This volume is made possible by the help and generosity of many people and institutions. We give special thanks to administrators and officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, which sponsors the project. We especially recognize the leadership, patience, friendship, and invaluable contributions of Elder Marlin K. Jensen, who served as church historian and recorder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as chair of the Joseph Smith Papers Editorial Board from 2005 to 2012. We also express special thanks to the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Foundation for their continued support of the project. Their generosity and encouragement have enabled the project to meet an ambitious production schedule while adhering to the highest scholarly standards.
Many libraries and repositories have provided essential assistance. We thank the management and staff of the Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, where the majority of Joseph Smith’s papers are located; the Family History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City; and the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. We express deep appreciation to the staff of the Community of Christ Library-Archives, Independence, Missouri, and to the historians and site directors of the Community of Christ; in particular, we thank Mark Scherer, Ronald E. Romig, Barbara J. Bernauer, and Lachlan MacKay. We are grateful for the valuable assistance provided by Kathryn James, George Miles, Natalia Sciarini, and June Can of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut; Dana M. Lamparello and Jack Gumbrecht, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Dean Rogers, Vassar College Libraries, Poughkeepsie, New York. Other institutions we are indebted to include the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka; the Library of Congress, Washington DC; the Marie Eccles-Caine Archives of Intermountain Americana, Utah State University Special Collections, Logan; and the Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.
A number of production editors on the project staff assisted with the volume. In addition to those named in the front matter of this volume, we thank Alison Palmer, who typeset the volume, oversaw work on the biographical directory, and helped check sources; Whitney Hinckley, Leslie Sherman, and Julia Woodbury, who assisted with proofreading, research, and source checking; and Riley M. Lorimer, who consulted on style and layout issues. Caitlin Shirts and Heather Seferovich, production editors when the project was housed at Brigham Young University, edited drafts and assisted with text verification. Many interns and contractors also assisted with copyediting, source checking, and other production work on this volume. They include Ruth D. Eldredge, Amanda Kae Fronk, Peter V. Hilton, Emily Hinchey, Margaret A. Hogan, Shannon Kelly, Kelley Konzak, Melissa Rehon Kotter, Jamie Layton, Allison Mathews, Kaitlin Merkley, Andrea Nelson, Sarah Gibby Peris, Katie Pitts-Olson, and Zachary Zundel.
We are grateful to Alex D. Braunberger, Jay R. Eastley, Naoma W. Eastley, Michael Nelson, and Veneese Nelson, all volunteers who assisted with research for the geographical directory. Other volunteers to whom we are indebted are David H. Kitterman, who assisted with research for the chronology; Wayne Morris, who did biographical research; and Lyle Briggs, who created research files for maps.
Among those who provided technology support are Clark D. Christensen, Darren Shipley, Lisa Liddle, David Hale, Ted Marshall, Dennis Sagers, and Stewart Shelline of the Information and Communication Services Department and Gary K. Jestice of the Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and Stephen Perkins, Paul Hayslett, Helen Langone, Allan Orsnes, and their colleagues at IDM USA. We are grateful to A. J. Mott for assisting with technology in the early years of the project.
Student researchers at Brigham Young University, under the guidance of Kay Darowski of the Joseph Smith Papers, provided valuable research support. They include Lisse Brox, Matthew B. Christensen, Jared P. Collette, Justin Collings, Lia Suttner Collings, Daniel J. Combs, Christopher K. Crockett, Eric Dowdle, Vanessa Ann Dominica Dowdle, David W. Grua, Angella L. Hamilton, Christopher C. Jones, Mary-Celeste Lewis, Winston Matthews, Kara Nelsen, Amy Norton, Jason M. Olson, Benjamin E. Park, Daren E. Ray, Sandra Mason Roller, Ryan W. Saltzgiver, Kelli M. Smith, Timothy D. Speirs, Virginia E. Stratford, M. Nathaniel Tanner, Kathryn Jensen Wall, Stephen Whitaker, and Kally Whittle. We were also fortunate to have had the assistance of many research interns at the Church History Library. These include Donald Bradley, Ryan Davis, Sherilyn Farnes, Torrie Foutz, Scott Marianno, Drew Sorber, Philip Stewart, Shayla Sturgess, Christopher W. Taylor, and Jeffrey Tucker.
Many professional historians, archivists, document specialists, and other experts shared research, answered questions, provided access to documents, or helped in other ways. We are grateful for assistance from Richard L. Anderson, Mark Ashurst-McGee, Ronald O. Barney, Joseph F. Darowski, Matthew C. Godfrey, Andrew H. Hedges, Jeffery O. Johnson, Brent M. Rogers, and Alex D. Smith, all of the Joseph Smith Papers. We thank Gordon A. Madsen, Joseph Smith Papers, for his assistance with a number of complex questions regarding legal history. Noel R. Barton, Brian P. Barton, and Steven Motteshard provided professional genealogical research services in support of the biographical directory. Professionals in the Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who generously assisted us include Grant A. Anderson, Kathy Cardon, LaJean Purcell Carruth, Donald L. Enders, Russell C. Fuhriman, Steven C. Harper, Jennifer L. Lund, Chris McAfee, Brandon Metcalf, Benjamin Pykles, Glenn N. Rowe, Mark L. Staker, and Brad Westwood. At Brigham Young University, Royal J. Skousen, Department of Linguistics and English Language, and John Murphy and David J. Whittaker, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, were among those whose expert help we relied on.
Others to whom we are indebted for sharing their insights include Gayle Y. Anderson, Brent Ashworth, Samuel M. Brown, John Hajicek, Erin B. Jennings, Steven L. Mayfield, William V. Smith, Jonathan A. Stapley, and George Throckmorton. We are thankful to the private collectors who gave us access to historical documents in their collections.
Maps in this volume were developed by Geographic Information Services, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under the direction of David Peart, with cartography by Blake Baker, Keith Kato, Brice Lucas, Heidi J. Springsteed, Jonathan West, and Gary Christensen. The maps are based on work done for previous volumes by the Department of Geography, Brigham Young University, under the direction of Brandon Plewe. We are grateful to John Hamer for designing the map of the mission to the Lamanites.
Welden C. Andersen of the Publishing Services Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shot the textual photographs in this volume and helped prepare them for the press. Gene A. Ware, Brigham Young University, applied multispectral imaging techniques to help recover badly faded text. Melanie Price and Natasha Greenwood of the Publishing Services Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, provided prepress support. We are grateful to Anna Staley and Viola Knecht for administrative assistance and to Patrick Dunshee, Gideon Tolman, and Stephanie Dawson for their efforts in marketing the project and the volume.
We thank the management and staff at Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, for their assistance with the design, printing, distribution, and marketing of this volume. In particular, we thank Sheri L. Dew, Cory H. Maxwell, Anne Sheffield, Richard Erickson, Suzanne Brady, Gail Halladay, Derk Koldewyn, and Vicki Parry.