Despite prevailing beliefs about Mormonism's first family, the Smiths were not a record-keeping people. That is not to say that they weren't literate or did not keep some records. Instead, the Joseph, Sr. and Lucy Mack Smith family did not create records with long-term goals in mind. When they first offered support to their son and brother, Joseph Smith, Jr., the family did so outside any habit of writing their thoughts and feelings down. When Smith first experienced visions and told tales of ancient people, he did so without any thought of documenting those experiences. As his inner circle grew, individuals with a record-keeping inclination, such as Oliver Cowdery, began to join Smith's ranks. When the Peter, Sr. and Mary Musselman Whitmer family joined Smith's ranks of believers, they, like the Smiths, were not prone to create records. But they became acquainted with Smith at a time when the logistics...
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Research Article|
January 01 2025
Imagining the (Largely Non-Extant) Whitmer Family Archives: An Additional Approach to Understanding Early Mormonism
Robin Scott Jensen
Robin Scott Jensen
ROBIN SCOTT JENSEN is a historian at the Church History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served as an archivist for the Joseph Smith Papers where he coedited the five volumes of the Revelations and Translations series. He earned MA degrees in American history from Brigham Young University and in library and information science from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, as well as a PhD in history from the University of Utah.
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Journal of Mormon History (2025) 51 (1): 1–39.
Citation
Robin Scott Jensen; Imagining the (Largely Non-Extant) Whitmer Family Archives: An Additional Approach to Understanding Early Mormonism. Journal of Mormon History 1 January 2025; 51 (1): 1–39. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/24736031.51.1.01
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