The sources
used in the annotation for this volume are drawn from a variety of
genres, ranging from personal writings to official ecclesiastical
records and published books. The volume’s featured texts themselves
constitute a significant collection of contemporary sources. Many of
these documents are copies preserved in institutional records such as
Minute
Book 1 (1832–1837), Minute Book
2 (1838, 1842, 1844), Letterbook
2 (1839–1843), the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and
Advocate (1834–1837), and the Elders’ Journal
(1837–1838). These records also provide contextual details for JS’s papers and the history of the early Latter-day Saint
church in
general.
Letters,
minutes, and revelations compose nearly two-thirds of the documents in
this volume. To preserve letters and minutes of church meetings,
official church historians and clerks copied texts from loose sheets of
paper into more permanent record books. began
compiling minutes from meetings in , Ohio, into Minute Book
1 in late 1832. Minute Book 2, begun in 1838 and likely copied
from an earlier compilation, contains minutes of church meetings in , , and . began copying surviving letters, including
several from 1837, into Letterbook 2 beginning in 1838. Besides
containing many JS documents, the minute books and
letterbook are also a rich source of other documents that aid in
understanding the Ohio and Missouri periods of Mormon history.
The other
third of the volume comprises documents of various genres, with records
related to ecclesiastical matters, legal involvement, and financial
transactions. The financial documents range from land transactions and
promissory notes to documents related to JS’s involvement in banking as an officer of the . The
legislative sources and collections of bank records held by the Western
Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio, also provide
indispensable information relative to the Kirtland Safety Society.
Likewise important are documents produced for the Kirtland Safety
Society itself, including the stock
ledger, discount and loan papers, and banknotes, which
provide essential financial information on that institution and JS’s
involvement in it. Other contemporary financial sources include ’s store records;
the Rigdon,
Smith & Co. store ledger; and account books kept by , , and . Records from the Geauga
County, Ohio, Court of Common Pleas as well as ’s docket book from his tenure as a justice of
the peace in furnish legal and financial context for the
litigation JS faced beginning in early 1837. In addition to supplying
some of the source texts for the volume, land deeds from helped verify information regarding land
transactions and places of residence. Local and federal government
documents, such as legislative proceedings, statutes, county taxes, and
censuses, were also consulted for contextual information.
One unique
genre related to Documents, Volume 5 includes papers
containing Egyptian characters. The larger body of JS’s Egyptian-related documents can be viewed on the Joseph Smith
Papers website. Additionally, the H. Donl Peterson Collection at Brigham
Young University’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections was an invaluable
source for information on and
the Egyptian mummies and papyri that JS purchased.
While several JS revelations were dictated between
October 1835 and January 1838, the majority of these were never
canonized and were directed to individuals rather than to the church.
Most of JS’s revelations during this period were recorded in his 1835–1836
journal and were not inscribed in the revelation books, which
had previously been used to compile revelations. These revelations were
generally not disseminated. In contrast, the prayer of dedication for
the
, a pivotal sacred text found in this
volume, was printed as a broadside and published in the Messenger
and Advocate, as well as copied into JS’s journal.
Other
records from the period, such as journals and correspondence, help
contextualize the documents between October 1835 and January 1838.
Journals of JS’s contemporaries provide helpful
details regarding the church in this era. Among the most essential
journals for understanding these years include those kept by , , , ,
and . JS’s own 1835–1836
journal records his efforts to complete the in and prepare church leaders for the promised
endowment of power. Unfortunately, no JS journal exists for the period
from 4 April 1836 to 12 March 1838. Letters written by Oliver Cowdery,
, , , , and Hepzibah Richards also contain
key information for understanding the events in this volume.
Newspaper
articles, editorials, correspondence, and other materials published in
the church newspapers, namely the Latter Day Saints’ Messenger
and Advocate and the Elders’ Journal,
contribute additional context. Regional newspapers in and
also included significant coverage of JS and the church, as did national newspapers and journals
published in larger cities such as , , , and . For example, articles and exhibit notices in newspapers in
the eastern and Ohio were
crucial for understanding the popular interest in Egyptian artifacts as
well as re-creating ’s travels. The
collection of regional Ohio newspapers held by the Western Reserve
Historical Society was particularly useful in gauging public knowledge
of and reactions to the Kirtland Safety Society. These
newspaper accounts often provide details not otherwise available and
added important non-Mormon perspectives.
Legal,
financial, and legislative papers were drawn upon when possible.
Sometimes,
the only sources for a specific event in this volume’s period are
personal recollections, reminiscences, and autobiographies written
several years or even decades later. Notable among these is JS’s multivolume manuscript
history, which was compiled by scribes who used JS’s journal,
institutional documents, and private papers to produce a documentary
history of JS and the
church.
Reminiscent accounts from ,
, , , and other church
members also supply important details. The sources used to contextualize
JS’s 6 August 1836 revelation (D&C 111) are later reminiscences,
most prominently ’s editorials in the
Return, written a half-century after JS’s stay in
, Massachusetts.
Few contemporaneous documents related to JS’s summer trip to the eastern
in 1836 are extant,
and current historiography is based almost solely on Robinson’s account.
In general, reminiscences and later recollections are helpful for
filling gaps in the contemporaneous historical record. They have been
used cautiously when necessary to annotate documents in this volume.