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Note on Photographic Facsimiles, Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon
No matter the care put into transcribing a text, a gap
still remains between the reader and the physical document. The use
of photographic facsimiles in this volume narrows that gap but does
not eliminate it. This note explains how these photographs were
created and prepared for publication and identifies some of their
limitations. This volume includes both modern, full-color
photographs and historical, black-and-white photographs taken under
ultraviolet light. Many leaves have been photographed more than
once; in such cases, the editors compared the photographs of each
leaf and selected the most readable image to be placed in the body
of this volume, side by side with the corresponding transcript.
Images
of all photographs are available on josephsmithpapers.org.
The majority of the fragments that appear in this volume are not
currently stored with other fragments from the same page, and this
volume represents the first attempt to publish facsimiles of
fragments that have been pieced back together.
Modern Photographs
The full-color textual photographs herein were created
specifically for this publication and its online counterpart by Jeff
Carter and Tyler Thorsted of the Church History Department of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Between 2004 and 2006, the portions of the original
manuscript of the Book of Mormon in the church’s possession were
encapsulated in Mylar for preservation. In 2017, archivists, historians, conservators,
and leaders in the Church History Department decided to remove the
vast majority of those leaves and fragments from the Mylar in order
to photograph them. Brian Simmons and Emiline Twitchell, paper
conservators for the Church History Department, removed the
leaves.
Once the leaves were removed from the Mylar, Carter and Thorsted
captured images of them, and of a few fragments not owned by the
church, using a multispectral imaging system from MegaVision, which
uses a hyperspectral UV-IR apochromat 120mm macro lens and a
50-megapixel monochrome sensor. Each leaf was captured using nine
visual light spectra from 420nm to 655nm. The images from the
various spectra were combined to create a full-color image and then
enhanced using Adobe Photoshop.
During photography, each leaf or fragment was
positioned on a copy stand covered in black paper. Multispectral
diffused lights were positioned at a 45-degree angle, approximately
four feet from the copy stand. Each image was hand focused and
captured using PhotoShoot software from MegaVision. Each spectrum of
light was captured at different exposures that were calibrated to
provide optimal color fidelity. Each capture included a color calibration target to achieve the highest
accuracy in color, tone, contrast, and exposure. Each image was
captured to a RAW DNG file format, which was then processed to a
single visual light TIFF image and multiple grayscale TIFF images
representing each light spectrum captured (see figure 1). Though the
resolution of these images must be reduced significantly for print
publication, the Joseph Smith Papers retains full-resolution files,
which will allow interested researchers to view extremely detailed
digital
images.
Indeed, a primary purpose for creating these photographs was to
minimize the need for researchers to consult the original
leaves.
Fig. 1.
Page 40 of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon,
photographed in visible light (top) and under visible and
ultraviolet frequencies (bottom) during multispectral imaging.
Historical Photographs
The black-and-white photographs in this volume were
taken at various points throughout the twentieth century. These
earlier photographs are essential in recovering as complete a
transcript as possible. The first systematic effort to photograph
the remains of the original manuscript took place
in
1948, when Ernst Koehler, working for the
Genealogical Society of Utah, photographed all the pages then held
by the Historian’s Office (later Church History Department) of The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Koehler photographed
the pages in ultraviolet light, which rendered legible some parts of
the text that were previously unreadable.
Koehler’s photographs preserve many
edges of leaves that have since flaked away or otherwise been
lost.
Around 1968, the leaves were sent to the W. J. Barrow
Restoration Shop in Virginia to undergo cellulose acetate lamination
in an effort to preserve them. Before they were sent, a number of
isolated fragments were reattached to the leaves to which they
belonged. These more complete leaves were
photographed, thereby preserving the
state of the manuscript just before the lamination work (see figure
2).
Fig. 2. Portions of page [354] of the original manuscript of the Book of
Mormon, photographed at various times during the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. The image on the left was captured
in
1948, the image in the center was captured circa
1968, and the image on the right was captured in 2017.
In preparation for his work in transcribing the
original manuscript in the 1990s, Royal Skousen arranged to have
David W. Hawkinson, then manager of imaging and technology
development for the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University,
photograph those leaves in possession of the Wilford Wood Museum.
Hawkinson photographed the leaves in ultraviolet light.
Skousen also arranged for a number of leaves held in
private possession to be photographed. Most of these were also
rephotographed by employees of the Church History Department in
2017, as described above.
Preparing the Photographs for Print
Publication
Keith Beavers, a designer with the Publishing Services
Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and
Nicole Christensen Fernley, an editor for the Joseph Smith Papers,
prepared the images for printing. Following standard prepress
methods, Beavers and Fernley reduced the images to fit the page size
in this volume at a resolution of at least 300 dpi and converted the
images from the color format stored by the camera (red, green, and
blue) to the colors used in printing (cyan, magenta, yellow, and
black).
For aesthetic reasons, Beavers and Fernley used
photo-editing software to digitally remove the black background from
the images. They also removed the background seen through the larger
holes in the paper. They did not remove some background from smaller
cracks or holes in the leaves. The digital removal of the background
occasionally makes it appear as though some very small pieces of
paper flaked off during photography. In reality, the entire leaves,
including the smaller fragments, are encased in thin Japanese paper.
Where possible, the Joseph Smith Papers editorial and production
staff digitally pieced together fragments of the manuscript to
approximate their original locations. As a general rule, this
reconstruction was done with like photographs—circa 1950 photographs
were pieced with other circa 1950 photographs and so forth. Some
fragments remain unidentified; such fragments are not presented in
this volume but may be viewed at
josephsmithpapers.org.
Limitations of the
Photographs
Even careful photographs can underplay important
features of the original document. Three categories of such features
are worth noting here.
First, some preservation work performed on the
manuscript during the twentieth century caused irreparable damage,
leading to loss of legible text that cannot be mitigated with
multispectral imaging. The cellulose acetate lamination performed in
the 1960s sealed the leaves between sheets of thermoplastic film, a
physically and chemically unstable material. Concerns about active
deterioration of the manuscript caused by the laminate later
prompted conservators to remove it, but in some cases the damage had
already been done. The treatment used to remove the lamination was
quite invasive and further compromised the legibility of the leaves.
Even with the use of multispectral imaging, therefore, some of the
text could not be recovered in the 2017 photographs, leaving the
earlier images as the only record of legible text at some points in
the manuscript (see figure 3). As a result, the body of this volume
presents the photograph of each leaf that is judged to be the most
generally legible. Images
of all photographs are available on josephsmithpapers.org.
Fig. 3. In 1888, Andrew Jenson
acquired fragments of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon.
The fragments were photographed circa 1950 (top). At some point,
they were laminated in an attempt to preserve them. Between 2004 and
2006, that earlier lamination was removed, but the removal process
resulted in further damage to the fragments. Photographs taken in
2017 show what the fragments look like today (bottom).
Second, some words or characters in the transcript and
some physical characteristics of the manuscript described in the
annotation can be seen on the original leaves and in the digital
images but are too small to be seen well, if at all, in the
photographs printed herein.
Third, certain physical features sometimes obscure text
of the original document in either the photographs or in the
manuscript itself. For example, Ernst Koehler sometimes photographed
small fragments lying on top of leaves to which the fragments did
not belong. These small fragments obscure parts of the text. In some
photographs, curling or inward folding of small portions of the page
obscures the text. Sometimes these edges were unfolded during
conservation, but other times the curl of the page became further
damaged, and the edges were lost. Some parts of particular leaves
were also photographed inadvertently when the photographer was
attempting to capture a facing page, so that the gutters or other parts of leaves that are
now missing are visible only on an early photograph of an entirely
different leaf.
For these reasons and others, it may not always be
possible to reconstruct a transcript simply from consulting the
images printed in this volume. The editors have carefully inspected
all the photographs and the original manuscript to create and verify
the transcript herein. If a particular word or letter is not visible
in the image displayed opposite the transcript, readers should
consult Appendix 2 or the digital images available at
josephsmithpapers.org.
- 1
Northeast Document Conservation Center, Reports, 16 Nov. 2004–20 Mar. 2006, Historical Department Conservation Worksheets, CHL.
Historical Department Conservation Worksheets, 1981–2010; 2012–2017. CHL.
- 2
Some collections of fragments were deemed too fragile to remove from the Mylar enclosures. These were photographed inside the Mylar.
- 3
Two sets of these multispectral images are available on josephsmithpapers.org, the color image for each page, and one grayscale image for each page that represents the best wavelength image for legibility. (Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, 2017 MSI Photographis, Color; Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, 2017 MSI Photographs, Best Wavelength.
- 4
Jessee, “Original Book of Mormon Manuscript,” 272; Olson, “Office of the Church Historian,” 5–6.
Jessee, Dean C. “The Original Book of Mormon Manuscript.” BYU Studies 10 (Spring 1970): 259–278.
Olson, Earl E. “The Office of the Church Historian, 1933–1986: As Remembered by Earl E. Olson,” 1981. Photocopy of Typescript. Historical Department, The Office of the church Historian, 1833–1986, 1980–1981, 1966. CHL.
- 5
Evans, “Register of the Book of Mormon Manuscript,” 4.
Evans, Max J. “Register of the Book of Mormon Manuscript.” Book of Mormon Manuscript, 1829. CHL.
- 6
Skousen, Original Manuscript, 56.
Skousen, Royal, ed. The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon: Typographical Facsimile of the Extant Text. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2001.