If you're new here, you may want to sign up for email alerts or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for reading!
Considering all the commotion over the supposed daguerreotype photo of Joseph Smith that has been going around like wildfire (which the Church has not authenticated), I thought I might post this new proposed photo of Joseph Smith. This one actually looks much more how I would imagine the prophet than the first one, considering the death mask. Historian Will Bagley apparently notes that Joseph made mention of a photograph he had taken in 1844 (does anyone have the original reference to Joseph’s statement, if it exists?). We’ll see what this turns up.
The story of how the finder acquired this image is interesting, mentioning how the Brazilian book he found it in only said that it came out of New York in 1845. When was the last time Joseph was in New York? Why would it be in New York? He also includes higher resolution scans of a photocopy that he has of the original (which is currently lost). Correction: the photocopy is from a book. The original daguerreotype is in the Museu Paulista - Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil).
An article in the New Era a few years ago gives a description of Joseph from a combination of all the accounts:
Joseph was:
- a little over six feet tall;
- considered good looking and dignified;
- athletic and strong with long legs and large feet.
He had:
- an oval-shaped face;
- a prominent nose, long and straight;
- a rather long upper lip;
- a light complexion;
- deep-set hazel or blue eyes;
- thick eyebrows;
- long eyelashes;
- fine, straight, light brown or dark blond hair.
If this isn’t a photo of Joseph, it does helps us imagine him more closely.
[via A Soft Answer]
Update 3/27/08: Incidentally, this daguerreotype reminds me a lot of the actor who played Joseph Smith in the film Legacy: A Mormon Journey.
Update 3/27/08: Also consider this drawing of Joseph Smith by Theodore Gorka in 1982, which is now in the Museum of Church History and Art. I’m particularly interested in the way the forehead and chin are receding, and the prominence of the nose, like the death mask (which is probably where Gorka got his inspiration). The upper lip is also very defined. Most of the early images of Joseph were side profile sketches, but which clearly show just how strong his nose was on his face. See more below:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Update 3/27/08: Correction. The finder at LDSA says that the author of the book Retratos Quase Inocentes, a Mr. Carlos Eugenio M. de Moura, acknowledges that this “daguerrotype in question is, in fact, at the Museu Paulista - Universidade de São Paulo.” We’ll see if he can track down a color hi-res of this. Maybe someone should just order the book off the Brazilian website.
6 Comments
I think the esteem-ed Bagley is in error about Joseph recording that he had a photo taken. I’m pretty sure there is no record of that.
Perhaps Bagley was referring to Joseph’s son, Joseph Smith III, who claimed he had a daguerreotype made in Nauvoo.
A reader asked,
Thanks for your questions. There is nothing as of yet that confirms that this might be a photo of Joseph Smith. Nothing in the book says that it is (it only says it is of an anonymous person). There is no marking on the photo (that we know of), that mentions who it might be. The only evidence that suggests that it might be Joseph is:
* Joseph Smith, or his son Joseph Smith III, may have mentioned that a daguerreotype photo was taken of Joseph near the end of his life. Such a daguerreotype has never been found.
* The daguerreotype is said to have come out of New York in 1845, and went to Brazil, which is shortly after the death of Joseph, and which could explain why it has been lost.
* The last thing is, considering what the death mask and artwork that has depicted Joseph, this daguerreotype looks very much how we might imagine Joseph looking like, with all the features of his description mentioned above.
It is a stretch, but I’m willing to give it the possibility. The evidence is very slim, right now, but I’m keeping my hopes up. We are taught to “doubt not, but be believing” (Mormon 9:27).
You might want to check out the following thread, particularly comments 44-54, to see that this photo does not hold any credence.
http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/press-release-the-much-rumored-joseph-smith-daguerreotype/#comment-4258
Point well taken. I think that there’s a very slim possibility that it is Joseph, given the evidence. What interested me the most about this daguerreotype was how closely it resembles the artwork and other extant depictions of Joseph, not that it might actually be him, but especially in light of the “other” daguerreotype that’s been floating around, which looks nothing like him at all. If it is not Joseph, then this man resembled him closely.
Here’s some more information (with references):
There are daguerreotypes extant, but they are most likely copies of an RLDS oil painting, and not of the prophet from life.
Hatch’s analysis of the existing daguerreotypes of Joseph Smith concludes that all of them are copies of the RLDS oil painting. So, if there was a daguerreotype made directly of the prophet in life, which we don’t have direct evidence for but would have been possible given the availability of the technology at the time, it hasn’t been found yet.