Joseph Smith III submitted a photographic picture of his father's daguerreotype to the Library of Congress in 1879. This picture is available. We can only assume that Emma and Joseph new what Joseph looked like. For some reason the LDS Church does not want to associate this picture with Joseph Smith. Why?

Yeah, I wonder why? I want to know too, because the picture looks just like Joseph Smith nose and all. The paintings of JS are not realistic like the photo.

I don't care what JS looks like. I just care that he was a true prophet of God.

It is my hope that someone, who might know the answer to my question, would respond to serious inquiry!

The answer to your question is that there are questions that some photos (images) are authentic. The church has to rely on authenticity (regardless of what some may believe). If there is any doubt about what is authentic or not, the church can't publish it as such for obvious reasons.

The JS papers are coming out in about 30 volumes over the next few years, so all of you antis who don't find what you're looking for in the first volume (his diary from 1832-1839) will just have to wait until the appropriate volumes come out. From what I hear there will be at least one volume that tries to document the hundreds of court cases that he was involved in during his life.

"Really": For starters, have you read Richard Bushman's book "Rough Stone Rolling"??? Probably not, I'm guessing. I doubt you'd want to read some truth and then have to eat crow. Bushman dealt with most of the sensitive issues you claim you know so much about.

Regarding photos of Joseph Smith, photography was just becoming readily available on the American frontier during the early 1840s. If Joseph had a daguerreotype made, it would have been a one-of-a-kind photo. In the 1840s you didn't run down to the studio and order ten dozen prints to pass out willy nilly to every person you knew. A daguerreotype was a unique and expensive photo--no negative involved; each pose was a unique photo on a highly polished silver-coated metal plate. Most people of that era had only one or two photos taken during their entire lifetime.

So far the LDS Church has not accepted the claims of the Community of Christ that they have a daguerreotype of JS. The documented and traceable provenance of that photo (where has it been and in whose hands for the past 160+ years?) is problematical, at best. We may never find a verifiable photo of him. That's apparently why the editors of the JS book chose an image that best matched the contemporary verbal descriptions of people who knew him best. Read the article, folks. Bottom line is accuracy, not image.

Re;BG, thanks for your response. I can only assume that the LDS Church has it's reasons for questioning the authenticity of the photograph. The original daguerreotype photograph was made by Julian Foster at Nauvoo, Illinois, in July of 1843. In July of 1879 Joseph Smith III was awarded copyright #9810, for a photograph of his father, Joseph Smith Jr. As part of the registration processs, Joseph Smith III submitted a 8" X 10" albumin copy of a 2' X 3" daguerreotype original of his father, Joseph Smith Jr.. The details of the copyright were not clarified until 1993, when an amateur researcher discovered the copyright in the public records of the Library of Congress. It's still on file in the Library of Congress.

BG (and others):

What looks to be a photograph of JS (Library of Congress image) is thought by many scholars to be a daguerreotype of an oil painting portrait. Therefore, even though it looks like a photo, it is possibly only a photograph taken of a very life-like painting. That's why all the confusion exists. The original oil painting is owned by the Community of Christ and came to them through the Smith family, from what I understand. I personally have a hard time thinking if there was a daguerreotype in existence (again, a one-of-a-kind image) that Emma or other family members would have cavalierly given it away as a souvenir.

Charlie 184, many experts believe the Oil Painting owned by the Community of Christ was painted from the 1843 daguerreotype. Smithsonian experts in old photography, aided by computer enhancement and other experts, are convinced that the JSIII Library of Congress picture has too much detail, to be a picture of a painting - they believe it is an original photograph, as Joseph Smith III stated. It was important to Emma and Joseph III to provide an actual picture of Joseph Smith Jr., for future generations.

The fact that Joseph Smith III had the daguerreotype or access to it, lends credence to the Community of Christ's claim to have the original daguerreotype. It's quite fascinating - I've enjoyed the interaction. Maybe the Community of Christ will one day decide to display the original daguerreotype? Time will tell!

Wow, I really hit a nerve with that one...... ;)