The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web content release. Included in this publication are all the documents, introductions, and annotation found in Documents, Volume 5: October 1835–January 1838, which was published in print in 2017. Documents, Volume 5 includes documents relating to the dedication of the House of the Lord in Kirtland, Ohio, in March 1836; to Joseph Smith’s endeavors to learn Hebrew and his translation of Egyptian documents, including the Book of Abraham; and to the Kirtland Safety Society Bank and Joseph Smith’s store in Chester, Ohio; and many other minutes, letters, revelations, and financial documents.
Also published in this release are new introductions for fifteen court cases, including the trial of Joseph Smith and other church leaders for treason in 1839. Other introductions summarize cases Smith heard as judge of the mayor’s court in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s, with issues ranging from theft and assault to violating the city’s temperance ordinance. Several new biographical and geographical entries have also been added, including an updated source for Elijah Able that gives the date of his ordination to the priesthood.
The Joseph Smith Papers Project also recently published on its website the volume introduction to Revelations and Translations, Volume 4, titled “Book of Abraham and Related Manuscripts.”
A new feature has also been added to the website that allows easy linking to other versions of documents. For example, Vision, 16 February 1832 [D&C 76] has a link at the top for “Additional Versions.” Clicking on that link opens a list of all versions of the vision that are currently on the Joseph Smith Papers website, any of which users can then navigate to. This feature will appear on every document for which there is more than one version on the website, including minute books, journals, revelations, and so forth. If users are looking at something other than the featured version (which has a historical introduction and annotation), the “Additional Versions” link will point them back to the featured version (denoted by an asterisk); see here, for example. Note that not all versions are currently available on the website, but in the future we hope to make all versions accessible.
Call for Papers: Joseph Smith Papers Conference 2019
February 1, 2019 | Joseph Smith Papers Project
On October 11, 2019, the Joseph Smith Papers will host a conference in Salt Lake City. The conference will focus on the history of Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois, from September 1839 to April 1842. We invite proposals for papers that engage with the theme “Joseph Smith’s Expanding Visions and the Practical Realities of Establishing Nauvoo.” See here for additional details.
