back the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Click
for Enlargement
The hand of
John the Baptist in this Avard Fairbanks sculpture is upon the head
of the Prophet Joseph. This monument was placed herein Harmony,
Pennsylvania on May 15, 1963 in commemoration of the restoration
of the Aaronic Priesthood. It was about thirty feet from this monument
where I slept that amazing night.
Click
for Enlargement
Down by the
banks of the sacred Susquehanna River as I call it. This area is
about as peaceful as any place on earth. I love to take groups down
here and go through the story of the restoration of the Aaronic
Priesthood and call to their minds the actuality of those first
baptisms performed in this dispensation with authority from God.
Click
for Enlargement
The Grandin
Printing complex in Palmyra as it looked back in 1990. The building
has been completely renovated since this picture and looks more
like the original now. It took a long time to set this shot without
including a parking meter, the edge of a car or something modern.
I have a black and white of this complex from a different angle
that I like ten times better than this shot. I believe Egbert Bratt
Grandin was called of God to do the work he did. He was 23 when
he published the Book of Mormon. His life has a lot of parallels
to Joseph's. He lived to be within a few months of exactly the same
age of Joseph when he died (38 years old).
Click
for Enlargement
Smith frame
house in Manchester, New York faces west and looks out towards the
Sacred Grove. This is how the house looked in 1990. It has changed
radically since then and, based on the latest research and study,
is much closer to the original now.
Click
for Enlargement
This upper bedroom
in the Smith frame house in Manchester is one of my favorites. This
is a long exposure with a very small aperture so that the camera
can capture the richness of the colors and light in this room. I've
measured all the floor planks in these upper rooms. The widest one
was 23 inches wide-likely from those virgin forests that were being
cut. You can look closely and see how the Smiths were piecing the
floor together with different sizes and widths of wood-likely because
money was scarce and the project had gone on for a long time.
Click
for Enlargement
Reconstructed
home of Peter and Mary Whitmer, Fayette, Seneca County, New York.
Here in this 20 x 30 foot cabin the translation of the Book of Mormon
was completed. Here the Church was legally organized on Tuesday,
April 6, 1830. Near this home the vision was given to the Three
Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. In or near this home twenty revelations
of the Doctrine and Covenants were received. Here Mary Whitmer was
visited by the Angel Moroni. From this home President Spencer W.
Kimball broadcast General Conference on April 6, 1980 to celebrate
the Church's sesquicentennial. This is sacred and holy ground.
Click
for Enlargement
Looking from
the east hill of the Smith farm in Manchester towards the Sacred
Grove in the distance. The hill these three boys are sitting upon
is now graced with a temple of the Lord. Some of the outbuildings
in the distance can be seen which were part of the original Smith
farm and have been recently reconstructed. The Smith frame house
is located in the dense forest in the near foreground to the right
of the visible outbuilding. The original farm was 100 acres and
except for the hills at the extreme left and extreme right of the
photograph all of the land in the photograph belonged to the Smiths.
Click
for Enlargement
Young boys playing
on the split rail fence that leads along the lane to the Sacred
Grove. One can see Hathaway Brook (Crooked Creek or Stafford Creek)
by where the boys are playing and the little bridge that crosses
it (on the extreme lower right). Glass plates that were used in
George Edward's day took any where from 30 seconds to 3 minutes
to expose, an interesting fact to put in your mind as you look at
the position the boy took with his leg out as if he were crossing
the fence. This was no easy task.
Click
for Enlargement
This is probably
George Edward's most famous shot. His camera is set on a higher
point of elevation in the Sacred Grove looking out of the Grove
to the east. Part of the old buildings of the Smith farm can be
seen in the distant clearing. Apparently the small boy in the foreground
is of the approximate age of the young boy Joseph Smith who entered
this same grove some 87 years before this picture was taken.
Click
for Enlargement
Looking south
along the old Canandaigua road towards the Hill Cumorah in the center.
Oliver Cowdery's 1834 description makes this 1907 picture come alive:
"You are acquainted with the mail road from Palmyra...to Canandaigua,
New York and also, as you pass from the former to the latter place,
before arriving at the little village of Manchester, say from three
to four, or about four miles from Palmyra, you pass a large hill
on the east side of the road. Why I say large, is because it is
as large perhaps, as any in that country. To a person acquainted
with this road, a description would be unnecessary, as it is the
largest and rises the highest of any on that route." (Papers
of Joseph Smith, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Vol. 1, p. 77)
Click
for Enlargement
As George Edward
has labeled it: Bird's eye view of Home of Joseph Smith "The Mormon
Prophet" near Susquehanna, PA. The view is looking from north to
south. As is characteristic of most of George Edward's photographs
he has placed a person in the far foreground just to the left. The
building that can be seen just right of center in the distance is
an outbuilding and likely part of the original Joseph and Emma Smith
farm. Their home is located to the right in a clearing in the distance
but is not very discernable. The smoke that is so obvious in this
picture is from a passing train. The tracks come within 60 feet
of Joseph and Emma's cabin (no longer extant).
Click
for Enlargement
View of the
Susquehanna River from an angle that I have not been able to match
in my research to date. I have walked the length of the shore line
of the original property of Joseph and Emma's 13 acres. It appears
to be up river just a ways from the Smiths but still on part of
the old Isaac and Elizabeth Hale estate (Emma's parents, well over
640 acres). Having been here numerous times it is clear the river
is running high and is either in spring or after a good rainstorm.
Click
for Enlargement
Scene of the
old main street of Palmyra, New York with the Grandin Printing complex
located just in front and to the left of the second horse carriage
from the right. I've taken a photograph in black and white in 1995,
from a different angle, that is as reminiscent of the times as this
one. If you look closely in the background you can see two steeples
sticking through the trees on the left. These are two of the four
churches that form "four corners" in Palmyra, the only place in
the nation with one church on each of four corners of an intersection.
Click
for Enlargement
View of Peter
Whitmer Sr. farm in Fayette, Seneca County, New York. That enormous
tree to the left of center is a curiosity to me. I'm always looking
for trees to match up from George Edward's pictures to the modern
times. I actually was able to match one up in Missouri which really
was very exciting. The original Peter and Mary Whitmer farm was
260 acres. The Church owns all the original property today.
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