Utah is home to countless communities with distinct, intertwined histories.
The Peoples of Utah Revisited project widens the lens on Utah’s history, working to center the lived experiences and rich stories of Utahns across the state.
Fifty years after the original groundbreaking publication, The Peoples of Utah, the project continues through Peoples Online—the digital home of the Peoples project. This dynamic repository bridges our past and present by offering new scholarship, interactive storymaps, and community-sourced collections that cultivate a deeper sense of belonging for all.
THE ORIGINAL PEOPLES OF UTAH, 1976
OUR HISTORY
The Peoples of Utah Revisited returns to the groundbreaking work of the 1970s on Utah’s ethnic communities. As part of Utah’s bicentennial commemoration, noted Greek American ethnographer Helen Zeese Papanikolas spearheaded the original Peoples of Utah initiative. The volume was published in 1976, and the project created a priceless collection of historic photographs and documents.
The book and archival collection chronicled the little-known histories of Utah’s Native American, Black, Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, Mexican-American, Middle Eastern, and various European communities. Papanikolas was the first scholar to place their histories alongside the better-known stories of western Americans and Latter-day Saints.
The Peoples of Utah was grounded in immediate, lived experience. Papanikolas was born in Carbon County in 1917 to immigrant parents from Greece. She grew up in Helper at a time when more than 28 global languages were spoken in the area’s mining and railroad towns.
Helen Papanikolas dedicated her career to bringing to light the many peoples who lived in Utah, preserving and sharing their stories for generations to come.
If you’re interested in contributing to the Peoples project, please contact Jordan Kiyak:
