If You Could Spend a Day in the Vault . . .

[_Drifting]

I would like to peruse the revelations, prophecies and translations that have happened since the death of Joseph Smith. They're in there right?

[_Joe Geisner]

Before I comment on this post, I just want to say that I have been really impressed with the level of discourse of the polyandry issue. I have particularly found Just Me's comments to be very insightful. Madison's has been a close second with her insights. I keep saying that we need Laurel Thatcher Ulrich to write a history of Mormon polygamy.

I have lots of thoughts on this vault issue and hope I can share some of what I have learned over the years.

The amount of Mormon records available is over whelming, it is staggering. People could spend multiple lifetimes looking at archive material that is easily available. There is huge gold mines of information that are basically being left untouched. I recently visited four archives and have received large qualities of material from three others. Most of this material I had never even heard of six months ago and found huge amounts of information that has blown my socks off. I say this after 25 years of active research.

Just for example: The Arrington collection at USU is one of the greatest collection on Mormon history. There is 400 or 500 boxes just on Mormon related items. The Mike Marquardt collection is second to Arrington with over 400 boxes of Mormon related materials. There is enough in these two collections to keep a person occupied for a life and they are full of mind blowing information. BYU Special Collections has thousands upon thousands of boxes and they are all full of treasures waiting for the young and old to mine. And finally Mike Quinn's collection at Yale has been way under utilized. His has so much good stuff, we need to send an army to mine this collection.

But the real issue here is not the 1st Prez vault, it is the CHL! They have the highly desired William Clayton journals They have them all, sitting on the desks of the JSPP desks. They have the Book of The Law of the Lord that they will not let any scholar outside their little group have access with. They have polygamy records buried in places that people can't see or find. They have the Nauvoo High Council Minutes that they would not let John Dinger have access. They have the George Q. Cannon journals that talk about bribing politicians, that discuss the Hawaiian Missionaries enthusiasm for the young sweet Hawaiian girls, and that discusses the Bullion Beck Mine that was a slush fund for the 1st Pres. They have the inventory for the Joseph Fielding Smith vault, All of this is in their grip and Rick Turley won't allow access to these documents and records. So these are the real people who have our history and not giving access.

Two stories I have recently heard. One is a person who went in and asked if he could see the papyri. The attendant was shocked and said, "we don't even get to see those." The other is Devery Anderson's recent experience. Read this if you want your blood to boil!

http://signaturebooks.com/2012/08/surre ... documents/

Now, if by chance I am ever given access, I would love to see the Fifty Nauvoo Minute record. I will remember that this is a copy, and maybe a copy of a copy, since the original was destroyed long ago because Clayton buried it when the Smith's were murdered. The other record we be L. John Nuttall's diary while he was John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff's secretary. These are classified as 1st Prez. Minutes and my guess is they contain all the good stuff during this time. Mike Quinn was able to see at least much of these.

Speaking of Mike. He is the most widely read of ANY Mormon historian. There is no one who can match him of reading primary documents. You can disagree with Mike of historical analysis, bu he is the premiere Mormon historian. I am quite excited his response to Brian has gone viral. I am giddy!

As for Roberts, who is the only Mormon Historian who has read as much as Mike, he was not allowed to see all. Joseph Fielding Smith made sure of that. The Book of Commandments and Revelations that was recently published by the JSPP is an example of one such record.

Lastly, most of the stuff on the list that was in a previous comment in this post, I have seen. So whether it is in the vault or not, it does not matter. It is out.

[_Equality]

Wow, Joe, what an awesome post! Thanks so much for this. I was wondering how many of those things listed in the post by infymus are publicly available somewhere. It's good to know most of them are. Do you know how many of the things on the list of what is in the vault are NOT publicly available, even to historians like, say, Bushman or Quinn? Could you and any others in the know maybe give us a list of the 5 or 10 most desirable primary documents in the FP vault or CHL that are NOT currently available for researchers to examine?

[_MCB]

Here is an open vault:

http://www.wiu.edu/libraries/archives/mormonNauvoo.php

I found this:
http://archive.org/details/mormonsinillinoi00west

[_Cicero]

Joe:

I agree with everything you said, although we both know that Turley is not the one making the final decisions about access.

Quinn is amazing. I have learned a great deal of new information just today from reading his response paper. I really hope that he can get volume 3 of Mormon Hierarchy done soon. All of his contributions have been immensely valuable.

[_MCB]

The angle that I am currently taking on my research project could certainly be improved with Mike's expertise. I am doing something that drives me up a wall with boredom, even though I am deriving some useful information from it.

[_kairos]

Just wondering if i could browse the very large cardboard box with "The Hoffman Papers" written on the side with a black magic marker. Someone said the box was next to the Martin Harris papers.

just askin
k

[_Dr. Shades]

You can disagree with Mike of historical analysis, bu[t] he is the premiere Mormon historian. I am quite excited his response to Brian has gone viral. I am giddy!

Do you have a link to this response? If so, will you give it to me?

[_Joe Geisner]

Do you have a link to this response? If so, will you give it to me?

Shades,

I just sent a copy to an gmail address I have for you. If you don't get it, let me know.

Equality,

Thanks for the compliment. As far as I know, only Turley, the secretary to the 1st Prez., and members of the 1st Prez. are the only ones who get pretty much any access to the vault. It seems that even members of the 12 ask the secretary if they can see minutes and stuff. From what I understand, the only person who has the "key" is the secretary, but I hope they have a duplicate with each of the 1st Prez.

As I wrote, my top two are the 50 Minutes and Nuttall diary. (for the specific time periods I indicated) Obviously the Minute Books of the 1st Prez. and 12 would be amazing, but that ain't gonna happen! Really, beyond this is all speculation, and I do not know what exactly is found in the vault. They are not sharing lists!

Cicero,

The reason I chose the items I did is because Rick Turley does control these items. As my very good friend Will Bagley likes to call the CHL: "Rick's Place."

[_sock puppet]

An Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, Orson Pratt

Don't know about that one, but if there was one titled, "Several Remarkable (and Changing) Accounts of a Vision", Joseph Smith, Jr., then I'd want it.