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New Content on the Joseph Smith Papers Website

July 28, 2020

The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web release, which includes the entire digital version of Documents, Volume 7, the introduction to and transcription of the Kirtland Safety Society Stock Ledger, Nauvoo City Council documents, introductions for six legal cases, and annotation for Doctrine and Covenants 132.

Documents, Volume 7 contains documents chronicling difficulties Joseph Smith and the church faced establishing Nauvoo, Illinois; efforts to obtain redress for the loss of property and lives of the Saints in Missouri; the missionary efforts in England in 1840; and doctrinal developments preached by Joseph Smith, including the introduction of baptism for the dead. Highlights from this volume include

Land transactions in Nauvoo and Iowa Territory;

Documentation of Joseph Smith’s visit to Washington DC to plead for aid from President Martin Van Buren and Congress; and

The Nauvoo city charter.

The Kirtland Safety Society Stock Ledger contains entries from October 1836 to June 1837, detailing subscriptions from individuals interested in purchasing some of the society’s 80,000 shares of stock for $50 each. The ledger shows that the Safety Society was lenient to those who could not pay their full initial payment; some who subscribed for 1,000 shares paid only a few dollars, and some never paid anything. This created a severe funding problem for the society.



The Nauvoo City Council documents published in this release include minutes from many significant Nauvoo City Council meetings, including meetings on 8 and 10 June 1844 about the Nauvoo Expositor and reorganizational meetings after Joseph Smith’s death.

In the Legal Records series, we have added an introduction for City of Nauvoo v. C. L. Higbee et al. This case is related to another case, City of Nauvoo v. A. Spencer, which involved Joseph Smith instructing Orrin Porter Rockwell to arrest Augustine Spencer without issuing a warrant. Spencer resisted, and the city marshal asked Chauncey L. Higbee, Charles A. Foster, and Robert D. Foster to apprehend Spencer. They refused, and Spencer was arrested anyway. Higbee and the Fosters were also arrested for refusing to help and resisting arrest. The other cases in this release are debt cases, three from Ohio (Underwood et al. v. Rigdon et al., Rigdon et al. for the use of L. Cowdery v. W. Smith, and Commercial Bank of Lake Erie v. Cahoon et al.) and one from Illinois (JS v. O. Cowdery).

Documents, Volume 10 Released

May 4, 2020

The Church Historian’s Press today announced the release of the latest volume of The Joseph Smith Papers. Documents, Volume 10, which includes papers from May through August 1842, covers a time during which Joseph Smith oversaw missionary work, encouraged the construction of the Nauvoo temple, served as editor of the church newspaper Times and Seasons, and struggled to help the hundreds of converts gathering to Nauvoo, Illinois. In May, he was elected mayor, adding new responsibilities to his busy schedule, and during the summer he repeatedly dealt with issues relating to his bankruptcy application. The demands on his time were so great that Wilford Woodruff wrote in June that he had “never seen Joseph as full of business as of late,” noting that “he hardly gets time to sign his name.”

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New Content on the Joseph Smith Papers Website

April 30, 2020

The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web release, which includes the launch of a new, online-only Financial Records series. This series features Joseph Smith’s financial transactions, both personal and in various organizations and businesses, to be published over the next few years. This release also includes the publication of more Nauvoo City Council documents, eleven history drafts, and introductions to eight legal cases from Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio.

The first official release of our new Financial Records series includes documents and introductions for three financial records.

The Kirtland Safety Society Daybook: This daybook for the Kirtland Safety Society Bank contains entries for loans as well as for the issuing of Kirtland Safety Society notes in exchange for banknotes from other financial institutions.

The Kirtland Safety Society Discounted Notes: These loose pages are a record the Kirtland Safety Society banking office used to track certain transactions.

The Rigdon, Smith & Co. Ledger: This ledger is from a store in Chester, Ohio, that was run by a mercantile company composed of Sidney Rigdon, JS, and possibly Oliver Cowdery. It includes basic accounts but not details about what was sold. It also shows the decline in business around the time of the financial panic in 1837.

The Nauvoo City Council documents include an ordinance establishing a ferry, as well as resolutions for to increase protection for the citizens and an ordinance establishing a police force after two people were kidnapped and taken to Missouri.

In the Histories series, we have added transcripts to much of the draft material for Joseph Smith’s multivolume history, including the rough draft notes for the years 1840–1842.

Our additions to the Legal Records series are introductions to six debt cases and two criminal cases. These cases feature Joseph Smith acting as defendant, witness, and justice of the peace. The following cases are included in this release:

New Content on the Joseph Smith Papers Website

February 25, 2020

The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web release, which includes the digital version of Documents, Volume 6, hundreds of priesthood licenses from the church’s Kirtland, Ohio, period, and documents for thirteen legal cases.

Documents, Volume 6: February 1838–August 1839 begins with Joseph Smith fleeing Kirtland for Far West, Missouri, with hope that the Latter-day Saints could live peacefully there. However, after conflicts with neighbors erupted into what later became known as “the Mormon War,” Joseph Smith was arrested and incarcerated, while the Saints were violently forced from the state. After spending a winter in jail, Smith escaped to Illinois, where he once again began to establish a gathering place. Highlights from this volume include the following:

The final letter Joseph Smith wrote to Emma from the Clay County jail in Liberty

A letter Smith wrote to Bishop Edward Partridge and the Saints from the Clay County jail in Liberty, conveying divine words of comfort he had received

Documentation for transactions to acquire land in what would become Nauvoo, Illinois

An introduction on the Mormon War

Joseph Smith’s published answers to twenty questions he was asked “daily and hourly . . . by all classes of people”

Revelations on tithing and the name of the church

The record book titled “Kirtland Elders’ Certificates” includes nearly four hundred licenses attesting that a male priesthood holder had been ordained to a priesthood position and was given permission to preach the gospel and perform other priesthood duties. The licenses are also being published individually in the online Documents series under their issue dates.

In the Legal, Business, and Financial Records series, we have added introductions for six Ohio legal cases, one Illinois legal case, and one Missouri legal case, as well as documents for five more Ohio legal cases. The newly published cases include a case involving the plundering of Joseph Smith’s house in Far West, a case in which Smith served as a witness in a dispute over a cow, a complaint he made against Thomas J. Hunter for maligning both his character and the church, and three debt cases. There is also a case in which Joseph Smith was charged with assault and battery for an altercation with his brother-in-law Calvin Stoddard over whether a parcel of land contained water. In the end, the judge found him not guilty because Stoddard testified that Smith had apologized directly after the incident.

The First Vision Podcast Released

January 5, 2020

The Joseph Smith Papers announces today the release of The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast. This six-part miniseries from the the Joseph Smith Papers Project explores the history and legacy of Joseph Smith’s first vision. The podcast will be available beginning January 5, 2020. Series host Spencer W. McBride, PhD, interviews historians in a documentary-style podcast about this pivotal event in Latter-day Saint history. Released in the bicentennial year of Joseph Smith’s first vision, the podcast recreates for listeners the world in which Joseph Smith was seeking answers to the pressing questions of his soul and helps them understand the vision from the perspective of historians.

All six episodes of the podcast are available now on the Latter-day Saints Channel and on other podcast platforms such as iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and Stitcher.