I live in Jackson County, Missouri, where this rarest Mormon book was printed.

My Recent Purchases

The church library, archives, and museum is open to any researcher by appointment. I am also working endlessly to get the most important parts of my collection online in PDF format. I have a site entitled iNephi.com which has the first edition Book of Mormon viewable online. I have reprinted more than one hundred faithful books published during the lifetime of Joseph Smith.

As of 2010, I have purchased 25,000 books and other Mormon items. I am qualified and interested in purchasing anything that you offer to me. I have listed a selection from the more important books and museum-quality artifacts that I have bought or sold over the years�these are examples of high-end items (those valued at $5,000 and up).

Scriptures

•  Book of Mormon

  • The 1830 (Palmyra, N.Y.) Book of Mormon, approximately 80 copies, including three with the exceedingly rare References supplement, one signed by Joseph Smith Jr., one belonging to the Joseph Smith Jr. family, one signed personal copy of Hyrum Smith handed down in a slave family, one belonging to bishop Newel K. Whitney, one in treed calf, and one bound in Kirtland, Ohio. Every copy of this book is unique and I am seeking additional copies.
     

  • The 1837 (Kirtland, Ohio) Book of Mormon, approximately 20 copies, including one belonging to the witness Hiram Page, two bound in ornate red morocco as a presentation by Oliver Cowdery to his family, one copy belonging to Joseph Smith, some copies in treed calf, and many other copies including some in a deluxe binding with tiny gold Kirtland trumpet devices stamped on the boards.
     

  • The 1840 (Nauvoo, Ill.) Book of Mormon, approximately 40 copies, including one owned by Luck Mack Smith, one signed by Nauvoo bishop George Miller, and copies representing more than three different printings from Cincinnati and Nauvoo.
     

  • The 1841 (Liverpool, England) Book of Mormon, approximately 40 copies, including one belonging to Lucy Mack Smith in a presentation binding, and other presentation copies.
     

  • The 1842 (Nauvoo, Ill.) Book of Mormon, approximately 20 copies, including a copy from Emma Hale Smith.
     

  • A fine selection of Books of Mormon from 1849, and the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s, including a fine copy signed by Brigham Young, a copy of the first Utah edition, and a copy of the first Smith family edition from Plano, Ill. with a red-line border on the title page.
     

•  Doctrine and Covenants

  • A Book of Commandments (Zion: 1833), two copies.
     

  • The 1835 Doctrine and Covenants (Kirtland, Ohio), approximately 25 copies, including four in presentation bindings, one signed and annotated by Sidney Rigdon, another by David Whitmer, one belonging to Joseph Smith, and the fourth in an Oliver Cowdery family presentation binding in full red morocco; and many other copies in plain brown sheep or treed calf including a second Smith copy handed down in the family.
     

  • The 1844 Doctrine and Covenants (Nauvoo, Ill.), approximately 10 copies.
     

  • The 1845 Doctrine and Covenants (Nauvoo, Ill.), approximately 10 copies.
     

  • The 1846 Doctrine and Covenants (Nauvoo, Ill.), approximately 10 copies.
     

  • A fine selection of copies of the Doctrine and Covenants from 1845 through the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870, printed in Liverpool England, up through a copy of the first Utah edition.
     

•  Hymns

  • The 1835 Mormon Sacred Hymns (Kirtland, Ohio), six copies, including one in an Oliver Cowdery family presentation binding in full red morocco, in the finest condition known for this book.
     

  • The 1841 Mormon Sacred Hymns (Nauvoo, Ill.), three copies.
     

  • A selection of other significant but obscure Mormon hymn books from the 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, including one by David W. Rogers (New York: 1838), and the first with musical notes by Little-Gardner (Bellows Falls, Vermont: 1844), and many others by obscure leaders including one by John Hardy, one by Benjamin Elsworth, and one by Charles A. Adams; and two by the church led by James J. Strang (1849 and 1850); and from the 1860s, one printed by William Bickerton, one printed in Kirtland, Ohio, and two printed by Emma Smith after the death of her husband.

•  Other

  • James J. Strang’s Book of the Law of the Lord, the first edition of 80 pages (only 200 copies printed), published in 1851; a copy of the 1856 edition of 336 pages in uncut sheets, and a finely bound copy belonging to his family; and a broadside representation of his Voree Plates.
     

  • The Pearl of Great Price, many copies of the first edition (1851), including several in original salmon colored wrappers.
     

  • Many copies of the first edition Holy Scriptures�The Joseph Smith Translation (JST)�imprinted by Joseph Smith’s family (Plano, Ill.: 1867), including several in presentation bindings, one in a deluxe red morocco binding, one in wrappers; one deluxe copy belonging to Joseph Smith III, and several New Testaments (Plano, Ill.: 1867) bound separately, including one with marbled endpapers and marbled edges.
     

  • The Holy Bible from Cooperstown, New York, 1828, the same edition used by Joseph Smith while translating the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

Newspapers

• Early church newspapers including the Kirtland edition of the Evening and Morning Star; all three volumes of the Kirtland Messenger and Advocate; the exceptionally rare Elders’ Journal from the vanished town of Far West, Missouri near me, belonging to Samuel H. Smith; issues of the Times and Seasons signed by Brigham Young and Newel K. Whitney, several complete sets of all six volumes; the editor’s copy of the Millennial Star from England and some issues of volume one in unique printed wrappers; issues of the New York Prophet and New York Mormon; and the New-York Messenger (the only complete bound volume, including an Extra and a previously unknown 22nd number), and the known only set of the Gospel Reflector in original printed wrappers.
  

• Newspapers from all the divergent leaders, including George M. Hinckle�s Ensign, Sidney Rigdon’s Messenger and Advocate, James C. Brewster’s Olive Branch, James J. Strang’s Northern Islander (the only extant bound run), the most complete extant set of Voree and Gospel Heralds, Charles B. Thompson’s Baneemy’s Organ, the rare first complete volume of Brigham Young’s Deseret News, the early volumes of Joseph Smith III’s Saints’ Herald in wrappers, and Granville Hedrick’s Truth Teller; and an 1844 issue of the New York Weekly Herald with engravings of the assassination of Joseph Smith.

Pamphlets

• Historic polemical pamphlets, including the first anti-Mormon pamphlet (Alexander Campbell’s Delusions, 1832); the first anti-polygamy pamphlet (the only known copy of Oliver Olney’s Spiritual Wifery); the first Temple exposé (Increase Van Deusen’s Mormon Endowment, Albany, 1847, in wrappers).
   

• Rare broadsides from the 1840s, some unique in the Mormon bibliographies, and some of those unique ones printed in early frontier Nauvoo.
   

• Rare pamphlets such as the Voice of Truth, published by Joseph Smith at Nauvoo; his Reply to James A. Bennet; and an 1844 pamphlet about his martyrdom; Parley P. Pratt’s Millennium and Other Poems, and the first two editions of Pratt’s Voice of Warning (1837 and 1839).
   

• The only known copy of Joseph Smith’s first vision in wrappers (Orson Pratt’s Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, 1840), which was incidentally signed by apostle John E. Page.
   

• All three of John E. Page’s Gospel Tracts, numbered 1-3, (1847).
   

• An uncut copy of James J. Strang’s Prophetic Controversy (Beaver Island, 1856); and a complete set of his other major Voree and Beaver Island pamphlets all in wrappers, such as his Diamond, Catholic Discussion, Michilimackinac, and Epistles of Oliver Cowdery.

• The first two pamphlets published by the Reorganization, 1853-1854 (Voice of the Captives and A Word of Consolation).

Manuscripts

• Documents signed by Joseph Smith Jr., Oliver Cowdery, James Sloan (Hyrum Smith’s clerk), W. W. Phelps, Brigham Young, and others.
   

• A letter from Brigham Young giving his sympathies to the family of a victim of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
   

• The original indictment of Joseph Smith Jr. for theft in Missouri.
   

• The official Nauvoo court Mormon record book from 1837-1841.
   

• The Nauvoo court record book of Joseph Smith III, 1850s and 1860s.
   

• The Chronicles of Voree, a rare manuscript record in the hand of James J. Strang.
   

• Manuscript depositions from the Order of Enoch trial held in Voree, Wisconsin.
   

• A collection of postmarks from Nauvoo, Illinois in the 1840s, plus a collection of postmarks from Palmyra, New York in 1830.
  

• Various manuscript collections of minor Mormon groups, including the collection of Warren Post with correspondence of other Mormons at Kirtland, Nauvoo, Voree, Beaver Island, and Council Bluffs; the papers of Wingfield Watson, and the diaries of Edward Chidester.

Art

• The photo album of Julia Murdock Smith, the sister of the prophet, with carte-de-visite images of the wife and each of the children of Joseph Smith.
  

• The Sutcliffe Maudsley family collection with the majority of extant Maudsley images of Nauvoo residents, including William Smith, the brother of the prophet.
  

• A Sutcliffe Maudsley painting of Emma Smith and little Alexander Smith, painted in 1842, from the family of Alexander Smith, the son of Joseph.
  
  

• The Book of Mormon belonging to Sutcliffe Maudsley, containing his original first image of Joseph Smith from which all other profiles were made.
   

• A Sutcliffe Maudsley painting of Joseph Smith holding a red Bible.
   

• A collection of significant Sutcliffe Maudsley high detail steel engravings of Joseph Smith Jr., printed in 1842, 1847, and 1860; plus a collection of early Maudsley woodcuts from 1844 to 1845.
   

• Early b&w photographs of two Maudlsey paintings of Joseph and Hyrum Smith which are no longer extant.
   

• A piece of Staffordshireware made in England in 1847 with Sutcliffe Maudsley images of Joseph and Hyrum Smith and the Nauvoo temple.
   

• A full-color needlepoint sampler of the New Jerusalem Temple at Jackson County, Missouri, as it was planned in 1831, made by a Mormon girl living in Nauvoo in 1842.
   

• A painting by the Nauvoo artist David W. Rogers of his grandchildren playing at Winter Quarters.
   

• A pastel chalk drawing of Joseph Smith Jr. from the family of Katharine Salisbury, the sister of Joseph.
   

• Two 1848 pencil sketches of the Nauvoo temple by Seth Eastman.
   

• Early oil paintings of Nauvoo, Ill. by Lane K. Newberry.
   

• The original daguerreotype of James J. Strang.
   

• A tintype of the young sons of Joseph Smith Jr.
   

• A collection of cabinet cards and albumens of Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith Jr., Hyrum Smith, William Smith, Catharine Smith, Emma Smith, Joseph Smith III, James J. Strang, and numerous other early church figures.
   

• The earliest known photographs of the Kirtland temple, taken fifteen years earlier than any other known photographs.
   

• A collection of albumens, and a complete set of 29 stereo views of Nauvoo homes that are no longer standing.
   

• A collection of photographs taken by the Joseph Smith family in the 1800s at Palmyra and Kirtland.
   

• A collection of lantern plates of the first Mormon temple in Kirtland, Ohio, and other scenes of historical sites and people including some taken in Nauvoo, Far West, and other places.
   

• A collection of b&w photographs printed on postcard paper of early church scenes, taken 1900-1915, particularly Kirtland, Ohio; and Nauvoo, Illinois.
   

• A collection of original prints of scenes from contemporary Kirtland and Nauvoo, including important images of the Temples; and, as an example, an otherwise unknown scene of Joseph Smith Jr. leaping from the Carthage Jail.

Artifacts

• Fragments from the Egyptian cloth used on the Joseph Smith mummies of the Book of Abraham.
  

• Joseph Smith Jr.’s red brick store sign, advertising tea and coffee with other dry goods, 1841.
   

• The chandelier from the Joseph Smith council room where the first Relief Society meetings and first secret endowments were held.
   

• A moon-stone from a pilaster base of the Nauvoo temple.
   

• A sun-stone piece (or trumpet-stone) from a pilaster capital of the Nauvoo temple.
   

• Joseph Smith Jr.’s hunting rifle, and his watch fob (chain).
   

• A piece of the chain that held Joseph Smith Jr. in Liberty Jail, and the jail bars from the windows.
   

• A collection of Kirtland bank notes (some in uncut sheets), anti-bank notes, and Nauvoo House stock certificates, including money signed by Joseph Smith Jr., Sidney Rigdon, George Miller, and others.
   

• Mormon furniture such as letter boxes and tool chests, including a trunk belonging to Lyman Wight, and boxes from Beaver Island.

To make an appointment to see my collection, visit my 2009 Contact Information page.