The Joseph Smith Papers Project is made possible by the help and cooperation of many people. The project has benefited from the guidelines and experience developed during the renaissance in editing historical and literary works in America since the 1940s. Administrators and officials at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, have provided support and resources that have facilitated this work. We give special acknowledgment to management and staff at the Church History Library, Salt Lake City, where the bulk of the Joseph Smith papers are housed. We also express special thanks to officials of the Community of Christ, Independence, Missouri, who have made many Joseph Smith documents available from their archives.
In addition to the Church History Library and the Community of Christ Library- Archives, other repositories have provided valuable material and assistance, including L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University; the Chicago Historical Society; the Family History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City; the Hancock County Historical Society, Carthage, Illinois; the Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield; the Lake County Genealogical Society, Painesville, Ohio; the Library of Congress, Washington DC; the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis; the Montrose, Iowa, Public Library; the State Historical Society of Iowa, Des Moines; and the Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City.
The foundation for the present edition of Joseph Smith’s journals was laid during work on the second volume of The Papers of Joseph Smith, which was published in 1992. During that time many individuals contributed their skills. These include Leonard J. Arrington, Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, William G. Hartley, Carol Cornwall Madsen, and Marilyn Rish Parks, all colleagues in the former Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at Brigham Young University; William W. Slaughter and Ronald G. Watt, Church History Library; Glen M. Leonard, Church History Museum, Salt Lake City; Glenn N. Rowe, Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Chad J. Flake, Keith W. Perkins, and David J. Whittaker, Brigham Young University; Richard P. Howard and Ronald E. Romig, Community of Christ Library-Archives; Steven R. Thomas, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Mary Alma Kay, Keokuk, Iowa; and Ronald A. Millett, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City. Adding further research assistance and technical help were many students at Brigham Young University, including David Brizee, Mark Davies, Carlos Domingues, Byron Ellenberg, Quinn Haddock, Craig Livingston, Michael Mitchell, Kurt Rowley, Drew Smith, and Elizabeth White.
This present edition of the Joseph Smith journals, enriching and revising the 1992 publication, has benefited from the more recent work of many of those whose names have been mentioned above. Of particular note are the contributions of Community of Christ archivist Ron Romig. Many other scholars, students, and specialists have also made significant contributions to the present edition of the journals. John W. Welch of Brigham Young University Studies has provided invaluable editorial support, and many BYU Studies staff members assisted with source checking and other editorial tasks, including Becky Boyce, Erick Carlson, Maurianne Dunn, Stephen Fleming, Julie Geilman, Alison Kitchen, Kristine Lee, Kimberly Pace, and Anastasia Sutherland. The biographical directory was developed with the assistance of Raquel M. Lindaas, Stanley D. Lindaas, Wayne T. Morris, Nathaniel H. Wadsworth, and Elizabeth Watkins.
Isaac Montague, Brent Beck, Derek Farnes, and Kent Simons produced the maps that appear in the back of this volume under the direction of Brandon Plewe of the Department of Geography, Brigham Young University. John Hamer, co-executive director of the John Whitmer Historical Association, created the three illustrative maps that appear earlier in the volume. Welden C. Andersen, of the Audiovisual Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shot the textual photographs in this volume and helped prepare both textual and contextual images for the press. Steven W. Booras, Center for the Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts, and Gene A. Ware and Craig Livingston, Brigham Young University, applied multispectral imaging techniques to help recover badly faded text.
We extend special thanks for the consulting provided by John P. Kaminski, Martha J. King, Richard Leffler, and Sharon Ritenour Stevens as faculty of the Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents. We are indebted to Mark Staker, Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for assisting in matters involving Kirtland, Ohio, and to David W. Grua for his dedicated research on Missouri-era issues. We thank the many volunteers with the Church History Department who assisted with research and other tasks. Management and staff at Deseret Book Company expertly assisted with the design, typesetting, proofreading, printing, and distribution of this volume. In particular, we thank Sheri L. Dew, Cory H. Maxwell, Anne Sheffield, Richard Erickson, Suzanne Brady, Laurie C. Cook, Gail Halladay, Rebecca B. Chambers, and Vicki Parry. We thank Scott Eggers for designing the dust jacket and cloth cover.
Other people whose work made important contributions include Linda Hunter Adams, Mary Teresa Anderson, Mike Atha, Douglas Atterberg, Charlie Baird, Ronald O. Barney, Alexander L. Baugh, Richard Bennett, Patrick A. Bishop, Tonya Boltz, Matthew Bowman, Deborah Bradford, Lyle Briggs, Lisse Brox, Kathryn Burnside, Jeffrey G. Cannon, Matthew B. Christensen, Justin Collings, Lia Suttner Collings, Renee Collins, Randy Dixon, Eric Dowdle, Steven R. Duke, Patrick C. Dunshee, Don Enders, Breck England, Barbara J. Faulring, J. Spencer Fluhman, Matthew J. Grow, Nathan Grow, Susan Hainsworth, Angella L. Hamilton, Rijen Hendrick, Sharalyn D. Howcroft, Susan Jellinger, Amy E. Jensen, Elizabeth L. Jensen, Emily W. Jensen, Michael Jensen, Robin Scott Jensen, Christopher C. Jones, Allan R. Loyborg, John D. Luke, Jenny Lund, Lachlan Mackay, Gordon A. Madsen, Julina A. Magnusson, Winston Matthews, Chris McAfee, Timothy G. Merrill, Crystal Moore-Walker, Scott M. Mooy, Pauline K. Musig, Amy Norton, Andrew D. Olsen, Benjamin E. Park, Sarah Gibby Peris, Jennifer Peters, Tadd R. Peterson, Elizabeth Pinborough, Josh E. Probert, Daren Ray, Ronald Read, Jedediah S. Rogers, Sandra Mason Roller, Ryan W. Saltzgiver, Gloria Scovill, Craig K. Sedgwick, Alex D. Smith, Emily Smith, Gina H. Smith, Todd M. Sparks, Virginia E. Stratford, Mia Struteanu, Jared Tamez, Lissa Thompson, Grant Underwood, Bethany Wadsworth, Jeffrey N. Walker, Kathryn Jensen Wall, Lorin Welker, Vivian Wellman, Robert J. Woodford, and Jed Woodworth.
In addition to generous support from the Church History Library and Brigham Young University, our institutional sponsors, the project has been blessed by generous funding by Larry H. and Gail Miller. This funding has underwritten an expansion of personnel and infrastructure without which the project would have been of necessity less ambitious.
In acknowledging our indebtedness to many people for their help, the editors nevertheless remain solely responsible for the content.