Stunning Photo Journalism at Life Magazine Featuring a Polygamist Family in 1944

Beautiful photography from a rare look inside a polygamist family in 1944 done by Life photographer John Florea.

Rare Look at 1944 Polygamist Family from LIFE

There are 19 photos and each one has extensive captioning. Author Dorothy Allred Solomon narrates many of the photos and while she is not a plural wife she is the daughter of Rulon C Allred.

From the first photo

?In 1944, LIFE photographer John Florea traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, on an assignment to study the burgeoning, defiantly devout kind of American family that still fascinates us today: polygamists. At the time, the 15 fundamentalist Mormons pictured here outside a courthouse — men who had children numbering in the double digits via multiple wives — faced time behind bars for living their strict religious beliefs despite state laws against plural marriage. As the controversy surrounding plural marriage continues, with Utah authorities saying they may charge Kody Brown, the patriarch of TV's reality show Sister Wives, with felony bigamy, LIFE.com presents photos, some of which have never been published, that shine a light into older generations of polygamous families."