Footnotes
“Letters to and from the Prophet,” ca. 1904, 1, Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
See the full bibliographic entry for JS Collection, 1827–1844, in the CHL catalog.
Footnotes
Woodruff had recently returned from a mission to England and passed through New York on his way back to Nauvoo. In New York, Woodruff recorded receiving the letter, money, and books from Bernhisel for JS. (Woodruff, Journal, 9 Sept. 1841.)
Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.
Bernhisel sent $40 with Woodruff as an additional installment to be added to $425 he sent in July 1841. Incidents of Travel was a two-volume travelogue by John Lloyd Stephens published in 1841. The work recounted “a journey of nearly three thousand miles in the interior of Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, including visits to eight ruined cities, with full illustrations from drawings taken on the spot by Mr. [Frederick] Catherwood,” an English artist. Stephens’s book was mentioned in a June 1841 article in the Times and Seasons, which declared that accounts like Stephens’s “prove beyond controversy that, on this vast continent, once flourished a mighty people” and gave “more proofs of the Book of Mormon.” (Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 12 July 1841; Letter from John M. Bernhisel, 8 Sept. 1841; Stephens, Incidents of Travel, 1:iii; “American Antiquities,” Times and Seasons, 15 June 1841, 2:440–442; see also “American Antiquities,” New York Herald, 10 May 1841, [1].)
Stephens, John L. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. 2 vols. 11th ed. New York City: Harper and Brothers, 1841.
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
New York Herald. New York City. 1835–1924.
Foster served as clerk in the New York City branch. (Minutes, New York City, NY, 4 Dec. 1840, in Times and Seasons, 1 Feb. 1841, 2:306–307.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.
Divine was ordained a high priest in Nauvoo in April 1841 and moved to New York City shortly thereafter. (“Names of the Members of the High Priest Quorum,” in Nauvoo High Priests Quorum, Record, CHL; James Divine, New Rochelle, NY, to John M. Bernhisel, New York City, NY, 13 Sept. 1842, John M. Bernhisel, Correspondence, CHL.)
Nauvoo High Priests Quorum. Record, 1840–1891. CHL. CR 1000 2.
Bernhisel, John M. Correspondence, 1841–1843. CHL. MS 21197.
Though Bernhisel's 11 December letter is not extant, JS referenced it in a January 1842 letter to Bernhisel. (JS, Nauvoo, IL, to John M. Bernhisel, New York City, NY, 4 Jan. 1842, in JS Letterbook 2, pp. 221–222.)
The book Bernhisel gave to JS, Incidents of Travel by Stephens and Catherwood, was indicative of a widespread interest at the time in Mesoamerican culture. Travelers, artists, and scholars had been creating works related to Mesoamerica since the late eighteenth century. Building on earlier writings and research available in Italian, Spanish, and German, information on the ancient American civilizations began to be published in English in the early nineteenth century. For example, Alexander von Humboldt’s Researches concerning the Institutions and Monuments of the Ancient Inhabitants of America (London: Longman et al., 1814) appeared in English in 1814. Edward Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico, an ongoing project that continued from 1831 to 1848, published travelogues, historical accounts, and many facsimile images. William Bullock’s 1824 travelogue, Six Months Residence and Travels in Mexico (London: John Murray, 1824), also fostered interest in ancient America and likely influenced the work of Stephens and Catherwood. In 1843 the Times and Seasons published an editorial endorsing Incidents of Travel. (“Stephens’ Works on Central America,” Times and Seasons, 1 Oct. 1843, 4:346–347.)
Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.