Portraits of the Past: Wilford C. Wood

In future weeks, several heroes of historical preservation will be featured. One of those was Wilford C. Wood, who acquired priceless sites and artifacts including a full set of original uncut pages of the Book of Mormon — all 37 signatures.

He used the pages from his uncut sheets to produce a facsimile representation of the first edition of the Book of Mormon. Such an edition was not generally available to the public at that time.

Wood published that edition as part of a two-volume set at the Deseret News Publishing Company. He worked with the company's young Assistant Plant Manager and Sales Manager, Thomas S. Monson.