New Content on Joseph Smith Papers website

[Calm]

For those interested in such things, I just got an email that they have added another volume to the site, Documents 4.  You can read about it here:

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/

Quote

 

The Joseph Smith Papers is pleased to announce its latest web content release. Included in this substantial publication are all documents, introductions, and annotation in Documents, Volume 4: April 1834–September 1835, which was published in print in 2016. Documents, Volume 4 includes documents from the 1834 Camp of Israel expedition (later called “Zion’s Camp”) that marched to Jackson County, Missouri, to redeem the Saint’s land; the 1835 calling of and blessings for the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Seventies; the construction of the House of the Lord in Kirtland, Ohio; and many other minutes, letters, and revelations.

Also published in this release are appendix items for the recently released Documents, Volume 6, mainly concerned with the 1838 struggles of the Saints with their Missouri neighbors:

Letter to Oliver Cowdery and Others, circa 17 June 1838

Constitution of the Society of the Daughter of Zion, circa Late June 1838

Discourse, circa 4 July 1838

Petition to Elias Higbee, circa 16 August 1838

Agreement with Amos Rees and Alexander Doniphan, 28 November 1838

We have also added minutes from the Nauvoo City Council from 1844 and 1845 as well as more documents from the Nauvoo Municipal Court. Users will also find new editorial introductions to several New York and Ohio court cases

 

There is in the email an article discussing the "scholarly cooperation" efforts by Mark Ashurst-McGee 

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/articles/newsletter-03-2018-tale-of-scholarly-cooperation?highlight=A tale of scholarly

And lastly an section to "learn more about the people in Joseph Smith's world" through their People option:

http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/articles/newsletter-03-2018-people-page?highlight=Learn more about the people in

[Jeanne]

Thank you..just a question...is there a way or is there other documentation that us old people who need BIG letters can read??  So interested!

[Amulek]

3 minutes ago, Jeanne said:

Thank you..just a question...is there a way or is there other documentation that us old people who need BIG letters can read??  So interested!

Most of the original documents can be zoomed in with pretty good detail. If you are talking about the text portion that appears on the right-hand side of the page, it may depend on your computer / web browser. Many have readability settings that can be changed. But if you just want to do something temporarily for a page, use Ctrl and + to zoom in, Ctrl and - to zoom out.

[Jeanne]

34 minutes ago, Amulek said:

Most of the original documents can be zoomed in with pretty good detail. If you are talking about the text portion that appears on the right-hand side of the page, it may depend on your computer / web browser. Many have readability settings that can be changed. But if you just want to do something temporarily for a page, use Ctrl and + to zoom in, Ctrl and - to zoom out.

Thank you so much...I have been trying to read this..and did know where to look..will check it out and hope that my laptop here won't need to be kicked down the block again..  I did not see the right hand portion but didn't play with it much..thanks again.Thought I might have to round up a peep stone somewhere!!

Edited March 7, 2018 by Jeanne

[theplains]

Are there any plans to incorporate sermons from Journal of Discourses?

Thanks,
Jim

[JLHPROF]

11 minutes ago, theplains said:

Are there any plans to incorporate sermons from Journal of Discourses?

Thanks,
Jim

The Joseph Smith papers website is only for Joseph Smith papers.

The Journal of Discourses came a decade after his death.  They are not within the scope of the project.
Also, they are readily available already.

[Calm]

Another announcement:

https://mailchi.mp/ldschurch/latest-volume-in-documents-series-now-available?e=4e19b1d5ff

[Scott Lloyd]

14 minutes ago, Calm said:

Another announcement:

https://mailchi.mp/ldschurch/latest-volume-in-documents-series-now-available?e=4e19b1d5ff

Here's another voice on this:

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900015678/latest-joseph-smith-papers-volume-covers-early-nauvoo-period-of-recovery-after-oppression-in-missouri.html

[MormonMason]

On 3/20/2018 at 5:16 PM, theplains said:

Are there any plans to incorporate sermons from Journal of Discourses?

Thanks,
Jim

Wouldn't do most people any good even if they did.  (They won't because most all of them are not associated with Joseph Smith.)  Most of the original, handwritten documents are written in a kind of shorthand.

[Jeanne]

I want to know more about the condemnation of William Law to Joseph on the plural marriage of a few at the time around 1844..(other than the essay I read on the site)..what is the best way to find it?  It was also around this time that Joseph threatened Rigdon with excommunication.

[cinepro]

11 hours ago, MormonMason said:

 Most of the original, handwritten documents are written in a kind of shorthand.

You mean like the Anthon Transcript ...?

[MormonMason]

5 hours ago, cinepro said:

You mean like the Anthon Transcript ...?

Not exactly.  The Anthon Transcript now extant is a badly recopied text deriving from a badly copied modified system originating from a transitional form of Egyptian between Hieratic and Demotic.  The original transcripts of sermons in the Journal of Discourses (including the unpublished 27th volume) mostly are written in a form of English shorthand.

[Scott Lloyd]

15 hours ago, MormonMason said:

Not exactly.  The Anthon Transcript now extant is a badly recopied text deriving from a badly copied modified system originating from a transitional form of Egyptian between Hieratic and Demotic.  The original transcripts of sermons in the Journal of Discourses (including the unpublished 27th volume) mostly are written in a form of English shorthand.

Are you sure the Anthon transcript is now extant? It was my understanding that what in times past had been thought to be the Anthon transcript is not the real McCoy. 

But I’m open to enlightenment on this if you can provide documentation. 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Scott Lloyd

[MormonMason]

4 hours ago, Scott Lloyd said:

Are you sure the Anthony transcript is now extant? It was my understanding that what in times past had been thought to be the Anthon transcript is not the real McCoy. 

But I’m open to enlightenment on this if you can provide documentation. 

I never stated that the "Anthon Transcript" is the original.  I should have put the words in quotes in my above post.  The one now extant is a badly copied manuscript of a portion of characters from the original, which original no longer is extant.  Many of the characters, however, do match Anthon's description of certain of the characters ("crosses and flourishes," etc).

No one seems to have contradicted the claims that these were Book of Mormon plates characters in various materials published with these characters.  But it is obvious that the currently extant "transcript" is nothing more than a copy of several lines of characters from the plates that doesn't date earlier than 1830.  That is too late to have been the original that Martin Harris used.

I believe that is the reason why it was severed from the rest of the document some time ago.  The rest of the document appears JST related.  The original is lost but the characters, jumbled though they may be, have certain affinities with real Egyptian characters from a transitional period between Hieratic and Demotic, right down to the use of a single character that looks like a handwritten 'H'.  It's in a Hieratic form but used like a Demotic abbreviation that means "book," "document," or "writing".

A couple of them are followed by an old Hieratic-Demotic transitional form of a word that means "this".  Those can be read together as "this book".  The first one has three characters that combined read literally "the book this".  It's proper Egyptian grammar.  The very first characters on the top right of the current "transcript" can be read as "regnal year" or "regnal year 1" but the rest defies translation so far, though some lately have claimed (falsely, IMO) to have broken the code.  Sorry for the confusion.

Edited April 15, 2018 by MormonMason

[Rajah Manchou]

7 minutes ago, MormonMason said:

But it is obvious that the currently extant "transcript" is nothing more than a copy of several lines of characters from the plates that doesn't date earlier than 1830.  That is too late to have been the original that Martin Harris used.

Why obviously later than 1830? 

@Scott Lloyd's article on the subject:

"Until recently, the prevailing notion was that a document now housed in the archives of the Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri, is the actual piece of paper shown by Harris to Anthon and others in New York. Letters recently found from Anthon indicate “it is virtually impossible to argue with certainty” that the transcript in Independence is the only one Anthon saw, Brother Bennett said. Moreover, recent research stemming from the Joseph Smith Papers project and based on handwriting analysis shows that the extant manuscript was likely not written by Joseph in 1828 but by John Whitmer in 1829 “and therefore could not have been the one displayed in New York City,” he added."

[MormonMason]

2 minutes ago, Rajah Manchou said:

Why obviously later than 1830? 

@Scott Lloyd's article on the subject:

"Until recently, the prevailing notion was that a document now housed in the archives of the Community of Christ in Independence, Missouri, is the actual piece of paper shown by Harris to Anthon and others in New York. Letters recently found from Anthon indicate “it is virtually impossible to argue with certainty” that the transcript in Independence is the only one Anthon saw, Brother Bennett said. Moreover, recent research stemming from the Joseph Smith Papers project and based on handwriting analysis shows that the extant manuscript was likely not written by Joseph in 1828 but by John Whitmer in 1829 “and therefore could not have been the one displayed in New York City,” he added."

The JST was begun in 1830.  The phrase on the paper was part of a cover page for something related to the JST, but which ended up not being used except to copy some characters.  Either way, 1829 or 1830, it's still too late to be the original Anthon Transcript.

[Rajah Manchou]

50 minutes ago, MormonMason said:

The JST was begun in 1830.  The phrase on the paper was part of a cover page for something related to the JST, but which ended up not being used except to copy some characters.  Either way, 1829 or 1830, it's still too late to be the original Anthon Transcript.

Sorry, what phrase on what paper? 

[MormonMason]

43 minutes ago, Rajah Manchou said:

Sorry, what phrase on what paper? 

The rest of the "Caractors" document that was torn off and now lost, of course.  The words on that part were "The Book of [the] Generation[s of] Adam".  There is a photo that turned up of the document some years back.  The photo shows how the document looked before the "Caractors" document was torn loose from what once was a whole sheet of paper.

Here's a pic:

Some phoney-baloney wanted to palm this off as the original Anthon Transcript so the rest of the document that could show that it was otherwise was torn loose from it.  That's how I see it.

Edited April 15, 2018 by MormonMason
Needed to add brackets and because it's not easy editing this on a phone.

[Rajah Manchou]

3 hours ago, MormonMason said:

Some phoney-baloney wanted to palm this off as the original Anthon Transcript so the rest of the document that could show that it was otherwise was torn loose from it. That's how I see it.

Agree. No vertical columns. No "circle divided into various compartments". Doesn't seem to match what Anthon, or Mitchill, had seen.

[Calm]

Church Historian Press is quite active these days:

https://mailchi.mp/ldschurch/new-installment-of-george-q-cannon-journal-now-online?e=4e19b1d5ff

Quote

The George Q. Cannon journals are among the most important sources of Latter-day Saint history during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
 

—Richard E. Turley Jr., coeditor of the previously published volumes of Cannon’s journals