Community of Christ Makes Documents Available to Joseph Smith Papers Project

We are pleased to announce the addition to this website of more than a dozen documents owned by Community of Christ. Management and staff of the Joseph Smith Papers project express our gratitude to officials of Community of Christ for their generosity in allowing us to post these documents under a licensing agreement. Community of Christ, headquartered in Independence, Missouri, maintains copyright ownership of the images.

Documents made available by Community of Christ include Joseph Smith’s first manuscript revision of the Old Testament, letters from Joseph Smith to his wife Emma, copies of revelations, and other documents. For more information about these documents, please see the News page.

We look forward to a continuing relationship with Community of Christ and other repositories in providing access to additional documents on this website. The generous cooperation from outside institutions is vital to our goal of publishing images and transcripts of all extant Joseph Smith documents on this site.

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  Old Testament Revision 1, June 1830–ca. 7 Mar. 1831; handwriting of Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, Emma Smith, and John Whitmer; 60 pages; CCLA.
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  JS, letter, Richmond, MO, to Emma Smith, Far West, MO, 12 Nov. 1838; handwriting of JS; two pages; JS Materials, CCLA.
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  Revelation, Hiram, OH, 30 Oct. 1831; handwriting of John Whitmer; in Revelation Book 1, p. 112; CCLA.

New Content on Joseph Smith Papers Website

The Joseph Smith Papers Project announces the addition of new content to its website, josephsmithpapers.org:

• History, 1838–1856, volume B-1, the second volume of the multivolume manuscript history of the church begun in 1838. This volume, covering Joseph Smith’s life and the history of the church for the period from September 1834 to early November 1838, includes accounts of events such as the dedication of the temple in Kirtland, Ohio, the departure of the first Latter-day Saint missionaries to England, and the surrender of Joseph Smith during the “Mormon War” in Missouri.
• More than fifty letters, discourses, minutes, and other documents dating from 1840, including documents relating to Joseph Smith’s efforts to obtain redress from the federal government for wrongs suffered in Missouri and describing the beginnings of settlement in Nauvoo, Illinois.
• New and updated reference material, including almost one hundred new geographical descriptions and sources for many existing biographical and geographical descriptions.

Also recently added are Revelation Book 2, images of the 1844 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, and images of the four editions of the Book of Mormon published in Joseph Smith’s lifetime (1830—Palmyra, NY; 1837—Kirtland, OH; 1840—Nauvoo, IL; and 1841—Liverpool, England). In the coming months more documents from the Documents, Histories, Revelations and Translations, and Administrative Records series will be added. Eventually the website will contain images and transcripts of all extant and available Joseph Smith papers.

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  JS, History, 1838–1856, vol. B-1; handwriting of Willard Richards and Thomas Bullock; 297 pages, plus 10 pages of addenda; CHL.
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  JS, letter, Nauvoo, IL, to the Council of the Twelve, England, 15 Dec. 1840; handwriting of Robert B. Thompson; eight pages; JS Collection, CHL.
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  Alfred Woodward, phrenology chart, Philadelphia, PA, 14 Jan. 1840; printed form with manuscript insertions probably in handwriting of Alfred Woodward; two pages; JS Collection, CHL.

Second Volume of Journals Series Now Available

The Church Historian’s Press is pleased to announce that Journals, Volume 2: December 1841–April 1843, the latest letterpress volume of The Joseph Smith Papers, is now available for purchase. This second of three planned volumes in the Journals series begins in December 1841 as the Saints regrouped after their expulsion from Missouri. Journals, Volume 2 allows scholars and lay readers alike ready access to Joseph Smith’s activities through journal entries dictated to or written by scribes Willard Richards and William Clayton. Created under the direction of Joseph Smith himself, the journals constitute an essential primary source for research into the life of the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during one of the most dynamic periods in the history of the faith.

Learn more about Journals, Volume 2: December 1841–April 1843