Rare Photograph Identified as First Tabernacle Choir Director

Who was the man in the photograph? It was perplexing. Glen Beckstead, a Salt Lake resident and Church member, recently acquired an old leather case measuring about 4 inches long and 3 inches wide. Inside was the photo of a distinguished gentleman wearing dress clothes from the 19th century. No one knew who the man was. Eventually he was identified by Ron Fox, a local photo historian from the Salt Lake 14th Ward, who has made several important recent discoveries.

The man identified in the daguerreotype photo is John Parry, the first director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The existence of the photo was unknown to scholars and historians and appeared only once in the Deseret News in about 1900.

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