The Joseph Smith Papers

The Joseph Smith Papers

The Joseph Smith Papers (or Joseph Smith Papers Project) is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all original historical documents pertaining to Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder and first prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and in general, the Latter Day Saint movement.[1]
History of the Project

After Joseph Smith’s death in 1844 a collection of his papers were carried West by Brigham Young and other church leaders. Some significant documents remained with John Whitmer, Smith’s widow Emma, and others. Many of these were not published until years later by the LDS Church, the Community of Christ, and independent researchers. The “Roots of the current effort” began in the late 1960’s when Truman G. Madsen invited Dean C. Jessee, then an employee of the Church Historian’s Office, to contribute documents relating to Joseph Smith and early Mormonism to issues of BYU Studies. In 1972 Leonard J. Arrington was appointed as the Church Historian and he directed Jessee to continue to "locate, collect, and transcribe Smith’s writings.”[2] This resulted in Jessee’s 1984 publication, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith followed by the two volume Papers of Joseph Smith, the first in 1989 and the second in 1992.[3]
In 2001 Dean Jessee's project became a joint venture between Brigham Young University and the Archives of the LDS Church. The project was renamed and expanded with added funding from Larry H. and Gail Miller.[4]
In August 2004, the Project was endorsed by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, a division of the National Archives, to ensure research is conducted according to the highest scholarly standards.[5] The Project was moved back to the Church History Department in 2005.[3]
[edit] Publishing
In February 2008, The Church Historian’s Press, an imprint of the Church History Department of the LDS Church, was established "for publishing works related to the Church’s origin and growth." The publication of The Joseph Smith Papers is the press's initial project.[6]
Current Church Historian and Recorder, Marlin K. Jensen, said the project will include “journals, diaries, correspondence, articles and notices. Everything of a written nature Joseph Smith generated, or over which he had oversight.”[6] High resolution images of many of the original documents were published by Brigham Young University Press in 2002 as part of Selected Collections from the Archives of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The two volume set contains 76 DVDs of images from 1830 to 1923, including complete images of the Joseph Smith Collection, circa 1831-1844, the Revelations Collections, circa 1831-1876, architectural drawings of the Nauvoo Temple, and several volumes containing minutes from meetings Joseph Smith attended or oversaw.[7] Annotated transcriptions of these manuscripts will make the documents far more accessible to researchers and the public.
Before publication, the manuscripts are reviewed. To assure quality, all citations and footnotes are verified, often double-checked, by several editors and carefully copy edited. The manuscripts are also reviewed by editors over the project, external scholarly reviewers, and General Authorities of the LDS Church. Steven C. Harper, BYU professor of religious education and Joseph Smith Papers editor, explained that "prophets and seers [are] looking at your work. You want to do it right and do it well. You want to do it not only academically right, but spiritually right."[8]
The first volume of the The Joseph Smith Papers, entitled, The Joseph Smith Papers, Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839, was released in December 2008.[9] Despite the $50 retail price, unexpectedly high demand caused the initial printing of 12,500 copies to sell out in two weeks, and the publishers to triple their projected second printing order to 16,500. Many Christmas purchasers bought gift certificates for the coming printing and some extant copies were resold for over twice the retail price.[10]
As of October 10th, 2009 over 48,000 copies of volume 1 have been sold. The second volume of the The Joseph Smith Papers, entitled The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books were available for purchase September 23rd, 2009. The original sales projection for this volume was for 3,000 copies. Within two weeks over 6,100 copies were sold in Deseret Book retail stores and over 11,000 copies were requested by other bookstores.
[edit] Projected Volumes
According to the Joseph Smith Papers website “two or three volumes will be published each year until the project is completed.”[11] The Joseph Smith Papers have been divided into the following series:[12]
[edit] Journals
The Journals series consists of the ten journals kept by Joseph Smith and his scribes from 1832 to 1844.[3]
Volume 1 1832-1839 (Published December 2008).[6]
Volume 2 1841-1843
Volume 3 1843-1844
[edit] Documents
The Documents series will contain correspondence, sermons and other addresses, official declarations and pronouncements, editorials and articles from periodicals, early versions of revelations, and "selected minutes and proceedings."[13]
Volume 1 1828-1831 (Projected release date: 2010)[12]
Volume 2 1832-1833
Volume 3 1834-1835
Volume 4 1836-1838
Volume 5 1839-1840
Volume 6 1841-1842
Volume 7 1842-1842
Volume 8 1842-1842
Volume 9 1843-1843
Volume 10 1843-1844
Volume 11 1844-1844
[edit] History
The History series will contain Joseph Smith's complete manuscript history, begun by Smith in 1838, and continued by clerks after his death in 1844.[14]
Volume 1 1805-1833 (Projected release date: 2010)[12]
Volume 2 1805-1833
Volume 3 1834-1837
Volume 4 1838-1839
Volume 5 1839-1842
Volume 6 1842-1843
Volume 7 1842-1844
[edit] Legal and Business Records
This series will contain legal papers in which Smith was a witness, plaintiff, or a defendant, and financial records including land transactions and "accounts of church-owned businesses."[14]
Volume 1 New York and Ohio
Volume 2 Missouri
Volume 3 Illinois
[edit] Revelations and Translations
This series will contain the earliest known manuscripts text of revelations received by Joseph Smith and published in his life time including the printer's manuscript of the Book of Mormon, the published Book of Mormon, and the Book of Commandments.[14]
Volume 1 Manuscript Revelation books (Published September 22, 2009)[12]
Volume 2 Early Revelation manuscripts
Volume 3 Book of Mormon printer’s manuscripts
Volume 4 Published Scripture
[edit] Administrative Records
The Administrative Records series will publish records relating to the "institutions that were established under Smith's directions" as well as minutes for meetings Smith attended.[14]
Volume 1 Minute books
Volume 2 Letter books
[edit] Editorial Board and Project Staff
The current editorial board and project staff are as follows:[15]
Editorial Board
Marlin K. Jensen - Church Historian and Recorder
Richard E. Turley Jr. - Assistant Church Historian and Recorder
Steven L. Olsen - Managing Director
Max J. Evans - Director, Collections and Research Division
Jill Mulvay Derr - Special Projects Division
National Advisory Board
Harry S. Stout - Jonathan Edwards Professor of American Religious History and Chair, Department of Religious Studies, Yale University
Stephen J. Stein - Chancellor's Professor, Emeritus, of Religious Studies and Adjunct Professor of American History and American Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington
Mary-Jo Kline - Author of A Guide to Documentary Editing and editor of Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr
Terryl L. Givens - James A. Bostwick Chair and Professor of Literature and Religion, University of Richmond
Managing Editor Ronald K. Esplin
General Editors Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, Richard Lyman Bushman
Program Manager David L. Willden
Program Archivist Jeffery O. Johnson
Research and Review Editors Richard Lloyd Anderson, Richard L. Jensen
Volume Co-editors Mark Ashurst-McGee, Ronald O. Barney, Alexander L. Baugh, Joseph I. Bentley, Joseph F. Darowski , Kay Darowski, Karen Lynn Davidson, Steven C. Harper, William G. Hartley, Andrew H. Hedges, Robin Scott Jensen, Gordon A. Madsen, Max H. Parkin, Alex D. Smith, Steven R. Sorensen, Morris A. Thurston, Grant Underwood, Jeffrey N. Walker, David J. Whittaker, Robert J. Woodford.
Document Specialists Christy L. Best, Jeffrey G. Cannon, Sharalyn D. Howcroft
Production Editors R. Eric Smith, senior editor, Linda Hunter Adams, Susan Hainsworth, Rachel Osborne, Sarah Gibby Peris, Heather Seferovich, Nathan N. Waite.
Consulting Scholar John W. Welch