The Joseph Smith Papers

The Joseph Smith Papers (or Joseph Smith Papers Project) is a project researching, collecting, and publishing all manuscripts and documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The documents, which include transcriptions and annotations, have appeared both online and in printed form. The Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) sponsors the project; the department's imprint, the Church Historian's Press, publishes the website and the printed volumes. History of the project After Smith's death in 1844, a collection of his papers was 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 1960s 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 the Church Historian and he directed Jessee to continue to "locate, collect, and transcribe Smith's writings." 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. In 2001, Jessee's project became a joint venture between Brigham Young University's (BYU) Joseph Fielding Smith Institute and the LDS Church Archives. The project was renamed The Joseph Smith Papers and expanded with added funding from Larry H. and Gail Miller. Its preliminary work was important to the creation of the landmark biography, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, which Richard Bushman published in 2005. In August 2004, the project received endorsement 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. The project was moved back to the Church History Department in 2005.