--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 4 published: 1912-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Portrait and Sketch of Dr. James E. Talmage," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 4 (February 1912): 347–349.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1504unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1504unse start_page: 347 end_page: 349 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1504unse publication_year: 1912 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Portrait and Sketch of Dr. James E. Talmage Dr. James E. Talmage Dr. James E. Talmage, son of James Joyce Talmage and Susanna Preater Talmage, recently ordained an apostle, was born on Sunday, September 21, 1862, at Hungerford, Berkshire, England. He was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the place of his birth, June 15, 1873, and on the 18th of the following August was ordained a deacon in the Ramsbury branch of the London conference. With his parents and their entire family he left the family home at Ramsbury on the 22nd of May, 1876. They were all bound for LT tah and sailed from Liverpool on the 24th of the same month by the Guion steamship Nevada. They landed in Xew York on the 5th of June, and arrived in Salt Lake City on the 14th of the same month and year. According to the order then in vogue in the Church, which required that all immigrants be re-baptized, he was re-baptized at Provo, LTtah, on the 12th of July following. His career in the Church has been upward and onward ever since. On the 7th of December, 1877, he was ordained a teacher in the third ward of Provo, and an elder in the same city, on the 28th of June, 1880. Four years later, on September 29, 1884. he was ordained a High Priest, and set apart as an alternate High Councilor in the LTtah Stake of Zion. On the 10th of November. 190T, he was sustained a member of the Deseret Sunday School Union, at the special conference of the Church on that date. He was appointed and sustained to be one of the apostles to fill the vacancy caused by the appointment of Elder Charles W. Penrose as second counsellor in the First Presidency, on the 7th of December, 191 1, and on the following day was ordained an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and set apart as one of the Council 348 IMPROVEMENT ERA dren: Sterling B., born May 21, 1889, recently returned from a mission to England; Paul B., born December 21, 1891 Zella, ; born August 3, 1894, died April 27, 1895, of pneumonia; Elsie, born August 16, 1896; James Karl, born August 29, 1898; Lucile, born May 29, 1900; Helen May, born October 24, 1902; John Russell, born February 1, 191 1. Dr. Talmage received his common school education in the national schools at Hungerford, Berks., and Ramsbury, Wilts. On his arrival in Utah he entered the Brigham Young Academy at Provo, in 1876, and was later a student at Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1882-3, and of John Hopkins' University, Baltimore, Maryland, 1883-4. From the Pennsylvania institution he received his Baccalaureate degree, in 189 1, and the degree of Ph. D. from the Illinois Wesleyan University, in 1896. He received also the degree of Doctor of Science and Didactics (D. Sc. D.) from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in 1890. Returning from his college studies in the East, he became professor of chemistry and geology at the Brigham Young Academy in Provo, in 1884, in which capacity he continued until 1888, at which time he became president of the Latter-day Saints College, in Salt Lake City, then known as the Salt Lake Stake Academy. In this capacity he continued until 1893, in which year he was appointed professor of chemistry and geology for the then prospective Church University, which institution was never completed as to its organization. In 1894 he became president of the University of Utah, and Deseret Professor of Geology therein. In 1897 he resigned the presidency but retained the chair of geology, which he resigned in July, 1907. and has since followed the profession of consulting geologist and mining engineer. In 891 he was appointed curator of the Deseret Museum, and later ne became its director, which position he still holds. Dr. Talmage has traveled extensively in Europe specifically in the interests of scientific study, and was a delegate of the Royal Society of Edinburgh to the Seventh International Geological Congress, held in Russia, in 1897, in connection with which appointment he traversed Russia and crossed the Ural mountains and reached Siberia. Aside from his college degrees he has had conferred upon him many distinguishing honors of a scholastic nature, among them DR. JAMES E. TALMAGE 349 the following: Fellow of the Royal Microscopic Society of London (F. R. M. S.) Fellow of the Geological Society of London ; (F. G. S.) Fellow of the Geological Society of America (F. G. ; S. A.) Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (F. R. S. E.) ; Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geological Society (F. R. S. G. S.) Fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science Life Asscoiate of the Philosophical Society of Great Britain. In the domain of literature he has written a number of excellent works, among them The First Book of Nature, Domestic : Science, The Articles of Faith, The Story of Mormonism, TJtc Great Apostasy, Tables for Blow-pipe Determination of Minerals, The Great Salt Lake, Past and Present, and numerous contributions to scientific literature through the columns of standard publications.