Ken Rockwell, metadata librarian in the Marriott Library’s Digital Library Services Department, recently received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Utah Historical Society for creating the Utah Religious Architecture Photograph (URAP) collection and the Salt Lake Religious Architecture Photograph (SLRP) collection.

Ken created the Salt Lake photograph collection in 2018 as a follow-up to a digital exhibit on the religious diversity of the city. This collection also documents how older buildings are preserved by getting repurposed. Church congregations move to new buildings, leaving their old homes to be used by other faith communities or for secular purposes. Other buildings, built for other purposes, have been purchased by these congregations to become houses of worship. While this project was confined to the city’s boundaries, when Ken started receiving offers of photographs of religious sites from elsewhere in Utah, he conceived the idea of a crowd-sourced project that invites the public to submit their own digital photos of church buildings from around the state.

The new project, the Utah Religious Architecture Photograph Collection, was launched in 2020 and now includes over 1,500 images of churches in 53 cities and towns across the state. But there are still many localities not represented, from Logan to St. George. The project is ongoing and welcomes further participation by the public. Both exterior and interior shots are welcome, though it is best not to include photos with people unless they consent to appearing in a publicly available resource.  Older structures that could possibly be subject to demolition are of particular interest. Several of the sites photographed in 2018 have been torn down and more may soon follow.

Individuals who would like to contribute photographs of religious structures in Utah can do so at the project home page.

Questions? Contact Ken Rockwell.