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Yesterday, the good folks at the LDS Church History Library announced that the Church Historian’s Press would be publishing the William Clayton diaries. Mormon History Nerds united in celebratory meme-making. I imagine that most Mormons when faced with this news would likely shrug. The news of new Missionary interview questions and smartphone proselytizing has way more traction. I dusted off the appendix I included in my review of Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 2 (and yes having a review appendix is absurd, but I still think it was a solid review), and have updated it with info from the intervening half decade.



William Clayton was an early British convert with book-keeping experience. One year after he converted, Church leaders ordained him as a high priest and he served in the British mission presidency from 1838-1840, after which he emigrated to Nauvoo. In 1842 he began serving as Joseph Smith’s recorder and scribe. Clayton observed Smith in the most important personal and institutional contexts. Clayton’s journal is the most detailed account of the last two years of Smith’s life. It is also the only contemporaneous account of many controversial aspects of that life: polygamy, the rift between Emma and Joseph over the topic, the temple quorum, the Council of Fifty, etc.

I am unfortunately unaware of the provenance of the Clayton journals. They were used by Church historians in the preparation of the “Manuscript History” in the 1850s and they appear to have landed, with many other important documents and items, in the personal papers of apostle and church historian, Joseph Fielding Smith. Smith eventually became Church President and a safe containing these papers became what is often referred to as the First Presidency vault. The materials archived by the First Presidency are outside of the purview of the LDS Church History Library and its registers are not public. [n1]

In the late 1970s the First Presidency granted access to some documents in their holding. It appears that several scholars received access to some form of the Nauvoo era Clayton journals, namely James B. Allen (and Dean Jesse?), Andrew F. Ehat, and D. Michael Quinn. [n2] They each prepared typescripts of varying quality. As I understand it, Allen’s typescript is the most complete, with Ehat’s being the least, comprising approximately half of the holograph text. In my limited experience, Allen’s typescript is also the most accurate, with Quinn’s being the least. Each scholar used their typescripts for important scholarly contributions at the vanguard of the New Mormon History. [n3]

Ehat collaborated with Lyndon Cook on several projects, notably The Words of Joseph Smith [n4]. At the time, Ehat was a graduate student at BYU and Cook was on faculty. Ehat shared a copy of his Clayton typescript with Cook, who kept it in his office. As was common, his office was also used by student ward bishoprics. One bishopric member noticed the document, copied it, and circulated it fairly broadly. A copy eventually made it to the Tanners who published it. [n5] Lawsuits ensued. Ehat won, but the decision was overturned on appeal. [n6]

George Smith later edited the Ehat transcript and included it with publicly available Clayton journals and a transcript of a purloined copy of the Heber C. Kimball temple journal kept by Clayton [a copy of the microfilm was previously published by the Tanners] in the widely cited, An Intimate Chronicle. [n7] Allen reviewed this volume and concluded that content selection of the Nauvoo journals was highly skewed, likely reflecting Ehat’s research interests. [n8]

Allen’s complete typescript has not been made publicly available beyond employees of the LDS Church History Library. However, in 2002 Allen published a revised and retitled version of his Clayton biography, which included an appendix of Clayton diary excerpts used as source material for the “Manuscript History,” which comes to most of us as the History of the Church. [n9] This appendix remains the only published transcripts of several important portions of the diary. For example before the release of J2, the source material for Section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants was only available in this appendix.

Quinn eventually donated his research papers to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, his alma mater, and his Clayton typescript is open to researchers. An unidentified party accessed this material and released two small printings (50 and 100 volumes respectively) of Clayton’s Nauvoo diary. [n10] This volume apparently includes thirty percent more text than the Ehat transcript.

It is my understanding that the distribution of the Clayton diary was viewed by many within the Church hierarchy to be exploitative and a betrayal of trust. Since their release and until the JSP, no scholars have had access to the documents. This lack of access is a critical lacuna as scholars have, out of necessity, relied on less-than-critical (and less-than-legitimate) transcripts in the analyses of the most important aspects of Joseph Smith’s life.

The JSPP folks have been using the Clayton diaries extensively in for footnotes, and most recently Laurel Thatcher Ulrich got access to the holograph for her splendid volume, A House Full of Females. The First Presidency has also relaxed its control on several documents in their archive, and even released photos of one of Joseph Smith’s seer stones. I imagine that the good will of many laborers in history’s vineyard, and the positive reception of all of these items, has helped create an environment when the publication of the Clayton diaries is a reality. I’m grateful to all of the people who have contributed to that, both in and out of church employment. Thank you.

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