Atlanta Georgia Temple - Angel with Trumpet

While in Birmingham, I discovered we were only a little over two hours away from Atlanta.  So, on an afternoon when Bill could leave his work a little early, we made the drive.  Driving anywhere, in the Eastern United States is enjoyable, as there are so many beautiful landscapes and green vistas.  However, fall wet weather has begun, and the wind and late hour, kept us from walking outside for more than a few moments.

Beautiful woodwork is part of the newly refurnished Atlanta Temple.  But the chandeliers are always a highlight in every temple.  We especially enjoyed the large chandelier in the Celestial Room.



On top of most temples, is a gold plated statue of the Angel Moroni blowing his trumpet.  It is symbolic of heralding in the latter days, and the restoration and message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, before the coming of the Savior's return to the earth for his Millennial reign.

I found the following information on a search on lds.org:

The Salt Lake Temple, dedicated in 1893, was the first temple topped with an angel formally identified as Moroni. When Church President Wilford Woodruff (1807–98) asked non-LDS artist Cyrus Dallin to create a statue, Dallin declined. Knowing that Dallin’s parents had once been active Latter-day Saints, President Woodruff encouraged him to consult with his mother.

Dallin’s mother felt he should accept the commission. When he said he did not believe in angels, his mother asked, “Why do you say that? … You call me your ‘angel mother.’” ³ She encouraged him to study Latter-day Saint scriptures for inspiration, which he did. His design was a dignified, neoclassical angel in robe and cap, standing upright with a trumpet in hand. The original one-meter plaster model was completed by 4 October 1891, and a full-size model was sent to Salem, Ohio, where the statue was hammered out of copper and covered with 22-karat gold leaf. The 3.8 meter statue stands on a stone ball on the 64-meter central spire on the east side.

Replicas of the statue, fashioned in the 1930s by Torlief Knaphus and later cast by LaVar Wallgren, can be found on the Atlanta Georgia Temple and the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple.

Cyrus Dallin was born in Springville, Utah, on 22 November 1861. His family had joined the Church in England and immigrated to Utah in 1851. Once there, however, Dallin’s parents joined the Presbyterian Church. As a child, Cyrus loved sketching and modeling with clay. Eventually he studied art in Boston, Massachusetts. “I considered that my ‘Angel Moroni’ brought me nearer to God than anything I ever did,” he said. “It seemed to me that I came to know what it means to commune with angels from heaven.”