Corresponding Dates in Versions of the Manuscript History

In June 1838, Joseph Smith began dictating a history that he intended would “put all enquirers after truth into possession of the facts as they have transpired in relation both to myself and the Church” (JS History, vol. A-1, 1). Smith worked intermittently on the history and then increasingly relied on scribes to compile the work, based on existing documents such as his own journals and meeting minutes. Work on the history continued after Joseph Smith’s death in 1844, and by the time the Latter-day Saints packed church records in Nauvoo, Illinois, as they prepared for their exodus to the Intermountain West in 1846, the narrative spanned three and a half large manuscript volumes. Thomas Bullock transported the records to the Salt Lake Valley where he, Willard Richards, George A. Smith, Wilford Woodruff, and others continued their work, which was finally completed in 1856. For more information on the Manuscript History, see “Introduction to History, 1838–1856 (Manuscript History of the Church).”

The history, which was sometimes known as the “manuscript history of the church,” ultimately comprised six volumes, designated as A-1 through F-1, which chronicled Joseph Smith’s lifetime from 1805 to 1844. In addition to the manuscript volumes, draft materials were produced, a partial fair copy was prepared, the history was serialized in church newspapers, and decades later, at the beginning of the twentieth century, assistant church historian B. H. Roberts edited and published the work as six volumes at the request of the First Presidency. (A seventh volume of Roberts’s publication covered part of the Brigham Young era.)

Each of the six tables (Volume A-1, Volume B-1, Volume C-1, Volume D-1, Volume E-1, and Volume F-1) corresponds with a volume of the six–volume manuscript history and contains cross-references between the different manuscripts and publications, enabling quick comparison of the various iterations of the history. Readers interested in finding the original sources behind the history may refer to footnotes in the digital publication of volumes A-1 through F-1 at josephsmithpapers.org.

The tables include the following columns:

The first column (Date) contains the dates covered in the history.

The second column (MHC) links to the pages in volumes A-1 through F-1 of the manuscript history and the various addenda that scribes added at the back of each volume. In addition to these addenda, volume C-1 has a separate book of addenda, created by George A. Smith as he performed extensive research and created numerous revisions. The chart differentiates between the two by referring to the back pages as “Addenda” and the separate book as “Addenda book.”

The third column (Fair Copy) refers to the fair copy of the manuscript begun in 1845, available on the Church History Library catalog. Plans were made in Nauvoo to publish the history in book form, and clerks copied a second set of manuscript volumes designated as A-2 through E-2. The publication had not been realized when the Saints left Nauvoo in 1846, and the incomplete fair copy was discontinued in 1856, at which time the copy extended up through 18 July 1843.

The fourth column (Draft Notes) links to draft notes created by Willard Richards beginning in 1844. In this column, an asterisk (*) indicates a partial entry in which the author referred to text to be inserted later. For more information on the draft notes, see “Introduction to History Drafts, 1844–1856.”

The fifth (TS/DN) and sixth columns (MS) provide references to the serialized versions of the manuscript history in church newspapers. Nauvoo’s Times and Seasons began publishing the history under the title of “History of Joseph Smith” in March 1842. The Times and Seasons was discontinued when the Saints left Nauvoo, delaying further publication until the project resumed in 1851 with the Deseret News in Salt Lake City. Publication of the history in the church’s British periodical, the Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, began in June 1842 and was based on the Times and Seasons and Deseret News texts.

The seventh column (HC) provides references to B. H. Roberts’s multivolume published edition of the history, which included significant revisions to the text. A transcription of these volumes can be found on the BYU Studies website.