The minutes are recorded in a single bound gathering measuring 12¼ × 7¾ inches (31 × 20 cm) and containing twenty-four leaves (forty-eight pages). Each page is ruled with thirty-seven lines (now faded). The gathering was bound with string. The gathering, which contains minutes kept by dated from 1 January to 26 November 1842, is the second in a collection of gatherings and bifolia known as the “rough copy” of the Nauvoo City Council minutes. This book has a cover page of thicker, unlined, tan-colored paper on which are inscribed the rough book’s title and the words “Jas. Sloan, Recorder.” Pages 1–48 were paginated by Sloan and inscribed in blue and black ink, with later use marks made in graphite. Titles and numbers appear in the margins of the minutes; these were written contemporaneously and appear to be in Sloan’s handwriting.

was appointed the first city recorder in February 1841. He appears to have kept minutes on loose leaves—some of which are still extant—and then copied them into the rough minute books. He then inscribed a fair copy of the minutes into the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book. By 1842, the more detailed minutes for the city council were entered in the rough minute book; proceedings such as council decisions and ordinances were recorded in the official minute book. The warping of the spines of the rough minute books suggests they were stacked together. These minutes were presumably kept among Nauvoo city records. In 1845, the city of Nauvoo was disincorporated. The city council rough books were listed in an inventory that was produced by the Church Historian’s Office (now CHL) in 1846, when they were packed up with church records that were taken to the Salt Lake Valley. Subsequent inventories of church records in Salt Lake City indicate continuous institutional custody.