Joseph or not? Display of photo raises interest, doubts

There is no verified photograph known to exist of Joseph Smith, first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, true or not, a special public showing centering on a purported "Joseph Smith photograph" attracted a sizable audience Wednesday.

The open house, in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City, featured large copies of the photograph. It was sponsored by Eborn Publishing of Ogden, not the LDS Church.

The event revolved around the release of a new book, published by Eborn, "Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again: The Joseph Smith Photograph," by S. Michael Tracy.

"I thought it was really interesting," said Alan Jeppesen of Tooele. "I think it's Joseph."

Jeppesen said it was the 32 points of comparison made in a related documentary, which he watched, that convinced him the photograph was of the first LDS prophet.

"I'm not convinced," Mel Allen of Mesa, Ariz., said after his visit to the open house. "It looks very much like him, though."

Others left saying they were inspired by the display, but also undecided. At one point Wednesday afternoon, more than 50 people were browsing the open house.

Bill Slaughter, photo historian in the LDS Family and Church History Department, also attended the open house.

"I think the author has done a nice presentation," he said, disagreeing, however, with the conclusions made, because there are simply too many unknowns.

For example, he said no one knows where the photograph comes from, whether it was taken in the United States, or even if it is of an American. Merging the photo with a death mask of Smith, as Tracy has done, also raises issues of scale and size.

Slaughter said there was one instance in Smith's life where he was definitely within a few blocks of a new photo studio in Philadelphia, but it is unknown if the studio was operational then, or if Smith visited there.

Smith was known to have a keen interest in new inventions, but "was he there in time? ... It's the questions," Slaughter said.

He stressed he has a great deal of respect for Tracy and his work, though.

Daguerreotype photography was just reaching the U.S. in the early 1840s. Smith was killed in 1844.

Joe Bauman, a recently retired Deseret News reporter, has been researching and collecting daguerreotype photography for more than 40 years.

He said the photograph in question is said to have been taken in 1840, but the technology of that process doesn't match that time period.