The following is my first contribution to FAIR’s Translation Witness Accounts (TWA) Project spearheaded by Blair Hodges. Blair has the initial installment at his blog by listing all known firsthand accounts from Joseph Smith. Here I compiled as many accounts as I could find, but I seem to recall running across another one I can’t currently locate in my notes. Readers are welcome to point out other accounts that explicitly affirm or deny the use of curtain separating Joseph Smith from his scribes. I also want to hear about you make of these accounts.
My excerpts are mostly from Opening the Heavens which contains a compilation of 203 translation accounts done by Jack Welch. My footnotes are keyed to the number that Welch assigned. I have supplemented Welch’s accounts with several found in the 4th volume of Dan Vogel’s Early Mormon Documents series, in which case I use the page number the excerpt is found on.
Curtain Accounts
The manner of translation was as wonderful as the discovery. By putting his finger on one of the characters and imploring divine aid, then looking through the Urim and Thummim, he would see the import written in plain English on a screen placed before him. After delivering this to his emanuensi, he would again proceed in the same manner and obtain the meaning of the next character, and so on till he came to the part of the plates which were sealed up. and there was commanded to desist: and he says he has a promise from God that in due time he will enable him to translate the remainder. [23]
The way that Smith made his transcripts and transcriptions for Harris was the following. Although in the same room, a thick curtain or blanket was suspended between them, and Smith concealed behind the blanket, pretended to look through his spectacles, or transparent stones, and would then write down or repeat what he saw, which, when repeated aloud, was written down by Harris, who sat on the other side of the suspended blanket. Harris was told that it would arouse the most terrible divine displeasure, if he should attempt to draw near the sacred chest, or look at Smith while engaged in the work of decyphering the mysterious characters. This was Harris’s own account of the matter to me. [45]
He [David Whitmer] said that Joseph was separated from the scribe by a blanket, as I remember; that he had the Urim and Thummim, and a chocolate colored stone, which he used alternately, as suited his convenience,and he said he believed Joseph could as well accomplish the translation by looking into a hat, or any other stone, as by the use of the Urim and Thummim or the chocolate colored stone. David expressed absolute faith in the Prophet’s power to get any information he desired, and by any means he should adopt for the purpose. I mean he appeared to have absolute faith in the Prophet’s power with God, to get any information he wished for. And he did not think that either the Urim and Thummim or the stone he had were essential, or absolutely essential, to the obtaining of the information. He said that Joseph would–as I remember–place the manuscript beneath the stone or Urim and Thummim, and the characters would appear in English, which he would spell out, and they would remain there until the word was fully written and corrected, when it would disappear and another word appear, etc. [98]
Harris declares, that when he acted as amanuenses, and wrote the translation, as Smith dictated, such was his fear of the Divine displeasure, that a screen (sheet) was suspended between the prophet and himself…. [137]
[Martin Harris] says he wrote a considerable part of the book, as Smith dictated, and at one time the presence of the Lord was so great, that a screen was hung up between him and the Prophet; at other times the Prophet would sit in a different room, or up stairs, while the Lord was communicating to him the contents of the plates. He does not pretend that he ever saw the wonderful plates but once, although he and Smith were engaged for months in deciphering their contents. [155]
This young man was placed behind a curtain, in the garret of a farm house, and, being thus concealed from view, put on the spectacles occasionally, or rather, looked through one of the glasses, decyphered the characters in the book, and, having committed some of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain, to those who stood on the outside. Not a word, however, was said about the plates having been decyphered “by the gift of God:’ Every thing, in this way, was effected by the large pair of spectacles. [158]
A young man, it seems, had been placed in the garret of a farm-house, with a curtain before him, and, having fastened the spectacles to his head, had read several pages in the golden book, and communicated their contents in writing to certain persons stationed on the outside of the curtain. He had also copied off one page of the book in the original character, which he had in like manner handed over to those who were separated from him by the curtain, and this copy was the paper which the countryman had brought with him. [165]
Translations and interpretations were now entered upon by the prophet, and manuscript specimens of these, with some of the literally transcribed characters, were shown to people, including ministers and other gentlemen of learning and influence…. The manuscripts were in the handwriting of one Oliver Cowdery, which had been written down by him, as he and Smith declared, from the translations, word for word, as made by the latter with the aid of the mammoth spectacles or Urim and Thummim, and verbally announced by him from behind a blanket-screen drawn across a dark corner of a room at his residence-for at this time the original revelation, limiting to the prophet the right of seeing the sacred plates, had not yet been changed, and the view with the instrument used was even too brilliant for his own spiritualized eyes in the light! This was the story of the first series of translations, which was always persisted in by the few persons connected with the business at this early period of its progress. The single significance of this theory will doubtless be manifest, when the facts are stated in explanation, that Smith could not write in a legible hand, and hence an amanuensis or scribe was necessary. Cowdery had been a schoolmaster, and was the only man in the band who could make a copy for the printer. …. The work of translation this time [after the loss of the 116 pages] had been done in the recess of a dark artificial cave, which Smith had caused to be dug in the east side of the forest-hill near his residence. , .. [T]hough another version was, that the prophet continued to pursue his former mode of translating behind the curtain at his house, and only went into the cave to pay his spiritual devotions. [171]
As he claimed to be the author of the “Book of Mormon” his story was that by the aid of his wonderful stone he found gold plates on which were inscribed the writings in hieroglyphics. He translated them by means of a pair of magic spectacles which the Lord delivered to him at the same time that the golden tablets were turned up. But nobody but Joe himself ever saw the golden tablets or the far-seeing spectacles. He dictated the book, concealed behind a curtain, and it was written down by Cowdery. This course seemed to be rendered necessary by the fact that Joe did not know how to write. [177]
The whole history is shrouded in the deepest mystery. Joseph Smith Jr., who read through the wonderful spectacles, pretended to give the scribe the exact reading of the plates, even to spelling, in which Smith was wofully deficient. Martin Harris was permitted to be in the room with the scribe, and would try the knowledge of Smith, as he told me, saying that Smith could not spell the word February, when his eyes were off the spectacles through which he pretended to work. This ignorance of Smith was proof positive to him that Smith was dependent on the spectacles for the contents of the Bible. Smith and the plates containing the original of the Mormon Bible were hid from view of the scribe and Martin Harris by a screen. [199]
Richards [Martin Harris], got into the Stage house when on rout & Said he resided at Palmira, & had been to Quages, which was in the town of Colesville a few miles from South Bainbridge village to See Jos[eph] Smith, who had resided in Palmira, & had found a gold bible & stone in which he looked & was thereby enabled to translate the very ancient chara[c]ters which found in the bible. He Said Smith was poor & was living in a house which had only one room & Smith had a sheet put up in one corner & went behind it from observation when he was writing the bible. He Said Smith kept the bible hid or covered up & put it in a hat & had the Stone which found in Pal=mira & look[e]d through it & then wrote what he read in the bible. He Said would not let him see the bible but let him feel of it when it was covered up. Smith read to him a good deal of the bible & he repeated to those in the Stage verse after verse of what Smith had read to him; [emd4-145]
He farther showed this manuscript to Knight, which he claimed was translated by himself by looking through the Urim and Thummim while he sat behind a blanket hung across a room in order that the sacred records might be kept from profane eyes, and read off the “Book of Mormon,” or Golden Bible as he sometimes called it, to Oliver Cowdery who wrote it down. [emd4-232]
Joe Smith would write the translation from his plates upon a slate, or dictate what to write, and others would copy upon paper. His assistants were witness Martin Harris, and brother-in-law Reuben Hale. The translating and writing were done in the little low chamber of Joe Smith’s house. The Prophet and his precious trust were screened even from the sight of his clerks by blankets nailed to the walls. 32 The nails remained for many years just as they were driven by the Prophet, and it was not until some repairing was done a short time ago that they were drawn out. Neighbors were free to call at the house as much as they pleased while the bible was concocting, and the matter of the golden bible would be talked over. Some persons were permitted to lift the pillow case in which it was kept, and feel the thickness of the volume the plates made, but no one was permitted to see them. [emd4-355]
MRS. SALLIE MCKUNE, widow of Joseph McKune and mother of Sheriff [Benjamin] McKune, is now eighty years old. She was between twenty-five and thirty years old when Joe Smith was performing about Susquehanna, and lived upon a farm adjoining Joe Smith’s lot and the Isaac Hale farm, and in sight of the place where they dug for the ton of silver, on Jacob I. Skinner’s farm. Smith’s residence was between the residence of an addition to the house, and Mrs. McKune lived in the house about forty years. She remembers the arrangement of the nails used for hooks to hang blankets on during the translation of the golden bible. [emd4-358]
Hence the magic spectacles were very opportunely found with the plates. The little low chamber in Smith’s house was used as a translating- room. The prophet and his plates were screened even from the sight of his scribes, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery and Reuben Hale, by blankets secured with nails. While the translation was going on the neighbors frequently called to discuss the forthcoming book, which, it was alleged, would make the Hale family very rich. Occasionally a visitor was allowed to feel the thickness of the Golden Book as it reposed within a pillow-case, but no one was permitted to see it. [emd4-364]
No Curtain Accounts
In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us. [41]
In order to give privacy to the proceeding a blanket, which served as a portiere, was stretched across the family living room to shelter the translators and the plates from the eyes of any who might call at the house while the work was in progress. This, Mr. Whitmer says, was the only use made of the blanket, and it was not for the purpose of concealing the plates or the translator from the eyes of the amanuensis. In fact, Smith was at no time hidden from his collaborators, and the translation was performed in the presence of not only the persons mentioned, but of the entire Whitmer household and several of Smith’s relatives besides. [93]
I staid in Richmond two days and nights. I had a great deal of talk with widow Cowdry, and her amiable daughter. She is married to a Dr Johnson, but has no children. She gave me a certificate, And this is the copy. “Richmond, Ray Co., Mo. Feb 15, 1870–I cheerfully certify that I was familiar with the manner of Joseph Smith’s translating the book of Mormon. He translated the most of it at my Father’s house. And I often sat by and saw and heard them translate and write for hours together. Joseph never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating. He would place the director in his hat, and then place his face in his hat, so as to exclude the light, and then [read the words?] as they appeared before him.” [112]
Soon I learned that Jo claimed to be translating the plates in Badger’s Tavern, in Colesville, three miles from my house. I went there and saw Jo Smith sit by a table and put a handkerchief to his forehead and peek into his hat and call out a word to Cowdery, who sat at the same table and wrote it down. Several persons sat near the same table and there was no curtain between them. [161]
References
Opening the Heavens
[23] Truman Coe to Mr. Editor Hudson Ohio Observer, August 11, 1836; cited in Vogel Early Mormon Documents 1:47.
[41] Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma;’ Saints’ Herald 26 (October 1, 1879): 289-90; and Joseph Smith III, “Last Testimony of Sister Emma;’ Saints’ Advocate 2 (October 1879): 50-52.
[45] John A. Clark, Gleanings By the Way (Philadelphia: W J. and J. K. Simon, 1842), 224, 228, 230-31; part of this chapter on the Mormons appeared as a letter in the Episcopal Recorder 18 (1846): 94. This interview was also reprinted in “Modern Superstition.-The Mormonites.-No. I;’ Visitor, or Monthly Instructor (1841): 62, 63-64.
[93] “The Book of Mormon;’ Chicago Tribune, December 17, 1885, 3· The Tribune correspondent visited and interviewed Whitmer on December 15, 1885, at Whitmer’s home in Richmond, Missouri.
[98] Nathan A. Tanner Jr. to Nathan A. Tanner, February 17, 1909, photocopy of typescript, 5, Church Archives. The interview occurred in May 1886.
[112] William E. McLellin to “My Dear Friends;’ February 1870, Community of Christ Library-Archives; cited in Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 233-34· Elizabeth Whitmer, born in 1815, was the daughter of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Whitmer (and the sister of David Whitmer). She was fourteen years old when the translation was completed at her parents’ home in Fayette, New York. She married Oliver Cowdery in 1832.
[137] Gold Bible, No.6;’ Reflector, March 19, 1831, 126
[155] Howe, Mormonism Unvailed 14, 77, 100. Based on reports by Doctor Philastus Hurlbut
[158] Howe, Mormonism Unvailed 270-1. Here, Howe reprints a letter, dated February 17, 1834, written by Charles Anthon
[161] W. R. Hine’s Statement, Naked Truths about Mormonism 1 (January 1888) 2
[165] Charles Anthon to Reverend T.W. Coit Apnl 3, 1841, in Clark, Gleanings By the Way, 234-35.
[171] Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton, 1867), 29-49·
[177] “Joe Smith, Something about the Early Life of the Mormon prophet;’ Detroit Post and Tribune, December 3, 1877, 3; cited in Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 2:517, 520. John Gilbert (1802-95) was principal typesetter and proofreader when the Book of Mormon was printed in 1829-30.
Early Mormon Documents 4 by Dan Vogel
[145] William S. Sayre to James T. Cobb, 31 August 1878, Theodore A. Schroeder Papers, Archives, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin.
[355,358] [Frederick G. Mather], “The Early Mormons. Joe Smith Operates at Susquehanna,” Binghamton Republican, 29 July 1880.
[365] Frederick G. Mather, “The Early Days of Mormonism,” Lippincott’s Magazine (Philadelphia) 26 (August 1880): 199-203, 211.
I will leave some observations.
First I think there are various ways to classify these accounts.
A) Do they come from hostile or friendly sources?
It is interesting to me that most of the affirmative accounts come from critics. They seem to be interested in pushing the Spalding theory where Joseph hid manuscripts behind the curtain. The accounts from Emma, David Whitmer, and Elizabeth Cowdery tend to emphasize translation stages that had no curtain as a reaction to that theory. Despite these various motives I tend to believe there is ample evidence for a curtain being used in an early stage or stages of the translation because of how early and pervasive those accounts are.
2) Do they represent an account of an early or late phase of the translation?
Most of the affirmative accounts can be traced to Susquehanna witnesses (especially to Martin Harris) and most of the Fayette witnesses deny the curtain.
Nice work. Here’s another:
“The house of Senior Whitmer was a primitive and poorly designed structure, but it was deemed the most secure for the carrying out the sacred trust on account of the threats that had been made against Smith by his mercenary neighbors. In order to give privacy to the proceeding a blanket, which served as a portiere was stretched across the family living room to shelter the translators from the eyes of any who might call at the house while the work was in progress. This, Mr. Whitmer says, was the only use made of the blanket, and it was not for the purpose of concealing the plates or the translator from the eyes of the amanuensis. In fact, Smith was at no time concealed from his collaborators, and the translation was performed in the presence of not only the persons mentioned, but of the entire Whitmer household and several of Smith’s relatives besides.” (Chicago Tribune, 15 Dec 1885)
Early on Joseph worked directly from the plates and this required that they we secured from public view. Now that Dr. Skousen has affirmed the eye witness accounts of Emma, David and others (Joseph simply read the English), we understand that Joseph could access the plates from a distance just as he was accessing the English from a distance. Thus the curtain at that time was used not to shield the process from friends or scribes.
Keller, I’m a descendent of Nathan Tanner, and have known about the transcription of the interview he had with David Whitmer in May of 1886 (footnote 98). However, to date, I’ve been unable to track down a copy of it. Do you happen to have an electronic copy or transcription of that document? I would love to see it and read it, if possible. I look forward to hearing from you.
Aaron, I will keep an eye out for a fuller transcription and get back with you. What I have posted here is the entire excerpt that Opening the Heavens uses.
BOMC, Excellent thoughts. I did have the source you bring up excerpted above already, but it did not have the informative first sentence you posted. There are many quotes I wish Welch had made more use of.
One puzzle to me is Emma’s accounts about Joseph not being able to pronounce Sarah or thinking he had been deceived about there being walls around Jerusalem.
The incidences she describes must have occurred while Joseph translated the first part of the 116 pages. If Emma was the scribe and not just in the room while it happened then her remarks in OTH-41 (cited above) suggest that Joseph did not have the curtain and the plates were on the table during that session. In her 1870 letter to Emma Pilgrim [OTH 39], she notes a change in revelatory aids from the “Urim and Thummim” to the small dark seer stone after the loss of the 116 pages. However she doesn’t really describe translation conditions for other scribes, other than naming them and mentioning she was in and out of the room through various stages. Emma doesn’t volunteer any information that would suggest that Joseph Smith could conceal any manuscript from her (which the use of a curtain would make possible). I get the sense her interviewers were mostly concerned with rebutting the Spalding Theory.
So it is hard to place when Emma worked as Joseph’s scribe without the curtain. It could be she helped even before Martin had Joseph make a transcript for him to take to Anthon. Reports are mixed on whether Joseph could dictate an english text before then. But I lean towards the idea he could, however he wouldn’t necessarily understand the relationship between characters and the text.
I suggest then that when Emma was a scribe, Joseph trusted her not look at the Nephite Interpreters he had disassembled and placed in a hat, and he could already dictate an english text without the plates opened up in front of him.
When producing copies of characters, I think Joseph needed to have the plates open in front of him. I believe he could see characters via revelation but it too hard to switch from a revelatory mode to a sketching mode. I am no artist but I need to constantly compare what I am drawing to what I am attempting to copy. One of my FAIR colleagues offers the possibility that all curtain accounts come from the single incident of Joseph preparing documents for Martin to present to scholars.
I think that the use of the curtain was more pervasive and was used through most of Joseph’s sessions with Martin as a scribe in the production of the 116 pages. Under this hypothesis, regardless of how Joseph is using the plates behind the curtain, the main reason seems to be that he doesn’t trust Martin Harris to not look at the Nephite Interpreters. This is something that Martin concedes was a temptation in the various accounts above. Joseph trusted Emma more so he did not use a curtain with her.
Of course, there is always the issue of non-scribes being shielded from the translation process. In this I get the sense that translation in Fayette was more open, but then again Harmony witnesses were relatively more hostile and Joseph had more incentive to be less transparent to them (to avoid mockery) and they in turn had incentive to express more skepticism about the existence of the plates and disappointment in not being able to see them.
I think Joseph may have not used the curtain at the end stages of the 116 page translation. There are some indications Joseph Smith switched from using the Nephite interpreters to his white seer stone before getting in trouble with the loss of the plates. The accounts of Martin secretly switching stones would fit best in such a scenario.
Why was Martin Harris allowed to handle/switch the seer stone but not see the Nephite Interpreters?
Moroni’s explicit instructions to Joseph were not to let anyone see the Nephite interpreters. There was no such instructions about the seer stones Joseph obtained and used openly before extracting the gold plates. Martin was afraid he might be tempted to use the powerful spectacles to see something he wasn’t suppose to. Without protection seeing God consumes a mortal person etc. The other seer stones were more limited in how much added seeing power a seer experienced using them, so it apparently wouldn’t be as dangerous to Martin. I also think that the Nephite interpreters would naturally be more monetarily valuable on the black market and hence a target for theft.
ADMIN: Please be aware that we are not interested in cut-and-paste exit narratives or other off topic material. Thanks.
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