

Greetings As we've welcomed in the new year, we've also reflected on the past, particularly the happenings at the Joseph Smith Papers Project during recent months. We're pleased to highlight some of these exciting developments.



Following the August 2015 publication of Revelations and Translations, Volume 3, we released the third and concluding volume in the Journals series on November 30. This volume, which spans from May 1843 to June 1844, provides a foundation for understanding the turbulent but productive final year of Joseph Smith's life.



As we've moved forward with the project, we've also made discoveries about documents in previously published volumes. For example, we recently learned of an early manuscript version of the revelation contained in Doctrine and Covenants section 11. This revelation is featured in Documents, Volume 1 and on our website.



To make content on our website easier to find and use, we've added new search functions and made existing tools more powerful. These improvements will enable you to increase the efficiency and success of your research.



As our staff members have been busy working on future volumes for the Joseph Smith Papers, they have also made time to present at conferences, write journal articles, and contribute to books. We've also been pleased to welcome several new employees to the team to assist in our goal of publishing a comprehensive collection of Joseph Smith's papers.



For more details about these noteworthy items, we invite you to read the articles in this edition of our newsletter.



We're also looking forward to an exciting 2016. In May, we'll publish Documents, Volume 4, featuring Joseph Smith's activities in 1834 and 1835. We're also finalizing Administrative Records, Volume 1: The Council of Fifty Minutes in Nauvoo, 1844–1846, which will be published in September.



We're grateful for your interest in and support of the Joseph Smith Papers.



Sincerely,



Ronald K. Esplin, Matthew J. Grow, and Matthew C. Godfrey

General Editors In This Issue Final Installment in Journal Series Now on Shelves

New and Improved Search Tools Ready to Use

Early Version of 1829 Revelation in Hyrum Smith's Handwriting

Staff Members Busy Writing and Presenting

New Staff Welcomed to the Project

New Content Available on Joseph Smith Papers Website Final Installment in Journals Series

Now on Shelves

Now Available



"This work will be referenced for generations." We are excited to announce the release of Journals, Volume 3: May 1843–June 1844, the final volume in the Journals series. The volume, which chronicles the final year of Joseph Smith's life, is now available for purchase in hardcover and e-book formats.



Journals, Volume 3 features the conclusion of Joseph Smith's second Nauvoo journal, illuminating his roles as church president and prophet, mayor, presidential candidate, judge, and militia leader.



The volume also covers the establishment of the Council of Fifty; includes many of Joseph Smith's sermons, such as those on salvation, priesthood ordinances, and humanity's potential to become like God; and offers glimpses into his temple-related activities. The volume enables readers to study Smith's daily life and personality as well as to situate him and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints within nineteenth-century American history.



Included as appendixes to Journals, Volume 3 are two accounts never before published—one by Willard Richards and the other by William Clayton—of Joseph Smith's activities during the final two weeks of his life, providing invaluable primary source material for studying the events leading to his martyrdom.



"With a level of professionalism and disclosure that is pointedly incredible," writes scholar Jonathan A. Stapley, "the editors present the most intimate details of the Mormon prophet's personal and religious life. . . . This work will be referenced for generations." New and Improved Search Tools

Ready to Use In our continued quest to help you explore the documents and other resources on www.josephsmithpapers.com , we've added new tools to make the search process more robust. Here's a sampling of the many search options: You can start a search on any page of the website. Simply click on the search icon at the top right of the page, and then enter a term into the search box.

Our improved weighting algorithm will help ensure that the search results are relevant to what you're looking for.

You can further refine the results by selecting or unselecting options on the right side of the page. Options include searching transcripts only, specific document categories (for example, revelations/translations, histories, and journals), reference material, biographical or geographical directory entries, the glossary, events, and/or date ranges.

The search results will now include documents in which the search words are near each other but not an exact phrase. For instance, if you search for the phrase blessed with power to overcome (without surrounding quotation marks), one of the results will be Revelation, 2 November 1835, which contains "blessed with power while to overcome."

Finally, after selecting a document, you can search within that document and its accompanying annotation via the search box below the document title. With these tools, it's easier than ever to find the information you're looking for—whether it be an early Joseph Smith revelation or journal entry, a biographical sketch of an early church leader, or a chronology of significant events mentioned in Joseph Smith's papers. Early Version of 1829 Revelation in Hyrum Smith's Handwriting In May 1829, Joseph Smith dictated a revelation for his brother Hyrum. The revelation, which emphasizes God's "great and marvelous work" and Hyrum's role in it, was later published as section 11 in the Doctrine and Covenants.



When we featured the revelation in Documents, Volume 1, the earliest version we knew of was the copy printed in the Book of Commandments , which was typeset between November 1 and December 31, 1832. Recently, however, we learned of an early manuscript version of the revelation, probably predating the Book of Commandments copy.



The undated version is of particular interest because it is in the handwriting of Hyrum Smith. The contents of this version and the Book of Commandments version have minor variations, mostly in spelling and punctuation; the Book of Commandments version also contains verse numbers and a heading: "1 A Revelation given to Hyrum, in Harmony, Pennsylvania, May, 1829."



The version in Hyrum's handwriting has long been in private possession and only recently came to our attention. The individual who owned the manuscript from around 1960 until 1982 attested that he acquired it from Hyrum's descendants.



This manuscript, which is still privately owned, is notable for being the only version in Hyrum's handwriting. The lack of a heading, date, and other contextual evidence related to its creation suggest the manuscript is an early, personal version of the revelation and might be a rare original or dictation copy.