Historians’ understanding of both the history of the Mormon church and JS’s life during
the era is greatly enhanced through the rich documentary record that exists for
this period. Several of JS’s close associates, including , ,
and , kept detailed journals during this time. These have been referenced
repeatedly in this volume, generally to flesh out events and phenomena perfunctorily covered
in JS’s journal. Given the public nature of many of JS’s activities, the editors of this
volume made liberal use of several local contemporary newspapers for the same purpose.
Of these, the Times and Seasons and The Wasp (later renamed the Nauvoo Neighbor)—two
papers published in Nauvoo—have been most helpful, as they frequently carried detailed
accounts of events JS’s scribes could only briefly describe in the journals. The Sangamo
Journal (Springfield, IL), Quincy [IL] Whig, and other contemporary papers have also been
cited extensively, often for the light they shed on the movements and sentiments of anti-Mormons and dissenters affecting JS’s life during this time.
The Nauvoo High Council Minutes, the Nauvoo City Council Minute Book, the
Nauvoo Legion Minute Book, the Nauvoo Municipal Court Docket Book, and the
Nauvoo Mayor’s Court Docket Book are similarly invaluable for understanding JS’s public
and administrative roles in , the local militia, and the church. They also provide
insight into how these various bodies were governed and into the issues that came before
them. The Relief Society Minute Book provides the same type of information for the
Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, as well as detailed accounts of several important
discourses JS delivered to the leading women of the church. All of these, including the
municipal records, are owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today and
are readily available to researchers. The Nauvoo Masonic Lodge Minute Book provides
important information about JS and his associates’ involvement with Freemasonry in
Nauvoo and is an indispensable source for information on ’s last days in
Nauvoo.
Published collections of state statutes and various court decisions, as well as court
records held in the LDS Church History Library and other locations, are instrumental in
understanding the numerous legal issues raised in these journals. Records held in the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, in Springfield, Illinois, have been particularly
helpful in explaining the resolution of ’s efforts to extradite JS for his alleged
complicity in the 1842 assassination attempt on . Additional light on
other legal issues, as well as on numerous other issues raised in the journals, has been shed
by various documents contained in the Joseph Smith Collection housed in the Church
History Library. This collection contains many of JS’s journals, correspondence, and legal
records. Other collections held in the Church History Library and in Brigham Young
University’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections have been similarly useful. Documents
generated as part of early church historians’ efforts to compile a history of JS’s life and the
origins of the church have also been consulted, especially when evidence suggests that the historians—particularly —were eyewitnesses to the events they later
described in the history. These include the manuscript history of the church and the rough
draft notes upon which it is based. In general, these and other noncontemporaneous
documents were used only when other sources were not available.