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New Content on the Joseph Smith Papers Website
March 3, 2026
The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web publication. This release features several new documents in the Financial Records series and in the Nauvoo, Illinois, city records, the latter of which are part of the Administrative Records series. The financial records include introductions and documents for the agent papers of William Clayton and of Samuel Bent and George W. Harris, as well as four ship enrollments for the steamboat Maid of Iowa. The city records include 1841 Nauvoo Legion documents and 1843 tax assessor and collector documents. The release also includes ten new documents in the Documents series and new and updated entries in the biographical directory and calendar of documents.
In the Financial Records series, this release features the images and transcripts for two sets of agent papers as well as explanatory introductions. The first set comprises the subscriptions, receipts, and donation records created by agents Samuel Bent and George W. Harris during 1840 and 1841. Bent and Harris were directed by Joseph Smith and the Nauvoo high council to undertake a mission to collect money to assist in printing a new edition of the Book of Mormon, and the documents included here are the result of their efforts. The second set of agent papers belongs to William Clayton, Joseph Smith’s primary and most integral financial agent in Nauvoo. Clayton began working with Joseph Smith in 1842 and continued to assist the church trustees and other church leaders after Joseph Smith’s death. Clayton’s agent papers extend into and overlap with several other financial record sets, including Illinois land transactions and trustee-in-trust records. The documents in his agent papers are only a small portion of the total number of documents he created for and in behalf of Joseph Smith and the church. This release also includes a broader category of Joseph Smith’s financial records from the Nauvoo period titled “Illinois Financial Records.” These represent transactions or documents involving Joseph Smith that do not fit into other existing categories in the Financial Records series.
In the Administrative Records series, this release includes images and transcripts for documents in the Nauvoo Legion records and in the assessor and collector records. Companies in the Nauvoo Legion periodically held elections to select officers, and this release features poll records and election returns from several such elections. Also included are several commissions from Illinois governor Thomas Carlin to Nauvoo Legion officers. In the assessor and collector records, fourteen documents pertaining to Nauvoo taxes for 1843 have been added. These records include the total amount of taxes assessed for each of Nauvoo’s four political wards, lists of who paid taxes and who was delinquent, and receipts. In coming releases, the ward assessment books for 1843 and the 1844 assessor and collector records will be added to the website.
This release also provides images and transcripts of eight 1844 documents and two other versions of documents dating from 1829 and 1840. The calendar of documents gives a complete list of documents with links to individual versions. Also included are almost three hundred new biographical entries for people that appear in the Book of the Law of the Lord. These entries do not have biographical sketches of the individuals but do have links to documents where they are mentioned.