The Mormon Historic Sites Foundation will honor two LDS historians tonight for their devotion to documenting the early history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The foundation's annual Junius F. Wells Award will go to Karl Ricks Anderson and his brother, Richard Lloyd Anderson.

Karl Anderson has become known as "Mr. Kirtland" for his exploration of the history behind Kirtland, Ohio, where early Latter-day Saints built their first temple. The LDS Church paired with the foundation to reconstruct a semblance of the early town a few years ago, and Karl Anderson's efforts, including articles and books about the significance of Kirtland, were instrumental in those efforts.

Richard Anderson is a specialist on the lives of church founder Joseph Smith and the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. He holds doctorates in both law and history and has taught New Testament and church history during four decades at Brigham Young University. He is currently compiling the papers of Oliver Cowdery, Smith's scribe in translation of the Book of Mormon.

The awards will highlight the foundation's annual banquet at the BYU Conference Center.