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Research dossier · People & Ideas

Leon R. Hartshorn

BYU Hawaii religion professor and LDS mission president

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionNov 30, 2022
Entity authorityQ6524840 ↗
Source-derived summary

Leon R. Hartshorn (January 16, 1929 – August 11, 2015) was a religion professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) and an author of many books. Most of his books were the collections of stories about leaders or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). In the LDS Church, Hartshorn has been a bishop and the president of the Missouri St. Louis Mission.

Biography

Hartshorn grew up in American Fork, Utah, and was a Mormon missionary in the LDS Church's Northern States Mission from 1949 to 1951. Hartshorn received his Ed.D. degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, with his dissertation entitled Mormon Education in the Bold Years.

Prior to joining the faculty of BYU, Hartshorn was an instructor for the Church Educational System and taught at the Church College of Hawaii, which has since been renamed Brigham Young University–Hawaii.

Hartshorn was a contributor of the article "Gift of Discernment" and others to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism and in 1996 was a co-editor with Dennis A. Wright and Craig J. Ostler of a book on the Doctrine and Covenants.

He died on August 11, 2015.

Publications

Among books by Hartshorn are Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration (1970), Put on the Armor of God, Memorable Christmas Stories, Remarkable Stories from the Lives of Latter-day Saint Women and a collection of stories of presidents, apostles and general authorities of the LDS Church.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Leon R. Hartshorn” as bYU Hawaii religion professor and LDS mission president. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Leon, Hartshorn and Hawaii.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1929, 2015, 1949, 1951—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1929-01-16. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Leon, Hartshorn and Hawaii providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Leon R. Hartshorn”, the useful work is to connect “bYU Hawaii religion professor and LDS mission president” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 30, 2022. The linked authority identifier is Q6524840. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1929, 2015, 1949 and 1951.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Leon R. Hartshorn”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Leon R. Hartshorn primary sources, Leon R. Hartshorn archive and Leon research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Leon R. Hartshorn”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Leon R. Hartshorn” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.