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In 1909, assistant Church historian Andrew Jenson began documenting the history of the Danish Mission (along with the Scandinavian Mission, from which the Danish Mission was created). He later attempted to document other missions as well. He and the staff of the Historian’s Office would comb through journals, newspapers, and other documents looking for a mention of a mission or missionary. Whenever they found one, they would file them in chronological order. 

Together, these collected pieces became the manuscript history for each mission. Some, like the British Mission, are enormous, and others, like the Middle States Mission (which existed for only about a year), are short. Prepared with the hope that historians would someday use them to write out mission histories for publication, the only one ever converted into published form was the History of the Scandinavian Mission, by Andrew Jenson.

The easiest way to find a mission’s manuscript history is to search the Church History Catalog for the name of a mission and include the phrase “mission manuscript history.” They are always cataloged with the local record call number (the “LR” for the mission) followed by a “2.” For example, the Eastern States Mission’s call number is LR 2475, and its manuscript history is LR 2475 2. Keep in mind that the names of missions have changed throughout history. Usually, the name of the manuscript history represents the most recent name change; in our Eastern States example, the name is New York New York South Mission.