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New Content on the Joseph Smith Papers Website
May 28, 2026
The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web publication. This release features the entirety of Documents, Volume 15: 16 May–28 June 1844, including all annotation and introductions, as well as related documents and additional versions of documents from the time period. This is the final print volume of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, and with its inclusion on the website, all the content in the print volumes now appears in some form on this website. The release also includes just over one hundred new financial documents, thirty-four new Nauvoo Legion documents, eleven documents regarding taxes in Nauvoo, Illinois, for 1844, four new documents in the Documents series, and new and updated entries in the financial glossary and calendar of documents.
The documents in Documents, Volume 15 cover the last six weeks of Joseph Smith’s life, including the events that led to his murder on 27 June 1844. Between mid-May and the end of June 1844, tensions continued between Latter-day Saints and their neighbors in Hancock County. This was a period filled with lawsuits, accusations, threats, and violence against the Latter-day Saints. Critics in and around the county were concerned about the extent of Smith’s power in Nauvoo. Conflict between Smith and a small group of disaffected Latter-day Saints also escalated. This group published a newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor, on 7 June 1844, which was highly critical of Smith. The Nauvoo City Council met on 8 and 10 June to discuss how it should respond to the newspaper. The council decided to destroy the press and all printed copies of the paper within the Expositor’s office. This led to the arrest of Smith and others on a charge of riot. Numerous efforts were made to explain the situation to the governor of Illinois, Thomas Ford, but Ford urged Smith to answer the riot charge in court in Carthage. A hearing on the riot charge was postponed, but Joseph and Hyrum Smith were arrested again for treason and held in the Hancock County jail in Carthage, where they were assassinated by a mob on 27 June. The documents covering these events include correspondence, accounts of discourses by Smith, administrative minutes, municipal documents, military orders, and legal papers. Different versions of these documents, as well as related documents, also appear on this website.
In the Financial Records series, this release features images and transcripts for over one hundred documents from the Nauvoo period of church history. The majority of these documents were created for the Nauvoo temple committee that collected donations and oversaw labor on the Nauvoo temple. The committee consisted of three members, Reynolds Cahoon, Alpheus Cutler, and Elias Higbee, from 1840 until Higbee’s death in June 1843. Higbee’s position remained vacant until December 1843, when Hyrum Smith was appointed to the committee. After Hyrum Smith’s death in June 1844, the committee remained at only two members, Cahoon and Cutler. As church trustee, JS oversaw the work of the Nauvoo temple committee, particularly the recording and distribution of tithing donations. Some of the tithing donations included in this release were from Latter-day Saints in Illinois, New York, and Michigan. Additional tithing donations came from British Latter-day Saints, who sent their tithing with missionaries and designated church agents. Such records help illuminate who was donating to the Nauvoo temple and how they were doing so. This release also includes the addition of thirteen new financial terms to the financial glossary to aid readers in understanding largely unknown terminology.
In the Administrative Records series, this release adds documents related to the Nauvoo Legion and the assessor and collector records. The legion periodically sent returns to the adjutant general of Illinois to request commissions for elected officers. Several such returns are featured in this release, as well as commissions issued by Illinois governor Thomas Carlin. Also included are poll records and election reports from officer elections and other miscellaneous documents. In the assessor and collector records, eleven documents pertaining to Nauvoo taxes for 1844 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. A coming release will add the ward assessment books for 1843 and 1844, along with more receipts and other records regarding revenue in Nauvoo.
In the Documents series, this release includes images and transcripts of a priesthood license, a poem by Eliza R. Snow, and a pay order for police duty. It also includes a second color version of the 1837 map of Kirtland, Ohio. In addition, the release contains new and updated entries in the calendar of documents.
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.