The Joseph Smith Papers
The authoritative source for the writings, teachings, and records of Joseph Smith
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New Content on the Joseph Smith Papers Website
The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web publication. This release features the entirety of Documents, Volume 13: August–December 1843, including all annotation and introductions, as well as related documents and additional versions of documents from the time period. It also adds introductions and documents for trustee-in-trust records, land transactions in Iowa Territory and Nauvoo, Illinois, and Henry G. Sherwood’s agent papers. The release also includes about fifty Nauvoo Legion documents, indexes to the Nauvoo Registry of Deeds books, and more than fifty additional versions of documents from 1834 to 1841. New and updated entries in the calendar of documents are also included.
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Minutes of the Council of Fifty
Months before his death, Joseph Smith convened a council to discuss proposed Latter-day Saint settlements beyond the western border of the United States. The council saw itself as the beginnings of a political kingdom or government in preparation for the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
Court order
Joseph Smith was involved in dozens of legal cases throughout his life. This document, known as a capias, orders the Hancock County sheriff to bring him to the courthouse to answer charges of perjury. The case was dismissed after Smith was murdered in June 1844.
Journal, 1835–1836
Originally intended as a scriptural index, this volume was used to record Joseph Smith’s journal in 1835 and 1836, a period that included the dedication of the Kirtland temple.
The King Follett Sermon
Joseph Smith delivered one of his best-known sermons after the death of his friend King Follett on 7 April 1844. The sermon declared that humans were coeternal with God and could progress to become like him. Some listeners were inspired by the words; others found them blasphemous.
Trustees Land Book B
This large volume provides a chronological record of land transactions by Joseph Smith and subsequent church trustees from 1842 to early 1846. It includes several maps detailing land ownership in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Worn and damaged letter
This letter from Jacob Scott, a Latter-day Saint in Hancock County, Illinois, demonstrates what time and use can do to a document. Joseph Smith Papers staff members employ a variety of techniques to decipher damaged texts.
About the Joseph Smith Papers Project
Joseph Smith (1805–1844) was the founding prophet and first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Joseph Smith Papers Project is an effort to transcribe, contextualize, and publish all his writings and teachings, including revelations, translations, letters, discourses, journals, histories, and legal and financial records.
Published Volumes
The Joseph Smith Papers will consist of twenty-seven volumes, divided into five series: Documents, Journals, Revelations and Translations, Histories, and Administrative Records; two additional series, the Legal Records series and the Financial Records series, will be published online.