Joseph Smith's Picture emerges

[Kishkumen]

8 wasn't enough.

Nor was 30!

[Fence Sitter]

Emma and all the granddaughters treasuring and wearing this locket picture suggest it is Joseph.

Hard to imagine that the locket was treasured because it contained a photo of Joseph while at the same time none of the locket owners ever said they had a photo of him in over 180 years. If they knew they had a photo of him, that kind of information would have been talked about by someone. I am skeptical this is a photo of Joseph Smith.

[Symmachus]

He looks like a young Richard Bushman.

[Moksha]

Emma and all the granddaughters treasuring and wearing this locket picture suggest it is Joseph.

Hard to imagine that the locket was treasured because it contained a photo of Joseph while at the same time none of the locket owners ever said they had a photo of him in over 180 years. If they knew they had a photo of him, that kind of information would have been talked about by someone. I am skeptical this is a photo of Joseph Smith.

There are photos of the women wearing this locket.

[Fence Sitter]

There are photos of the women wearing this locket.

I do not doubt the provenance of the locket. What i am doubting is the provenance of the photo inside. If it was known to the owners as being of Joseph Smith, that is the kind of thing that is hard to keep secret (why would they?) for 180 years. My guess is that the photo was of someone else, and his identity was lost because it wasn't that important. Since they are descendants of Smith perhaps we are looking at a son or grandson of Hyrum Smith, which would explain the resemblance, or somewhere along the line someone just stuck a photo in there of an unknown person.

[Moksha]

Since they are descendants of Smith perhaps we are looking at a son or grandson of Hyrum Smith, ...

I think the descendants of Hyrum Smith went with the Brighamite Church. Not sure how much Joseph's descendants stayed in touch. Maybe at the summer family reunions, but certainly not at Monday Family Home Evenings.

Too bad some little-known detail was not visible, such as the number 666 tattooed on his left buttcheek.

[Kishkumen]

This imaginative painting of Smith is actually the closest to the daguerreotype I have seen. The other images, including the two artistic renderings and the death mask, that come from the period of his life and immediately thereafter look much less like the daguerreotype than this late painting.

[Moksha]

Bill Reel and RFM put their forensic skills to the test for this photo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWA8KNlJxo