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Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa 12 April 1828–circa 1 July 1829

First Nephi, Chapter 1 [1 Nephi 1–5] Page 3 First Nephi, Chapter 2 [1 Nephi 6–9] Page 9 First Nephi, Chapter 3 [1 Nephi 10–13:35] Page 14 First Nephi, Chapter 3 [1 Nephi 14:11–16] Page 25 First Nephi, Chapter 3 [1 Nephi 14:23–29] Page 26 First Nephi, Chapter 4 [1 Nephi 15:5–36] Page 27 First Nephi, Chapter 5 [1 Nephi 16–19:21] Page 30 First Nephi, Chapter 6 [1 Nephi 19:22–21:26] Page 40 First Nephi, Chapter 7 [1 Nephi 22] Page 43 Second Nephi, Chapter 1 [2 Nephi 1:1–30] Page 46 Second Nephi, Chapter 3 [2 Nephi 4:32–35] Page 55 Second Nephi, Chapter 4 [2 Nephi 5:12–16] Page 56 Second Nephi, Chapter 4 [2 Nephi 5:23–34] Page 57 Second Nephi, Chapter 5 [2 Nephi 6:7–12] Page 58 Second Nephi, Chapter 5 [2 Nephi 7:1–9] Page 59 Second Nephi, Chapter 5 [2 Nephi 8:6–17] Page 60 Second Nephi, Chapter 6 [2 Nephi 9:1–2] Page 61 Second Nephi, Chapter 6 [2 Nephi 9:12–13] Page 62 Second Nephi, Chapter 6 [2 Nephi 9:25–26] Page 63 Second Nephi, Chapter 6 [2 Nephi 9:42] Page 64 Second Nephi, Chapter 10 [2 Nephi 23:1–7] Page 77 Second Nephi, Chapter 10 [2 Nephi 23:22–24:4] Page 78 Second Nephi, Chapter 10 [2 Nephi 24:21–27] Page 79 Second Nephi, Chapter 11 [2 Nephi 25:5–8] Page 80 Second Nephi, Chapter 11 [2 Nephi 25:16–18] Page 81 Second Nephi, Chapter 11 [2 Nephi 25:24–28] Page 82 Second Nephi, Chapter 15 [2 Nephi 33:4–9] Page 95 Jacob, Chapter 1 [Jacob 1:3–6] Page 96 Jacob, Chapter 1 [Jacob 1:18–19] Page 97 Jacob, Chapter 2 [Jacob 2:1–2] Page 97 Jacob, Chapter 2 [Jacob 2:12–15] Page 98 Jacob, Chapter 2 [Jacob 2:25–27] Page 99 Jacob, Chapter 2 [Jacob 3:5] Page 100 Jacob, Chapter 3 [Jacob 4:3–5] Page 101 Jacob, Chapter 3 [Jacob 4:13–14] Page 102 Jacob, Chapter 3 [Jacob 5:46–48] Page 107 Jacob, Chapter 3 [Jacob 5:57–61] Page 108 Jacob, Chapter 3 [Jacob 5:69–70] Page 109 Jacob, Chapter 3 [Jacob 5:77] Page 110 Jacob, Chapter 4 [Jacob 6] Page 110 Jacob, Chapter 4 [Jacob 6:11–13] Page 111 Jacob, Chapter 5 [Jacob 7:1–6] Page 111 Jacob, Chapter 5 [Jacob 7:11–18] Page 112 Jacob, Chapter 5 [Jacob 7:24–27] Page 113 Enos, Chapter 1 [Enos 1:1] Page 113 Enos, Chapter 1 [Enos 1:9–14] Page 114 Alma, Chapter 8 [Alma 10:31–11:4] Page 225 Alma, Chapter 8 [Alma 11:13–23] Page 226 Alma, Chapter 8 [Alma 11:26–39] Page 227 Alma, Chapter 8 [Alma 11:42–46] Page 228 Alma, Chapter 9 [Alma 12:18–24] Page 231 Alma, Chapter 9 [Alma 12:26–32] Page 232 Alma, Chapter 9 [Alma 12:36–13:4] Page 233 Alma, Chapter 9 [Alma 13:7–9] Page 234 Alma, Chapter 10 [Alma 13:10–16] Page 234 Alma, Chapter 12 [Alma 19:3–11] Page 251 Alma, Chapter 12 [Alma 19:13–19] Page 252 Alma, Chapter 12 [Alma 19:21–25] Page 253 Alma, Chapter 12 [Alma 19:29–36] Page 254 Alma, Chapter 12 [Alma 20:5–8] Page 255 Alma, Chapter 12 [Alma 20:19–22] Page 256 Alma, Chapter 13 [Alma 22:22–27] Page 261 Alma, Chapter 13 [Alma 22:28–34] Page 262 Alma, Chapter 13 [Alma 22:35] Page 263 Alma, Chapter 14 [Alma 23–26] Page 263 Alma, Chapter 15 [Alma 27–29] Page 272 Alma, Chapter 16 [Alma 30–35] Page 276 Alma, Chapter 17 [Alma 36–37] Page 293 Alma, Chapter 18 [Alma 38] Page 299 Alma, Chapter 19 [Alma 39–42] Page 300 Alma, Chapter 20 [Alma 43–44] Page 307 Alma, Chapter 21 [Alma 45–49] Page 313 Alma, Chapter 22 [Alma 50] Page 327 Alma, Chapter 23 [Alma 51] Page 330 Alma, Chapter 24 [Alma 52–53] Page 333 Alma, Chapter 25 [Alma 54–55] Page 339 Alma, Chapter 26 [Alma 56–58] Page 343 Alma, Chapter 27 [Alma 59–60:2] Page 353 Alma, Chapter 27 [Alma 60:5–13] Page 355 Alma, Chapter 27 [Alma 60:15–22] Page 356 Alma, Chapter 28 [Alma 61:10–13] Page 359 Alma, Chapter 29 [Alma 62:3–5] Page 360 Alma, Chapter 29 [Alma 62:17–18] Page 361 Alma, Chapter 29 [Alma 62:30–31] Page 362 Alma, Chapter 29 [Alma 62:36–52] Page 363 Alma, Chapter 30 [Alma 63] Page 364 Helaman, Chapter 1 [Helaman 1–2] Page 365 Helaman, Chapter 2 [Helaman 3:1–21] Page 369 Helaman, Chapter 5 [Helaman 13:36–14:9] Page 397 Helaman, Chapter 5 [Helaman 14:14–23] Page 398 Helaman, Chapter 5 [Helaman 14:29–15:6] Page 399 Helaman, Chapter 5 [Helaman 15:9–16:1] Page 400 Helaman, Chapter 5 [Helaman 16:4–16] Page 401 Helaman, Chapter 5 [Helaman 16:20–25] Page 402 Third Nephi, Chapter 1 [3 Nephi 1:1–2] Page 402 Third Nephi, Chapter 1 [3 Nephi 1:10–17] Page 403 Third Nephi, Chapter 1 [3 Nephi 1:24–29] Page 404 Third Nephi, Chapter 1 [3 Nephi 2:10–12] Page 405 Third Nephi, Chapter 2 [3 Nephi 3:3–7] Page 406 Third Nephi, Chapter 2 [3 Nephi 3:17–19] Page 407 Third Nephi, Chapter 2 [3 Nephi 4:1–2] Page 408 Third Nephi, Chapter 9 [3 Nephi 19:25–28] Page 429 Third Nephi, Chapter 9 [3 Nephi 20:15–17] Page 430 Third Nephi, Chapter 9 [3 Nephi 20:37–39] Page 431 Third Nephi, Chapter 9 [3 Nephi 21:10–11] Page 432 Third Nephi, Chapter 11 [3 Nephi 26:3–5] Page 435 Third Nephi, Chapter 12 [3 Nephi 26:6] Page 435 Third Nephi, Chapter 12 [3 Nephi 27:3–7] Page 436 Ether, Chapter 1 [Ether 3:9–10] Page 457 Ether, Chapter 1 [Ether 4:4–5] Page 458 Ether, Chapter 2 [Ether 5] Page 459 Ether, Chapter 3 [Ether 6:1–3] Page 459 Ether, Chapter 3 [Ether 6:18–27] Page 460 Ether, Chapter 3 [Ether 7:18–24] Page 461 Ether, Chapter 3 [Ether 8:13–19] Page 462 Ether, Chapter 4 [Ether 9:3–11] Page 463 Ether, Chapter 4 [Ether 9:26–10:7] Page 464]–[465 Ether, Chapter 4 [Ether 10:30–11:6] Page 466 Ether, Chapter 4 [Ether 11:20–21] Page 467 Ether, Chapter 5 [Ether 12:2–7] Page 467 Ether, Chapter 5 [Ether 12:21–29] Page 468 Ether, Chapter 5 [Ether 12:41] Page 469 Ether, Chapter 6 [Ether 13:2–8] Page 469 Ether, Chapter 6 [Ether 13:20–14:1] Page 470 Ether, Chapter 6 [Ether 14:15–27] Page 471 Ether, Chapter 6 [Ether 15:8–17] Page 472

Source Note

Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, [ca. 12 Apr. 1828–ca. 1 July 1829]; handwriting of , , one unidentified scribe, and JS; , , , , and Reuben Hale were reported to have acted as scribes, though their handwriting is not known to be present on the extant portion of the manuscript; originally about 600 pages of text, with a significant number of pages no longer extant (a portion of the original translation lost in summer 1828 and about 72 percent of the remaining text lost through damage and custodial dispersal in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries); CHL; Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, Utah; Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; and private possession of multiple individuals. Includes compositor’s marks and redactions.
JS stated that he translated the Book of Mormon “by the gift and power of God” from plates “found in the township of , Ontario county, New-York.” The first portion of the Book of Mormon manuscript was lost in summer 1828. Of the text that was dictated thereafter, only about 28 percent remains. Because of the deterioration and scattering of the manuscript, some aspects of its original physical state are difficult or impossible to determine. General statements herein about the manuscript are based upon the surviving leaves and fragments.
Following the loss of the first portion of the manuscript in summer 1828, JS dictated approximately 488 pages of additional text. Of these 488 pages, some portion of 232 of them survives, ranging from nearly complete leaves to fragments of leaves, some very small. The other 256 pages have been lost entirely. Like the Bible, the Book of Mormon text is divided into smaller books, and seven of the fifteen books that make up the text of the Book of Mormon—Jarom, Omni, the Words of Mormon, Mosiah, 4 Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni—are entirely nonextant in what remains of the original manuscript. Before they were damaged, the pages were described as being common foolscap size, or approximately 16–18 × 12–13½ inches (41–46 × 30–34 cm), which matches the size of surviving leaves.
Five different types of paper have been identified in the extant Book of Mormon manuscript. Patterns of wire marks from the papermaking process and surface textures of each type of paper are distinct, suggesting that the papers were manufactured at different mills or at different times. The most frequently used paper type is found in the portion of the manuscript containing what is now Alma 10:31 through 3 Nephi 27:7; the next most frequently used paper type was used for 1 Nephi 14:11 through Jacob 4:14. The other three paper types are found in 1 Nephi 2:2–13:35, Jacob 5:46–Enos 1:14, and Ether 3:9–15:17. It is possible that other paper types were used but have not survived. Portions of the surviving manuscript were ruled by hand; scribes then folded multiple sheets in half to create gatherings on which they inscribed the text. The fragmentary nature of the surviving manuscript makes it impossible to determine whether the entire manuscript was organized into gatherings, but the extant pieces show that gatherings were in use at least by the time Alma 22:22 was dictated. The exact number of gatherings is unknown, in part because surviving gatherings show that the number of pages per gathering varied. For instance, one gathering in the book of Alma contains ninety-six pages, while the next gathering has only twenty-eight pages. The extant sheets of the Book of Mormon manuscript were folded either widthwise or lengthwise, creating gatherings of about 16½ × 7 inches (42 × 18 cm) or 13 × 8¼ inches (33 × 21 cm), depending on the orientation of the paper.
Once the gatherings were hand ruled and folded, scribes typically wrote fifty-three to fifty-four lines of text if the gathering was folded lengthwise and thirty-five to thirty-nine lines if the gathering was folded widthwise. From the surviving leaves, it appears that the text was inscribed before the gatherings were sewn together with yarn or ribbon. Many of the surviving leaves bear a heading written at the top of the page by or an unknown scribe (hereafter referred to as scribe 3) that summarizes the contents of that page. The extant headings appear to have been created by scribes after the text of the page was written. As the translation neared completion, the scribes appear to have stopped adding headings to the pages. None of these headings were copied onto the second copy of the manuscript given to the printer for use in publishing the book. Compositor’s marks from the typesetting process are found on several fragments of the original manuscript, from Helaman 13 through 3 Nephi 27, indicating that the original manuscript was occasionally used by the typesetter. Whether the original manuscript had a title page or copyright page, as the printer’s manuscript has, is unknown. Evidence suggests that the original manuscript contained the statements of the Three and Eight Witnesses who were shown the plates, since those statements were copied at the end of the final gathering of the printer’s manuscript by Oliver Cowdery.
While the original manuscript did not fully survive, several sources describe the document before it sustained damage in the mid-nineteenth century. Church member recalled the general appearance of the manuscript when he saw it in 1841: “It was written on foolscap paper, and formed a package, as the sheets lay flat, of about two or two and a half inches thick, I should judge. It was written mostly in ’s handwriting. . . . Some parts of it were written in other handwriting.” Another church member, Warren Foote, similarly recalled that “it was the size of common foolscap paper and about three inches thick.” When church member saw the manuscript decades later, after it had suffered significant water damage, he described it as being “upon the foolscap of half a century since, apparently without lines. The paper is yellow with age and from the moisture sweated from its own hiding place. It is brittle to the touch. Many of the leaves crumble like ashes and some of them are broken away. It is necessary to handle them with the utmost care. The writing is faint, and is not legible on many continuous lines, but fragmentary clauses, and even whole verses are occasionally discernible.”
In the 1880s, Latter-day Saints began acquiring portions of the damaged manuscript. Some individuals who are known to have owned fragments include , who acquired ten leaves in 1883; Joseph W. Summerhays, who acquired a leaf in 1884; , who acquired portions of sixty-nine leaves in 1885; Andrew Jenson, who acquired parts of eight leaves in 1888; and Wilford Wood, who in 1937 acquired numerous fragments of twenty-nine leaves. Some of the individuals who acquired portions of the manuscript donated them to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or gave them to various friends or family members, while others retained possession of the pages. Roughly 28 percent of the text of the Book of Mormon is extant in the surviving pages and fragments of the original manuscript. The Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds approximately 90 percent of what survives; the Wilford Wood Museum in Bountiful, Utah, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City also hold fragments, and some fragments are still in private possession. It is possible that other fragments survive but are not currently known to scholars.
Custodians of the document recognized its value, both as a historical artifact and as a symbol of their faith. Several pages were reproduced in late nineteenth-century church publications, the first as early as 1887. Photographs of several of the manuscript pages were created in 1938, apparently for use in proselytizing. In 1948, 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. While Koehler’s efforts helped minimize the handling of the manuscript, the pages continued to deteriorate.
The fragile state of the manuscript by the mid-twentieth century led administrators in the Historian’s Office to take steps to preserve the portions in their possession. This preservation effort involved both photographing the manuscript in order to minimize handling and also conserving the manuscript in order to slow the process of decay. In the 1960s, staff of the Historian’s Office hired the W. J. Barrow Restoration Shop in Richmond, Virginia, to conserve the manuscript. A newspaper report announcing the conservation effort stated that the manuscript leaves were “crumbling almost to the point of turning into dust” and that they could “hardly be touched without further crumbling” as they had become “so dried and brittle.” The article continued: “The first step in preservation . . . was to remove the acid from the paper. . . . Next, the sheets were placed between two thin sheets of cellulose acetate and two transparent sheets of tissue paper.” Finally, the leaves were “heated to 400 degrees under pressure to seal the page in the two sheets.” Before the leaves were sent to Virginia, 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. Archivists continued trying to identify loose fragments of the manuscript in the years that followed. A significant number of previously unidentified fragments were identified and numbered by Church Historical Department archivist Christy L. Best during the late 1970s. Royal Skousen later built on this work and identified additional fragments.
Though in the 1960s the lamination performed by the W. J. Barrow Restoration Shop conformed to best practices, conservators later learned that the acid in the cellulose acetate used in lamination would eventually seep into the documents, damaging both the paper and the ink. Leaders of the Family and Church History Department therefore decided in 2004 to reverse the lamination. The manuscript was taken to a conservation lab in Massachusetts, where the lamination was removed, thin Japanese paper was applied to the leaves in order to stabilize them, and the leaves were then flattened and enclosed in Mylar. In the 1990s, the fragments held by the Wood family were conserved by Brigham Young University conservators in connection with Royal Skousen’s Book of Mormon Critical Text Project.
For more information on the photographs that appear in this volume, see Note on Photographic Facsimiles.
Note: The transcript of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon on this website includes only the original inscriptions, not the later redactions made to the manuscript to prepare the text for publication. Readers will notice discrepancies between the images and the transcript. For a transcript that includes the redactions, consult the facsimile images available by clicking on the book icon to the left of the images; see also Revelations and Translations, Volume 5: Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, facsimile ed. (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2021).
Text that is missing from the manuscript because a portion of the page is nonextant, torn, worn, or otherwise damaged is supplied in brackets and printed over a light gray background. The conjectured text printed on the gray background comes from Skousen, Original Manuscript.
Note: Several leaves from the original manuscript are owned by the Wilford Wood Museum. The Wilford Wood Museum has given written permission to the Joseph Smith Papers Project to publish images of these leaves on this website. No further publication is authorized, and publication by the Joseph Smith Papers Project does not place these images in the public domain. These images are marked with an identifying watermark. To inquire about high-resolutions images of Wilford Wood Museum–owned images for scholarly use, please contact the Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, Utah.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Preface to Book of Mormon, ca. Aug. 1829.

  2. [2]

    See “Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.”

  3. [3]

    In modern Book of Mormon editions, there are books titled Third Nephi and Fourth Nephi. In the printer’s manuscript, those books were each called Book of Nephi. The numerical designators were added in the 1879 edition. (Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, 4:42–43.)

    Skousen, Royal. Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon. 6 vols. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2004–2009.

  4. [4]

    Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Aug. 1890, 315; Foote, Autobiography, 2 Oct. 1841; Beal, Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology, 159.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

    Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.

    Beal, Peter. A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology: 1450 to 2000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

  5. [5]

    Skousen, Original Manuscript, 37–38; Espinosa, “Fragments of the Original Manuscript,” 28, 31.

    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.

    Espinosa, Robert J. “Fragments of the Original Manuscript.” In Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, edited by M. Gerald Bradford and Alison V. P. Coutts, 23–31. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2002.

  6. [6]

    Skousen, Original Manuscript, 34–36.

    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.

  7. [7]

    For an estimated number of gatherings with their leaf counts, see Skousen, Original Manuscript, 35–36.

    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.

  8. [8]

    Skousen, Original Manuscript, 34, 38. Only three surviving gatherings remain intact enough to show the original page dimensions. Pages of an extant gathering in Alma measure about 16 × 12½ inches (41 × 32 cm), pages of the first gathering of 1 Nephi measure about 16½ × 13 inches (42 × 33 cm), and pages of the second gathering in 1 Nephi measure about 16½ × 13⅜ inches (42 × 34 cm). (Skousen, Original Manuscript, 37–38.)

    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.

  9. [9]

    Skousen, Original Manuscript, 8.

    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.

  10. [10]

    Skousen, Original Manuscript, 34; Book of Mormon Manuscript Twine, ca. 1829, CHL.

    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.

    Book of Mormon Manuscript Twine, ca. 1829. CHL.

  11. [11]

    See Skousen, Original Manuscript, 25.

    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.

  12. [12]

    See, for instance, p. [398].

  13. [13]

    The text of the Book of Mormon was published with a lengthy title: “The Book of Mormon An account written by the hand of Mormon upon plates taken from the plates of Nephi wherefore it is an abridgment of the record of the People of Nephi & also of the Lamanites written to the Lamanites which are a remnant of the house of Israel & also to Jew & Gentile written by way of commandment & also by the spirit of Prophesy & of revelation written & sealed up & hid up unto the Lord that they might not be destroid to come forth by the gift & power of God unto the interpretation thereof sealed by the hand of Moroni & hid up unto the Lord to come forth in due time by the way of Gentile the interpretation thereof by the gift of God an abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also which is a record of the People of Jared which were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the People when they were building a tower to get to heaven which is to shew unto the remnant of the house of Israel how great things the Lord hath done for their fathers & that they may know the covenants of the Lord that they are not cast off forever & also to the convinceing of the Jew & Gentile that Jesus is the Christ the Eternal God manifesting himself unto all Nations & now if there be fault it be the mistake of men wherefore condemn not the things of God that ye may be found spotless at the Judgment seat of Christ.” JS stated that the text of the title page was “a literal translation, taken from the very last leaf, on the left hand side” of the gold plates. When Oliver Cowdery began work on the printer’s manuscript, he copied onto the first page of the first gathering the beginning of the book of 1 Nephi—not the title page, which he copied onto a loose leaf that was placed with the printer’s manuscript. It is possible the original manuscript also had a loose title page. (Title page and copyright; JS History, vol. A-1, 34.)

  14. [14]

    David Whitmer said that in June 1829, an angel appeared to him, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris and showed them the plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated and other associated artifacts; Whitmer said that he and the other men signed a statement recording their experience. The names of eight other men were attached to a similar statement saying JS had shown them the plates. The statements of the Three Witnesses and the Eight Witnesses as found in the printer’s manuscript contain signatures copied by Cowdery. (Joseph F. Smith, New York City, NY, to John Taylor et al., [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 17 Sept. 1878, draft, Joseph F. Smith, Papers, CHL; Testimony of Three Witnesses, in Book of Mormon, Printer’s Manuscript, ca. Aug. 1829–ca. Jan. 1830; Testimony of Eight Witnesses, in Book of Mormon, Printer’s Manuscript, ca. Aug. 1829–ca. Jan. 1830.)

    Smith, Joseph F. Papers, 1854–1918. CHL. MS 1325.

  15. [15]

    Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Aug. 1890, 315.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

  16. [16]

    Foote, Autobiography, 2 Oct. 1841.

    Foote, Warren. Autobiography, not before 1903. Warren Foote, Papers, 1837–1941. CHL. MS 1123, fd. 1.

  17. [17]

    Richards, Visit to Pueblo, Independence, Carthage, Nauvoo, Richmond, Etc., 4. The original manuscript had lines or rules on the leaves, though they are now significantly faded.

    Richards, Franklin D. Visit to Pueblo, Independence, Carthage, Nauvoo, Richmond, Etc. [Salt Lake City]: [1885].

  18. [18]

    Sarah M. Kimball, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Joseph F. Smith, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 10 Oct. 1883, CHL; Sarah M. Kimball, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George Reynolds, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 19 July 1884, in Reynolds, “History of the Book of Mormon,” 366.

    Kimball, Sarah M. Letter, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Joseph F. Smith, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 10 Oct. 1883. CHL.

    Reynolds, George. “History of the Book of Mormon.” Contributor, July 1884, 361–367.

  19. [19]

    Summerhays, Diary, 3 Oct. 1884.

    Summerhays, Joseph W. Diaries, 1884–1917. CHL.

  20. [20]

    Richards, Visit to Pueblo, Independence, Carthage, Nauvoo, Richmond, Etc., 4.

    Richards, Franklin D. Visit to Pueblo, Independence, Carthage, Nauvoo, Richmond, Etc. [Salt Lake City]: [1885].

  21. [21]

    Jenson, Autobiography of Andrew Jenson, 622.

    Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.

  22. [22]

    Charles E. Bidamon, Statement, 3 Sept. 1937, Wilford C. Wood Papers, Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, UT.

    Wood, Wilford C. Papers. Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, UT.

  23. [23]

    “Fac-Simile of Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon,” frontispiece. For other early examples, see Joseph F. Smith, “Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 23 Dec. 1899, 21; George Reynolds, “Book of Mormon Manuscripts,” Elders’ Journal, 15 May 1907, 390; and Wells, “Oliver Cowdery,” 384; see also Franklin D. Richards, Journal, 31 Mar. 1887.

    “Fac-Simile of Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.” Contributor 8, no. 12 (Oct. 1887): frontispiece.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

    Elders’ Journal. Atlanta, Aug. 1903–July 1904; Chattanooga, TN, Sept. 1904–June 1907.

    Wells, Junius F. “Oliver Cowdery.” Improvement Era 14, no. 5 (Mar. 1911): 379–394.

    Richards, Franklin D. Journals, 1844–1899. Richards Family Collection, 1837–1961. CHL. MS 1215, boxes 1–5.

  24. [24]

    “Photo Copy of Book of Mormon to Aid in Missions,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 19 Jan. 1938, 18.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  25. [25]

    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.

  26. [26]

    Olson, Journal, 25–26 Sept. 1968; Historian’s Office Journal, 26 Sept. 1968.

    Olson, Earl E. Journals, 1934–1981. CHL.

    Historian’s Office. Journal, 1844–1997. CHL. CR 100 1.

  27. [27]

    “11 Original Manuscript Pages Now Laminated,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 26 Oct. 1968, Church News section, 5; see also bibliographic entry for Book of Mormon Manuscript Twine, ca. 1829, in the CHL catalog. This newspaper account likely generalized about the condition of all the leaves based on the deterioration of some of them.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  28. [28]

    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.

  29. [29]

    Church, “William J. Barrow,” 157; Marlin K. Jensen to Neal A. Maxwell and Russell M. Nelson, 16 July 2004, typescript, Church History Department Delaminating the Original Book of Mormon Manuscript, CHL.

    Church, John. “William J. Barrow: A Remembrance and Appreciation.” American Archivist 68, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2005): 152–160.

    Church History Department Delaminating the Original Book of Mormon Manuscript, 2017. Typescript. CHL.

  30. [30]

    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.

  31. [31]

    Espinosa, “Fragments of the Original Manuscript,” 23–24.

    Espinosa, Robert J. “Fragments of the Original Manuscript.” In Uncovering the Original Text of the Book of Mormon: History and Findings of the Critical Text Project, edited by M. Gerald Bradford and Alison V. P. Coutts, 23–31. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, Brigham Young University, 2002.

Historical Introduction

From April 1828 to July 1829, JS dictated the text of the Book of Mormon to at least seven scribes and even inscribed the equivalent of two lines himself. He began dictating about 12 April 1828 in , Pennsylvania. , , and Emma’s brother Reuben Hale served as scribes in this early effort. After two months of translation, JS and his scribes had produced a sizable manuscript. Harris wished to show the manuscript to friends and family and convinced JS to allow him to borrow it and take it home with him to , New York. After Harris arrived home and showed the manuscript to a number of people, it was stolen, never to be recovered.
Little is known about the portion of the manuscript lost in summer 1828. According to JS, he “translated, by the gift and power of God, and caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I took from the Book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon; which said account, some person or persons have stolen and kept from me.” This “Book of Lehi” contained the earliest part of the Book of Mormon narrative. This narrative included the account of an ancient prophet named Lehi and his family, who traveled from Jerusalem to a new homeland. The lost portion apparently contained a history of that family’s descendants “down to the reign of . . . king Benjamin,” a ruler who, according to the surviving Book of Mormon narrative, began his reign more than four hundred years after the departure of Lehi’s family from Jerusalem. Following the loss of the initial portion of the manuscript, evidence indicates that JS resumed translation where he left off—near the beginning of the book of Mosiah—and continued through the end of the book of Moroni. JS later reported that in order to replace the book of Lehi, he was inspired to translate material “from the plates of Nephi” (also referred to as the small plates of Nephi), which contained a “more particular account” of the lost portion of the narrative. This replaced the account by Lehi with the account of Nephi, one of his sons, along with shorter texts written later by Nephi’s relatives and by Mormon, a later compiler and editor. The replacement material consists of seven books—1 Nephi, 2 Nephi, Jacob, Enos, Jarom, Omni, and the Words of Mormon—which were arranged at the beginning of the text before the creation of a second copy of the Book of Mormon, which is commonly called the printer’s manuscript.
In the preface to the first published edition of the Book of Mormon, JS described the lost portion of the manuscript as containing 116 pages, and several other recollections also indicate it was 116 pages long. It is unknown whether the lost portion was paginated or whether it was organized into gatherings of pages. claimed to have served as scribe for the lost portion of the manuscript, and stated that she inscribed “a part of it,” but it is impossible to know how much each scribe wrote.
After the manuscript was lost, the translation was halted for a period of several months, after which JS resumed the work with the assistance of and his brother , only to pause once again. In early April 1829, , a young schoolteacher who knew JS’s family in , New York, and believed their accounts of JS’s encounters with the divine, moved to to support JS. Cowdery served as JS’s scribe for the next two months, finishing the book of Mosiah and working at least through the book of Ether. In June 1829, JS and Cowdery moved from Harmony to , New York, to continue the translation. In Fayette, JS continued to dictate the text to Oliver Cowdery but also dictated portions to and to another individual referred to in this volume as scribe 3 (possibly ). Around the first of July 1829, JS finished the translation and asked Cowdery to create the printer’s manuscript.
When the original manuscript was completed, JS looked for a printer to publish it. mortgaged his farm on 25 August 1829 to pay , a printer in , New York, $3,000 to publish five thousand copies, and printing began soon after. Grandin later sold the mortgage, and Harris lost his farm. The loss of the initial portion of the Book of Mormon manuscript made JS and his associates especially wary about the safety of the original manuscript. The printer’s manuscript served both to provide a security copy and to facilitate publication of the Book of Mormon. According to , JS instructed to “never take both transcripts to the [printing] office.” In early 1830, when printing of the Book of Mormon was well underway, JS dictated a revelation instructing several early supporters to secure a copyright for the book in . It is possible these men traveled to Canada with the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon, leaving the original in Palmyra to serve as the copy for the printers to use. Compositor’s marks in part of the original manuscript—from Helaman chapter 13 through the end of the book of 3 Nephi—provide evidence the original manuscript was used instead of the printer’s manuscript for part of the typesetting of the Book of Mormon.
Following the publication of the Book of Mormon, the original manuscript remained in JS’s possession. When was excommunicated from the in 1838, he retained possession of the printer’s manuscript. When JS and prepared a third edition of the Book of Mormon in 1840, they consulted the original manuscript, which was still in JS’s possession, for a small number of changes.
In 1841, early church members in , Illinois, began work on the , a boardinghouse whose construction had been mandated by revelation to JS. On 2 October 1841, Latter-day Saints gathered on the lot near JS’s home and laid the cornerstone of the structure. The cornerstone, laid on the southeast corner of the foundation, contained “a square cut chest, about 10 x 14 inches, and eight inches deep, covered with a stone lid, which fitted closely in a groove or shoulder at the top.” According to JS’s journal, he placed several items in the cornerstone, including coins; a Bible; printed copies of the Book of Mormon, the church newspaper Times and Seasons, and the Doctrine and Covenants; and the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon. When the lid was placed over the cornerstone, the stone was “cemented around the edge with lead that had been melted and poured in the seam.” One Latter-day Saint who was at the ceremony recalled that the objects placed in the cornerstone were “encased in sheet lead to protect the contents from moisture.”
The manuscript remained in the cornerstone for a little over forty years. In 1882, Lewis Bidamon, ’s second husband, “was tearing down the walls of the eastern wing of the old ‘’” when he “came across the corner stone, which was laid by the Prophet in the formal and ceremonial way at the time the building was commenced.” Upon removing the lid from the cornerstone, Bidamon found the box “filled with a number of written and printed documents, the most of them mouldy and more or less decayed,” including the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon.
Several individuals acquired portions of the manuscript over the next several years. In the summer of 1883, Latter-day Saint obtained “a relic from the corner Stone.” Having toured some of the midwestern and eastern states, Kimball made a detour to “to see the old land marks in and around” the city. Kimball visited Bidamon and inquired about the work on the , informing him that she was aware of the “treasures deposited” in the cornerstone. He responded that he “took up the stone box and sold it” to a man whose name Kimball did not remember. Nancy Abercrombie Bidamon, whom Bidamon had married in 1880 after ’s death, then “brought a large pasteboard box” containing “a stack of faded and fast decaying paper.” Kimball noted that “the bottom layers for several inches, were uniform in size, they seemed to me larger than common foolscap, the paper was coarse in texture and had the appearance of having lain a long time in water, as the ink seemed almost entirely soaked into the paper, when I handled it, it would fall to pieces.” Kimball asked Bidamon how much he wanted for a well-preserved portion of the manuscript, and he replied that she was “welcome to anything” she wanted from the box. She “took the leaves that were folded and sewed together.”
Upon her return to Utah, offered the pages to Joseph F. Smith, who was then serving in the of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after Kimball gave the manuscript pages to the church, her donation was described as “twenty pages of somewhat rough, unruled writing paper . . . being a little less than fifteen and a half inches long and full six and a half inches wide. The paper is now tinged brown or yellow by time and damp, and the writing in some places is undecipherable. The pages are numbered 3 to 22, pages 1 and 2 having been lost.” The portion donated by Kimball contained the text of what is now chapters 2 through 13 of 1 Nephi.
On 3 October 1884, Latter-day Saint Joseph W. Summerhays visited and was shown additional surviving fragments of the manuscript. Summerhays described in his journal the state of the document: “I cannot tell what it is for it is very rotten and the ink is faded.” He did, however, copy some extracts from 1 Nephi chapter 15 and also noted the presence of “pencil marks” used for printer’s marks later in the manuscript. Summerhays asked “for some of the manuscript,” but Bidamon refused. However, Summerhays reported that “when he [Bidamon] left the room his wife [Nancy Bidamon] gave me one leaf and a few leaves of the Bible.” When Summerhays returned to Utah, he showed the page to , who had witnessed the cornerstone-laying ceremony in 1841. Kesler described the sheet as “quiet [quite] tender with age . . . a 1/2 Sheet of common Fool Scap paper its 12 ½ in long & 8 in wide Written on each side.” Kesler, who “was pleased to see & Handle the Relic,” received “one half the Sheet” from Summerhays, who felt that Kesler “should have a part of it” because he had been present when JS had deposited it in the cornerstone. This fragment contained what is now 1 Nephi 14:11–29. Kesler recorded that several days later, he “framed the the Book of Mormon Manuscript & hung it up in my office so that people could see it.” In 1972, the papers of Frederick Kesler, which included the Book of Mormon fragment, were donated to Special Collections at the University of Utah. The location of the other half of the sheet acquired by Summerhays is unknown.
In May 1885, Latter-day Saint , along with his son Charles C. Richards, traveled to . On 21 May they visited a number of sites, including the . After visiting with Lewis Bidamon for a time, Richards and his son were “shown all that remained” of the original manuscript. Describing the surviving fragments as “gems,” Richards noted that they were divided into “two lots, the first segment commencing with the fifth verse of the fifteenth chapter of the First Book of Nephi, and ending with the thirtieth chapter of the Second Book of Nephi; and the second excerpt commencing with the nineteenth or twentieth verse of the second chapter of Alma and ending with the twenty-second verse of the sixtieth chapter of Alma.” Richards later wrote that when he and his son departed, they were given “all of the manuscripts” that were remaining. Charles Richards later stated that they collected 184 pages of the original manuscript from the cornerstone, plus other documents. Franklin Richards kept the fragments throughout his life, and Charles Richards inherited them. On 13 December 1946, Charles donated most of the fragments to , then president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly before donating the pages to the church, Richards, who had taken up residence in the Hotel Utah in Salt Lake City, gave some of the manuscript to Ada Capener Cheney, supervisor in the hotel’s housekeeping staff. Cheney later recalled that Richards showed her the manuscript in his possession. “As he went to put the pages into safe keeping again, some small scraps of paper broke away from the brittle pages and fluttered to the floor.” Cheney picked the pieces up and gave them back to Richards, “but he told her she could have them for a keepsake.” Cheney divided her fragments, which contained portions of chapters 58 through 60 of the book of Alma, among her family. Some of the fragments have been donated to the Church History Library, and at least one fragment was acquired by another individual.
In October 1888, Latter-day Saints Andrew Jenson, Edward Stevenson, and Joseph S. Black traveled to . Jenson later recalled that during this trip, he met with Bidamon and talked with him about the original manuscript. According to Jenson, Bidamon “told me that he still had small pieces left of the manuscript, and that if I wanted them he would give them to me, which he did.” In another statement, Jenson recalled that Bidamon “brought to me some small pieces of paper, pouring them into my hat remarking, ‘Mr. Jenson, those are the last fragments of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon. If you want them you may have them.’” These pieces, which came from eight different leaves, contained portions of chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 19, and 20 of the book of Alma. Jenson mounted the fragments on a backing for display. He kept the fragments until 5 August 1931, at which point he delivered them to Joseph Fielding Smith, who was then an apostle and the church historian and recorder, “to be kept at the Historian’s Office.”
In 1937, Wilford C. Wood, a furrier and collector of early church artifacts, visited Wilmette, Illinois, and met Lewis Bidamon’s son, Charles E. Bidamon. Despite Lewis Bidamon’s claim to Jenson that the fragments he gave him were the “last fragments,” other pieces apparently remained. On 3 September 1937, Charles Bidamon stated that he sold multiple items to Wood, among which were “old papers taken out of the cornerstone of the ,” including fragments from twenty-nine leaves of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon. Lewis Bidamon or his wife also gave fragments of the original manuscript to others.
Several fragments of the Book of Mormon manuscript have no known nineteenth-century provenance. A fragment of a single leaf containing text from 2 Nephi chapters 4 and 5 was donated to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1974 by Ruth Smith, through an intermediary; it is unclear how Smith—no known relation to JS—acquired her fragment. Two additional leaves, containing text from Alma chapters 3 through 5, were acquired by the library of the University of Chicago, likely sometime in the 1920s. In 1984, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased the leaves. The authenticity of these leaves has been questioned by at least one scholar. The two leaves are published for the first time in Appendix 1 of this volume, along with evidence both for and against their authenticity. , Edward Stevenson, Joseph W. Summerhays, and a Mrs. H. Thomas all either claimed ownership of fragments of the original manuscript or are known to have owned them, but the whereabouts of these fragments are unknown. Though much of the original manuscript was destroyed, the efforts of those who collected and preserved various pages and fragments over time make it possible to recover a significant amount of content from the original manuscript and a wealth of information about its production.
Note: The transcript of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon on this website includes only the original inscriptions, not the later redactions made to the manuscript to prepare the text for publication. Readers will notice many discrepancies between the images and the transcript. For a transcript that includes the redactions, consult the facsimile images available by clicking on the book icon to the left of the images; see also Revelations and Translations, Volume 5: Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, facsimile ed. (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2021).
Text that is missing from the manuscript because a portion of the page is nonextant, torn, worn, or otherwise damaged is supplied in brackets and printed over a light gray background. The conjectured text printed on the gray background comes from Skousen, Original Manuscript.

Footnotes

  1. [1]

    Martin Harris, Emma Smith, Reuben Hale, Samuel Smith, and Oliver Cowdery are known to have assisted in the translation in Harmony, Pennsylvania. John and Christian Whitmer assisted in Fayette, New York. JS wrote twenty-eight words in Alma chapter 45. (JS History, vol. A-1, 9, 13–15, 22; Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald, 1 Oct. 1879, 289; JS History, ca. Summer 1832, [6]; Oliver Cowdery, Norton, OH, to William W. Phelps, 7 Sept. 1834, Messenger and Advocate, Oct. 1834, 1:14; James H. Hart, “About the Book of Mormon,” Deseret Evening News [Salt Lake City], 25 Mar. 1884, [2].)

    Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  2. [2]

    Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald, 1 Oct. 1879, 289–290; JS History, vol. A-1, 9; Hiel Lewis, Amboy, IL, 29 Sept. 1879, Letter, “Prophet Smith’s Family Relations,” Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 17 Oct. 1879, [2]. When Emma Smith was asked about the role of her other brother Alva Hale, she answered, “He may have written some; but if he did, I do not remember it.” (Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” Saints’ Herald, 1 Oct. 1879, 289; Stocker, Centennial History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, 556.)

    Saints’ Herald. Independence, MO. 1860–.

    Salt Lake Daily Tribune. Salt Lake City. 1871–.

    Stocker, Rhamanthus M. Centennial History of Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: R. T. Peck & Co., 1887.

  3. [3]

    Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 7, [7]–[8]; JS History, vol. A-1, 9–10.

  4. [4]

    Preface to Book of Mormon, ca. Aug. 1829.

  5. [5]

    Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 145, 148, 151 [Enos 1:25; Omni 1:5; Words of Mormon 1:3].

  6. [6]

    The first portion of the original manuscript (corresponding with 1 Nephi) contains the handwriting of John Whitmer, who did not assist in the translation of the Book of Mormon until after Oliver Cowdery had spent two full months acting as scribe for JS.

  7. [7]

    Preface to Book of Mormon, ca. Aug. 1829; Revelation, Spring 1829 [D&C 10:39]; Book of Mormon, 1830 ed., 3–153; see also Historical Introduction to Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, ca. Aug. 1829–ca. Jan. 1830.

  8. [8]

    Preface to Book of Mormon, ca. Aug. 1829; JS History, ca. Summer 1832, [5]; Knight, Reminiscences, 5; Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 7, [1]. Later sources likely followed the 1829 preface in reporting 116 pages.

    Knight, Joseph, Sr. Reminiscences, no date. CHL. MS 3470.

  9. [9]

    “A Witness to the Book of Mormon,” Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), 28 Aug. 1870, [4]; Edmund C. Briggs, “A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856,” Journal of History, Oct. 1916, 454. Emma Smith recalled that while she acted as scribe, JS was not aware of the existence of walls surrounding Jerusalem and did not know how to pronounce “Sarah,” likely a reference to Lehi’s wife, Sariah. Both anecdotes involve material from the earliest portion of the Book of Mormon narrative. Since the extant manuscript of the earliest portion of the book does not contain the handwriting of Emma Smith, it seems likely that she acted as scribe for the portion of the Book of Mormon that was lost. (Edmund C. Briggs, “A Visit to Nauvoo in 1856,” Journal of History, Oct. 1916, 454.)

    Daily Iowa State Register. Des Moines. 1869–1872.

    Journal of History. Lamoni, IA, 1908–1920; Independence, MO, 1921–1925.

  10. [10]

    JS History, ca. Summer 1832, [6].

  11. [11]

    Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 7, [11]–[13]; JS History, vol. A-1, 13, 21. Without the full manuscript, it is impossible to know whose handwriting is on the later portion of the Book of Mormon. All of the extant portions of the text from Alma through the book of Ether are in Cowdery’s handwriting—except for twenty-eight words in the handwriting of JS, which appear in what is now Alma 45:22. It is possible some of the later portion was inscribed by Cowdery after he and the Smiths moved to Fayette, New York.

  12. [12]

    “Mormonism,” Kansas City (MO) Daily Journal, 5 June 1881, [1]; JS History, vol. A-1, 21. Cowdery’s handwriting appears in the portions of Ether that survive, but John Whitmer’s handwriting is in 1 Nephi, indicating that by at least that point of the manuscript, Cowdery and JS had moved to Fayette, resuming the translation there. An account by Cowdery shows that the translation had reached 3 Nephi by 15 May 1829. (Oliver Cowdery, Norton, OH, to William W. Phelps, 7 Sept. 1834, Messenger and Advocate, Oct. 1834, 1:15; see also JS History, vol. A-1, 17–18.)

    Kansas City Daily Journal. Kansas City, MO. 1878–1891.

    Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.

  13. [13]

    “Mormonism,” Kansas City (MO) Daily Journal, 5 June 1881, [1]; “Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.”

    Kansas City Daily Journal. Kansas City, MO. 1878–1891.

  14. [14]

    Martin Harris to Egbert B. Grandin, Indenture, Wayne Co., NY, 25 Aug. 1829, Wayne Co., NY, Mortgage Records, vol. 3, pp. 325–326, microfilm 479,556, U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL; John H. Gilbert, Memorandum, 8 Sept. 1892, photocopy, CHL; see also Historical Introduction to Revelation, ca. Summer 1829 [D&C 19]. In October 1830, Egbert B. Grandin sold the mortgage to Harris’s farm.

    U.S. and Canada Record Collection, FHL.

    Gilbert, John H. Memorandum, 8 Sept. 1892. Photocopy. CHL. MS 9223.

  15. [15]

    Revelation, July 1828 [D&C 3].

  16. [16]

    Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, bk. 9, [2].

  17. [17]

    See Revelation, ca. Early 1830; and Skousen, “Why Was One Sixth of the 1830 Book of Mormon Set from the Original Manuscript?,” 93–103.

    Skousen, Royal. “Why Was One Sixth of the 1830 Book of Mormon Set from the Original Manuscript?” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 2 (2012): 93–103.

  18. [18]

    See Skousen, “Why Was One Sixth of the 1830 Book of Mormon Set from the Original Manuscript?,” 93–103.

    Skousen, Royal. “Why Was One Sixth of the 1830 Book of Mormon Set from the Original Manuscript?” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 2 (2012): 93–103.

  19. [19]

    Historical Introduction to Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, ca. Aug 1829–ca. Jan. 1830; Minute Book 2, 12 Apr. 1838.

  20. [20]

    Robinson remembered that he and JS “compared a copy of the Kirtland edition [1837 second edition] with the first edition, by reading them entirely through.” But a comparison of the 1840 edition with the original manuscript indicates that some corrections were made from that manuscript. (Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, May 1890, 295; see also Larson, “Early Book of Mormon Texts,” 52; Skousen, Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, 739–740; Walker, “‘As Fire Shut Up in My Bones,’” 17–18; and Crawley, Descriptive Bibliography, 1:132.)

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

    Larson, Stan. “Early Book of Mormon Texts: Textual Changes to the Book of Mormon in 1837 and 1840.” Sunstone 1, no. 4 (Fall 1976): 45–55.

    Skousen, Royal, ed. The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.

    Walker, Kyle R. “‘As Fire Shut Up in My Bones’: Ebenezer Robinson, Don Carlos Smith, and the 1840 Edition of the Book of Mormon.” Journal of Mormon History 36, no. 1 (Winter 2010): 1–40.

    Crawley, Peter. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. 3 vols. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997–2012.

  21. [21]

    Revelation, 19 Jan. 1841 [D&C 124:22–23].

  22. [22]

    “Relics of the Old Nauvoo House,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 27 Sept. 1882, [3]; “Minutes of a Conference,” Times and Seasons, 15 Oct. 1841, 2:576.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

    Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

  23. [23]

    JS, Journal, 29 Dec. 1841; Memorandum, 2 Oct. 1841; see also Frederick Kesler, “Further Facts in relation to the Manuscript of the Book of Mormon,” 4 Oct. 1878, CHL; John Brown, Pleasant Grove, Utah Territory, to John Taylor, 20 Dec. 1879, First Presidency (John Taylor) Correspondence, CHL; Frederick Kesler, statement, 29 May 1882, in “The Original Manuscript,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 3 June 1882, [2]; and Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Aug. 1890, 315.

    Kesler, Frederick. “Further Facts in relation to the Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.” 4 Oct. 1878. CHL.

    Brown, John. Letter, Pleasant Grove, Utah Territory, to John Taylor, 20 Dec. 1879. Copy. First Presidency (John Taylor) Correspondence, 1877–1887. CHL. CR 1 180, box 3, fd. 6.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

  24. [24]

    “Relics of the Old Nauvoo House,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 27 Sept. 1882, [3].

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  25. [25]

    Ebenezer Robinson, “Items of Personal History of the Editor,” Return, Aug. 1890, 315.

    The Return. Davis City, IA, 1889–1891; Richmond, MO, 1892–1893; Davis City, 1895–1896; Denver, 1898; Independence, MO, 1899–1900.

  26. [26]

    “Relics of the Old Nauvoo House,” Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), 27 Sept. 1882, [3]. For more on Lewis C. Bidamon, see Avery and Newell, “Lewis C. Bidamon,” 375–388. It seems possible that some of the more damaged manuscripts were discarded almost immediately.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

    Avery, Valeen Tippetts, and Linda King Newell. “Lewis C. Bidamon, Stepchild of Mormondom.” BYU Studies 19, no. 3 (Spring 1979): 375–388.

  27. [27]

    Sarah M. Kimball, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Joseph F. Smith, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 10 Oct. 1883, CHL.

    Kimball, Sarah M. Letter, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Joseph F. Smith, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 10 Oct. 1883. CHL.

  28. [28]

    Sarah M. Kimball, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to George Reynolds, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 19 July 1884, in Reynolds, “History of the Book of Mormon,” 366. Kimball was present at the laying of the cornerstone in 1841. (Wells, “Oliver Cowdery,” 385.)

    Reynolds, George. “History of the Book of Mormon.” Contributor, July 1884, 361–367.

    Wells, Junius F. “Oliver Cowdery.” Improvement Era 14, no. 5 (Mar. 1911): 379–394.

  29. [29]

    Sarah M. Kimball, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Joseph F. Smith, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 10 Oct. 1883, CHL.

    Kimball, Sarah M. Letter, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, to Joseph F. Smith, [Salt Lake City, Utah Territory], 10 Oct. 1883. CHL.

  30. [30]

    Reynolds, “History of the Book of Mormon,” 366. The leaves of the original manuscript were lined or ruled, though the lines are now significantly faded.

    Reynolds, George. “History of the Book of Mormon.” Contributor, July 1884, 361–367.

  31. [31]

    Summerhays, Diary, 3 Oct. 1884; Frederick Kesler, Statement, n.d., Frederick Kesler Papers, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. The fragments of the printed Bible are currently held at the CHL. (Fragments from the Cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, CHL.)

    Summerhays, Joseph W. Diaries, 1884–1917. CHL.

    Kesler, Frederick. Papers, 1837–1899. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

    Fragments from the Cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, ca. 1829–1841. CHL.

  32. [32]

    Kesler, Diary, 4, 10, and 12 Oct. 1878; 12 Oct. 1884. In his diary, Kesler mistakenly claimed that the leaf contained “a Portion of the 3d Book of Nephi.” However, a note written by Kesler that accompanies the leaf correctly identifies the item as “a poretion of the 14 chapt of the first Book of Nephi.” (Kesler, Diary, 12 Oct. 1884; Frederick Kesler, Statement, n.d., Frederick Kesler Papers, Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.)

    Kesler, Frederick. Diary, 1877–1881. Frederick Kesler, Papers, 1829–1985. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

    Kesler, Frederick. Papers, 1837–1899. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

  33. [33]

    Kesler, Diary, 17 Oct. 1884.

    Kesler, Frederick. Diary, 1877–1881. Frederick Kesler, Papers, 1829–1985. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

  34. [34]

    Dye, “Frederick Kesler Papers, 1837–1899.”

    Dye, Della L. “Frederick Kesler Papers, 1837–1899.” Unpublished finding aid, 1975, for collection held at Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Online version at Archives West, Orbis Cascade Alliance. Accessed 15 May 2017. archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv16976.

  35. [35]

    Richards, Visit to Pueblo, Independence, Carthage, Nauvoo, Richmond, Etc., 2–4. The first batch of the “two lots” of the Richards acquisition actually ends with the thirtieth verse of chapter 1 of 2 Nephi. The second batch actually begins with the twenty-second chapter of Alma. No known fragments exist from the second chapter of Alma. It appears that Franklin D. Richards or his son Charles inserted four extant leaves into the larger, ninety-six-page gathering of Alma. These four extant leaves contain text from Alma 62 through Helaman 3. (See Skousen, Original Manuscript, 35.)

    Richards, Franklin D. Visit to Pueblo, Independence, Carthage, Nauvoo, Richmond, Etc. [Salt Lake City]: [1885].

    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.

  36. [36]

    Charles C. Richards, Salt Lake City, UT, to E. L. Edwards, Woodbine, IA, 19 Feb. 1947, CCLA. Charles Richards stated that he and his father also acquired several pages of a handwritten revelation that had been deposited in the cornerstone.

    Richards, Charles C. Letter, Salt Lake City, UT, to E. L. Edwards, Woodbine, IA, 19 Feb. 1947. CCLA.

  37. [37]

    Charles C. Richards, Statement, 13 Dec. 1946, Book of Mormon Manuscript, 1829, CHL; see also Charles C. Richards, Salt Lake City, UT, to E. L. Edwards, Woodbine, IA, 19 Feb. 1947, CCLA; and “Book of Mormon Manuscript Pages Presented to Church by Member,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 21 Dec. 1946, 1.

    Richards, Charles C. Statement, 13 Dec. 1946. Book of Mormon Manuscript, 1839. CHL.

    Richards, Charles C. Letter, Salt Lake City, UT, to E. L. Edwards, Woodbine, IA, 19 Feb. 1947. CCLA.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  38. [38]

    Ada Cheney and Elaine Handley, “Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon” (typed presentation, Mountain View 3rd Ward Relief Society, 2 Nov. 1976), copy in editors’ possession.

    Cheney, Ada, and Elaine Handley. “Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.” Typed presentation, Mountain View 3rd Ward Relief Society, 2 Nov. 1976. Copy in editors’ possession.

  39. [39]

    See Book of Mormon Fragment, 1829, CHL; Book of Mormon Manuscript Fragments, 1829, CHL; and Book of Mormon Fragment, 1829, Brent Ashworth, Collection, CHL.

    Book of Mormon Fragment, 1829. Photograph and Typescript. CHL. Original in private possession.

    Book of Mormon Manuscript Fragments, 1829. CHL.

    Ashworth, Brent. Collection, 1711–2018. Digital images. CHL. Originals in private possession.

  40. [40]

    Jenson, Autobiography of Andrew Jenson, 150, 173, 622.

    Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.

  41. [41]

    Andrew Jenson, Statement, 18 Mar. 1938, Book of Mormon Manuscript, 1829, CHL.

    Jenson, Andrew. Statement, 18 Mar. 1938. Book of Mormon Manuscript, 1829. CHL.

  42. [42]

    It seems likely that Jenson procured two batches of material from the book of Alma—the leaves containing chapters 10 through 13 and the leaves containing chapters 19 and 20.

  43. [43]

    See A. Will Lund, Salt Lake City, UT, to J. N. Washburn, Price, UT, 21 May 1946, August William Lund Collection, CHL; and “Presents Manuscript,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 8 Aug. 1931, Church News section, 6.

    Lund, August William. Collection, 1897–1970. CHL.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

  44. [44]

    Jenson, Autobiography of Andrew Jenson, 622; see also Jenson, Journal, 5 Aug. 1931.

    Jenson, Andrew. Autobiography of Andrew Jenson: Assistant Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . . . Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1938.

    Jenson, Andrew. Journals, 1864–1941. Andrew Jenson, Autobiography and Journals, 1864–1941. CHL.

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    Charles E. Bidamon, Statement, 3 Sept. 1937, Wilford C. Wood Papers, Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, UT; “Mr. Wood Dies at 74 in S.L.,” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 18 Jan. 1968, B15. Early photographs of the Wood acquisition show that these “old papers” were bundles of rolled-up paper. (Photographs of Book of Mormon manuscript, n.d., Wilford C. Wood Papers, Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, UT.)

    Wood, Wilford C. Papers. Wilford Wood Museum, Bountiful, UT.

    Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.

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    See Francis M. Gibbons, [Salt Lake City, UT], to Ruth Smith, Bradenton, FL, 9 Aug. 1974, copy in editors’ possession; and bibliographic entry for Fragments from the Cornerstone of the Nauvoo House, in the CHL catalog.

    Gibbons, Francis M. Letter, [Salt Lake City, UT], to Ruth Smith, Bradenton, FL, 9 Aug. 1974. Copy in editors’ possession.

  47. [47]

    Glenn N. Rowe, Memorandum of a telephone conversation with Robert Rosenthal, 19 Oct. 1989, Church History Department Information about Leaves from the Book of Mormon, CHL.

    Church History Department Information about Leaves from the Book of Mormon, 1983–2020. CHL.

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    See Appendix 1: Leaves Acquired from the University of Chicago.

  49. [49]

    Joseph F. Smith Jr., “The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon,” Improvement Era, June 1907, 10:575; Edward Stevenson, “Book of Mormon,” Daily Enquirer (Provo, Utah Territory), 2 Feb. 1895, [1]; “Notes after the State Fair,” Kansas State Journal (Topeka), 25 Sept. 1884, [6].

    Smith, Joseph F., Jr. “The Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.” Improvement Era 10, no. 8 (June 1907): 572–576.

    Daily Enquirer. Provo, UT. 1889–1900.

    Kansas State Journal. Topeka. 1879–1884.

Asterisk (*) denotes a "featured" version, which includes an introduction and annotation. Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa 12 April 1828–circa 1 July 1829 Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa August 1829–circa January 1830 Book of Mormon, 1830 Book of Mormon, 1837 Book of Mormon, 1840 Book of Mormon, 1841

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[into an eternal world unprepared to] meet their God nevertheless they could [not suffer to lay down their lives that] their wives & their children should b[emassacreed by the barbarous cruelty of] those who was once their Brethren yea [&had desented from their church & had l]eft them & had gone to destroy the <​them​> by [joining the Lamanites yea they could] not bare that their Brethren should rejoice [over the blood of the Nephites so long as] there were any who should keep the<​s​> comma[ndments of God for the p]ro[mises of the] Lord were if they should keep his comma[ndments they should] prosper [in the lan]d & now it came to pass in the eleventh [month of the nineteenth] year on the tenth day of the Month the armies of the Laman[ites were seen approa]ching towards the land of Ammonihah & behold the City [had been rebuilt &] Moroni had stationed an army by the Borders of the [city & they had cast u]p dirt round about to shield them from the arrows of [& the stones of the Laman]ites for behold they fought with stones & with arrows [behold I said that th]e [Ci]ty of Ammonihah had been rebuilt I say unto you [yea that it was] in part r[e]built & because the Lamanites had destroid it [o]nce [becau]se of the iniquity of the People they supposed that it would again [b]ecome an easy prey for them but behold how great was their disapointment for behold the Nephites had dug up a ridge of earth around about them which was so high that the Lamanites could not cast their stones & their arrows at them that they might take affect neither could they come upon them save it was by their place <​o​>f enterance now at this time the chief Captains of the Lamanites were astonished excedingly because of the wisdom of the Nephites in p repairing their places of security now the leaders of the Lamanites had suposed by the because of the greatness of their numbers yea they supposed that they shoudd should be privilidge<​d​> to come upon them as they had hitherto done yea & they had also prepared themselves with shields & with breastplates & they had also prepared themselves with garments of skins yea very thick garments to cover their [na]kedness & being thus prepared they supposed that they should easily overpower & subject their Brethren to the yoke of bondage of <​or​> slay & massacre them according to their pleasure but behold to their uttermost astonishment they were prepared for them in a manner which never had been known among all the children of Lehi now they were prepared for the Lamanites to Battle after the manner of the instructions of Moroni & it came to pass that the Lamanites or the Amelickiahites [p. [324]]
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Editorial Title
Original Manuscript of the Book of Mormon, circa 12 April 1828–circa 1 July 1829
ID #
9152
Total Pages
231
Print Volume Location
Handwriting on This Page
  • Oliver Cowdery

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