Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision

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Primary sources: First Vision accounts

Joseph Smith, Jr.—First Vision accounts

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Primary sources

Summary: Original text of Joseph's accounts of the First Vision

• • 1832 account—
    Brief Summary: This is the earliest known account of the First Vision written by Joseph Smith. Source: Joseph Smith Letterbook 1, pp. 1-6. Published in: Dean Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. (Click here for full article)
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  • 1835 account—
    Brief Summary: This account was written by Joseph Smith in his diary. Joseph described his vision to Robert Matthias, also known as "Joshua the Jewish minister". Joseph Smith Diary (1835–1836), original in Joseph Smith Collection, LDS Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah. Published in: Dean Jessee, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. (Click here for full article)
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  • 1835 (Erastus Holmes account)—
    Brief Summary: Erastus Holmes account Deseret News 2.15 (May 29, 1852); also in Millennial Star 15. 27 (July 2, 1853): 424; Jessee, The Papers of Joseph Smith, 2: 79-80; cf. Dan Vogel (editor), Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1996–2003), 5 vols, 1:207.; DHC 2. 312. (Click here for full article)
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  • 1840 (Orson Pratt account) (Click here for full article)
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  • 1842 (Joseph Smith History of the Church)—
    Brief Summary: "Joseph Smith’s History of the Church," Times and Seasons 3. 10 (15 Mar. 1842): 726-28 (Click here for full article)
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  • 1842 (Wentworth letter account)—
    Brief Summary: Wentworth letter. (Times and Seasons, 3.9 (1 Mar. 1842), p. 706-710 (Click here for full article)
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  • 1842 (Orson Hyde account) (Click here for full article)
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  • 1843 (The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette)—
    Brief Summary: “The Prairies, Nauvoo, Joe Smith, the Temple, the Mormons, etc.,” editor, David Nye White, The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette 58 (September 15, 1843): 3 (Click here for full article)
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  • 1843 (Levi Richards account)—
    Brief Summary: Levi Richards’s diary about Joseph Smith preaching in the summer of 1843 and repeating the Lord’s first message to him that no church was His (see Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of Joseph Smith, 2nd Edition, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1996), 215. (Click here for full article)
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  • 1844 (Daniel Rupp account)—
    Brief Summary: : “Latter Day Saints, by Joseph Smith, Nauvoo, Illinois,” in I. Daniel Rupp, HE PASA EKKLESIA: An Original History of the Religious Denominations at Present Existing in the United States (Philadelphia: J. Y. Humphreys, 1844), pp. 404; The account for Rupp was published in the original history of the Church published in “History of Joseph Smith,” Millennial Star 22. 7 (February 18, 1860): 102-3; also in Dean Jesse, Papers of Joseph Smith, 1:448. (Click here for full article)
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  • 1844 (Alexander Neibaur account)—
    Brief Summary: Alexander Neibaur Journal, 24 May 1844 (Click here for full article)
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  • 1893 (Charles L. Walker account)—
    Brief Summary: As told by John Alger (Click here for full article)
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