Is photo Joseph Smith? New book says yes

About 10 years of research went into writing the book, "Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again," said its author, S. Michael Tracy, even though many who have heard about his findings have been quick to write them off.

A photographic image at the center of his research — purported to be the only known photograph of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith — was the subject of much furor a few weeks ago when a widely circulated anonymous e-mail claimed LDS Church headquarters had verified it as being an authentic image of the prophet Joseph Smith. The e-mail prompted the church to issue an official statement that it had not confirmed that the image was of Joseph Smith, and that the e-mail’s claims were false.

"Unfortunately there's been a lot of misinformation," Tracy said of the e-mail and the conclusions people drew from it.

For a variety of reasons, members and academics alike were skeptical of the e-mail's claims, and that skepticism has turned into cynicism regarding his book that was released this week, Tracy said.

"The unfortunate thing is that because so many people do what I call 'the flyby’, they're already (expressing the) opinion that it can't be (Joseph Smith)," Tracy said. "Because for one thing, it doesn't look like the Joseph that we're used to seeing. But that doesn’t mean that it's not him.

"I don’t mean to say this derogatively, but there is what I call the 'informed ignorant' that (is) really actively talking about this," he said of people on both sides of the issue who may study church history extensively, but have made assumptions about Tracy's research without even reading his findings.

Tracy, a computer technologist and part-time historical researcher, compared the death mask of Joseph Smith and photos of his skull taken in 1928 to the image in question. The image is a copy of a daguerreotype — an image produced by a process invented in 1839 involving a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plate — that depicts a youthful looking man sitting with his hands folded.

Based on the death mask and skull photos, he constructed a 3-D map of the prophet’s face, and met with more than 25 researchers who each brought their own expertise to the project. Tracy says that the experts he worked with were not the typical LDS academic researchers, so their findings are unique in that they aren’t biased.