Date of Award:
12-2021
Document Type:
Thesis
Degree Name:
Master of Arts (MA)
Department:
History
Committee Chair(s)
Patrick Mason
Committee
Patrick Mason
Committee
Seth Archer
Committee
Angela Diaz
Committee
Evelyn Funda
Abstract
This thesis examines the intersection of plural marriage, as practiced by nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints, and female infertility. It does so by examining the diary of Elizabeth Pickett Tolman. This diary was kept from 1875-1894 and provides an intimate view of the experiences of an infertile first wife who struggled with the principle of plural marriage and pursued multiple medical treatments for her infertility. This study helps to fill in an area that has been largely unresearched by scholars of the history of women’s health and Mormon historians. Elizabeth’s diary shows that while infertility was a unique experience for her because of the reality of plural marriage and the fact that her husband was able to have children by another woman, the way Elizabeth thought about her infertility and the treatment that she sought out align with larger social and medical trends in American history.
Checksum
ce7e2246cace733006dc39154ac975aa
Recommended Citation
LeFevre, Brooke R., "Elizabeth Pickett Tolman: One Woman's Experience with Polygamy and Infertility" (2021). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 8251.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/8251
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