The Joseph Smith Papers

[Snow]

Tonight I went to a lecture by Grant Underwood on the Joseph Smith Paper’s project which seeks to catalogue and publish all the papers associated with JS. There are high-quality scans of the original with annotation and scholarly commentary. The project had it origins years ago with Dean Jesse and got seriously underway 3 years ago. There will be:

Diaries and Journals... 3 volumes

Document Series... 12 volumes

History Series... 7 volumes

Legal Series ... 4 volumes, New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois

Grant Underwood is an editor working on Volume on of the Diaries and Journals. The whole project is so massive it could take until 2020. Some interesting points”

50% of the documents involve revelations. He presents the revelations in their earliest forms and compares them to revised forms.

-The volumes are reviews by outside and inside scholars.

-The documents are provenanced - a fancy word to verify authenticity. (He showed a nice Mark Hoffman forgery of the Charles Anthon (reformed Egyptian gold plates) characters.

-He showed the original Church political motto (I didn’t know there was a Church motto.) “The Constitution of our country formed by the Fathers of liberty. Peace and good order in society. Love to God, and good will to man. All good and wholesome laws, virtue and truth above all things, and aristarchy, live forever! But woe to tyrants, mobs, aristocracy, anarchy, and toryism, and all those who invent or seek out unrighteous and vexatious law suits, under the pretext and color of law, or office, either religious or political. Exalt the standard of Democracy! Down with that of priestcraft, and let all the people say Amen! that the blood of our fathers may not cry from the ground against us. Sacred is the memory of that blood which bought for us our liberty.”

-He talked about the showdown between Joseph Smith the rassler and Obediah Dogberry Esq. the pugilist who pirated part of the Book of Mormon and printed it in his newspaper The Reflector, before the BoM was even published (Dogberry rented space at night from Smith’s printer.) Seems Ole Joe Smith won that showdown.

-The first Books of Mormons cost about 10 shillings or $1.25... 50 to 75 dollars in today's value. Nothing is known of what happened to the revenue collected.

... and so on and so on. Great Stuff.

Anyone who lives in So Cal should come to our study group. We have one in Orange County (Tustin) on Friday, once a month and then one the next day, Saturday in La Canada. We also have a Dallas chapter:

http://www.mesg.tierranet.com/

Coming up is Professor Edward Clarke - prominent Mayan expert. Maybe we can ask him what he thinks of Neil Steede and the “It has started” team. http://www.hillcumorahexpeditionteam.com/

“National Archives Commission Endorses Joseph Smith Papers Project

A commission affiliated with the National Archives has endorsed a Brigham Young University-sponsored project to publish a comprehensive volume of letters, diaries, transcriptions and other documents associated directly with Joseph Smith.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission announced in May 2004 that it would formally endorse the Joseph Smith Papers Project, sponsored by the Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History at BYU in cooperation with the archives of the Church.

The project's aim is to create a comprehensive collection of all the documents associated with Joseph Smith.

Receiving the endorsement from the prestigious commission bestows a high level of credibility to the project, said Ronald Esplin, executive editor of the project at the Smith Institute.  "It reassures libraries and scholars that this project has been undertaken according to the highest scholarly standards," he said.  "We're confident that the quality of the papers will stand on their own."

Esplin said the same care, procedure and scholarly standards that have been applied to similar projects for people such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin have been applied to this project.

"People can trust that the material is accurate and reliable," Esplin said.

About 12 volumes in the project are scheduled for release toward the end of 2005 and will contain journal and diary transcriptions as well as many of Smith's papers.

Some of those papers include personal letters Smith wrote to his wife Emma as well as to other individuals in the Church.  Such letters demonstrate Smith's personality, said Dean C. Jessee, LDS historian and general editor on the project.

Other documents transcribed in the project include letters addressed to Smith, administrative and legal papers and notes from his scribes.

The volumes will contain editorial material, such as contextual explanation for the time period, as well as accurate transcriptions.  The volumes will be directed to both academic scholars and interested Church members, Esplin said.

The project adds to and builds upon two earlier volumes of documents titled, "The Papers of Joseph Smith," edited by Jessee, who also edited another volume titled "The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith."

Jessee began working on his own in 1970s on his publications with the help of  LDS Church Archives and the Smith Institute.  The Joseph Smith Papers Project was implemented with an expanded staff during the latter part of 2000.

The Chicago Historical Society, Yale University, Community of Christ and other repositories have opened their archives for use in the project”

[Jason]

So does this mean that Jessee won't be doing his Vol. 3?

[Meridiani]

Originally posted by ExMormon-Jason@Mar 13 2005, 05:28 PM

So does this mean that Jessee won't be doing his Vol. 3?

I like your "signature" line, or quote, Jason.

Apparently, there is nothing new under the sun.

[Jason]

I like your "signature" line, or quote, Jason.

Apparently, there is nothing new under the sun.

I believe that Mormons would find themselves at home in Eastern Orthodoxy for many reasons....

[Guest TheProudDuck]

I may have to find the time to attend sometime. (Will have to invent time machine to do so, I'm afraid.)

Re: that political motto -- You gotta love those 19th-century writers, so full of bombast and words. How in the world would you fit that motto on a logo?

[Snow]

Click Here

[begood2]

Snow,

Thanks for sharing. The Joseph Smith papers project appears to be a very impressive undertaking! :)