The Joseph Smith Papers
book by Joseph Smith
The Joseph Smith Papers (or Joseph Smith Papers Project) is a documentary editing project to collect, research, and publish all documents created by, or under the direction of, Joseph Smith (1805–1844), the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Documents are published online alongside transcriptions and annotations, with selections also published in 27 printed volumes.
The project began in 2001, published its first printed volume in 2008 and released its final printed volume in 2023; as of 2024, the project continues to publish digital content. The Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) sponsored the project; the department's imprint, the Church Historian's Press, published the website and 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 Smith's widow, Emma, and others, such as John Whitmer. Many of these were not published until years later by the LDS Church, the Community of Christ, and independent researchers.
The "roots" of the project 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. This preliminary publication of Smith's documents was important to the creation of the biography Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, which Richard Bushman published in 2005.
“The Joseph Smith Papers” enters the record as book by Joseph Smith. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Joseph, Smith and Papers can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Joseph Smith Papers” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Joseph, Smith and Papers provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7743527. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1805, 1844, 2001 and 2008.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “The Joseph Smith Papers”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow The Joseph Smith Papers primary sources, The Joseph Smith Papers archive and Joseph research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Joseph Smith Papers”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “The Joseph Smith Papers” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.