The Joseph Smith Papers

After Smith's death in 1844, a collection of his papers was carried west by Brigham Young and other church leaders. Some significant documents remained with John Whitmer, Smith's widow, Emma, and others. Many of these were not published until years later by the LDS Church, the Community of Christ, and independent researchers. The "Roots of the current effort" began in the late 1960s when Truman G. Madsen invited Dean C. Jessee, then an employee of the Church Historian's Office, to contribute documents relating to Joseph Smith and early Mormonism to issues of BYU Studies. In 1972, Leonard J. Arrington was appointed the Church Historian and he directed Jessee to continue to "locate, collect, and transcribe Smith's writings."[3] This resulted in Jessee's 1984 publication, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith followed by the two volume Papers of Joseph Smith, the first in 1989 and the second in 1992.[4]

In 2001, Jessee's project became a joint venture between Brigham Young University's (BYU) Joseph Fielding Smith Institute and the LDS Church Archives. The project was renamed The Joseph Smith Papers and expanded with added funding from Larry H. and Gail Miller.[5] Its preliminary work was important to the creation of the landmark biography, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, which Richard Bushman published in 2005.[6]

In August 2004, the project received endorsement by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, a division of the National Archives,[7] to ensure research is conducted according to the highest scholarly standards.[8] The project was moved back to the Church History Department in 2005.[4]

Although not an official part of the project, a documentary TV series also called The Joseph Smith Papers was created. This series documented the creation of and work involved in the Joseph Smith Papers Project. It was produced by KJZZ-TV in cooperation with the Church History Department.[9]

Larry H. Miller provided initial funding for a team of experts at Brigham Young University that examined documents from the early history of the LDS Church. This team later compiled The Joseph Smith Papers. Miller funded this project with a donation of $10 million in bonds and additional cash contributions.[10]

In February 2008, the Church Historian's Press, was established "for publishing works related to the Church's origin and growth." The publication of The Joseph Smith Papers is the press's initial project.[11]

Marlin K. Jensen, Church Historian and Recorder at the time of the announcement, said the project will include "journals, diaries, correspondence, articles and notices. Everything of a written nature Joseph Smith generated, or over which he had oversight."[11] High resolution images of many of the original documents were published by Brigham Young University Press in 2002 as part of Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The two volume set contains 76 DVDs of images from 1830 to 1923, including complete images of the Joseph Smith Collection, circa 1831-1844, the Revelations Collections, circa 1831-1876, architectural drawings of the Nauvoo Temple, and several volumes containing minutes from meetings Joseph Smith attended or oversaw.[12]

Before publication, transcripts of the manuscripts are verified three times, and annotation is supplied to illuminate the historical context of each document.."[13]

The first volume of The Joseph Smith Papers, entitled, The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839, was released in December 2008.[14] Despite the $50 retail price, unexpectedly high demand caused the initial printing of 12,500 copies to sell out in two weeks, and the publishers to triple their projected second printing order to 16,500. Many Christmas purchasers bought gift certificates for the coming printing and some extant copies were resold for over twice the retail price.[15]

The Joseph Smith Papers project anticipates that it will publish around two dozen print volumes, as well as some additional volumes published online.[16][17] The Joseph Smith Papers have been divided into the following series:[16]

The current and editorial board and project staff are as follows:[44]

Editorial Board

LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. - Church Historian and Recorder

Matthew J. Grow - Managing Director, Church History Department

National Advisory Board

Stephen J. Stein - Chancellor's Professor, Emeritus, of Religious Studies and Adjunct Professor of American History and American Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington

Harry S. Stout - Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, Yale University

Terryl L. Givens - James A. Bostwick Chair and Professor of Literature and Religion, University of Richmond

Susan Holbrook Perdue - Program Director, Documents Compass, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, University of Virginia

General Editors Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, Richard Lyman Bushman

Managing Historian Matthew C. Godfrey

Associate Managing Historian Robin Jensen

Editorial Manager R. Eric Smith

Assistant Editorial Managers Nathan Waite Riley Lorimer

Project Archivist Robin Scott Jensen

Document Specialists Sharalyn D. Howcroft

Volume Co-editors Mason K. Allred, Mark Ashurst-McGee, Alexander L. Baugh, Christopher James Blythe, Gerrit Dirkmaat, David W. Grua, Karen Lynn Davidson, Steven C. Harper, William G. Hartley, Andrew H. Hedges, Christian Heimburger, Elizabeth A. Kuehn, Gordon A. Madsen, Spencer W. McBride, Max H. Parkin, Brenden W. Rensink, Brent M. Rogers, Royal Skousen, Alex D. Smith, Grant Underwood, Jeffrey N. Walker, John W. Welch, David J. Whittaker, Robert J. Woodford.

Production Editors R. Eric Smith, senior editor, Linda Hunter Adams, Susan Hainsworth, Rachel Osborne, Sarah Gibby Peris, Heather Seferovich, Nathan N. Waite.

In 2008, Journals, Volume 1: 1832-1839 received the Special Award in Textual Criticism and Bibliography from the Association for Mormon Letters.,[45] and the Steven F. Christensen Best Documentary Award from the Mormon History Association in 2009.[46]

• Book of Mormon
• Doctrine and Covenants
• Golden Plates
• Joseph Smith Papyri
• Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible
• Pearl of Great Price
• Standard Works

• Jessee, Dean C.; Esplin, Ronald K.; Bushman, Richard Lyman (2008). "The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839". Salt Lake City: The Church Historian's Press. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help).

Indexes

• Index to The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839 Broken Link (error 404)
• Index for Journals, Volume 2 Archived 2012-07-30 at the Wayback Machine

Miscellaneous

• The Joseph Smith Papers website
• The Joseph Smith Papers: Administrative Records: Minute Book 1 online edition
• The Joseph Smith Papers: Administrative Records: Minute Book 2 online edition
• The Joseph Smith Papers: Administrative Records: Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book online edition
• The Joseph Smith Papers: Documents: Letters, revelations, reports of discourses, minutes, etc. online collection
• Marlin K. Jensen, "The Joseph Smith Papers: The Manuscript Revelation Books", Ensign, July 2009
• Church History Library website
• JosephSmith.net