Category: Latter-day Saint History

John Taylor received at least nine recorded revelations as president, ranging from administrative instructions regarding Brigham Young’s estate to doctrinal declarations on plural marriage. Occasionally called “John the Revelator,” Taylor favored a first-person style of dictation that echoed the “Thus saith the Lord” language of Joseph Smith. While his 1882 and 1883 revelations formally called new apostles, other documents—like the disputed 1886 revelation on plural marriage—remain the subject of debates. In this article, Chad Nielsen explores the documentary history and debunked visions associated with the Church’s third president.

Joseph White Musser was the intellectual architect of Mormon Fundamentalism, who sought to preserve 19th-century traditions, such as plural marriage, as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints moved toward modernization. Following his 1921 excommunication, Musser became a prolific pamphleteer, meticulously compiling early teachings on the Adam-God doctrine and the 1886 Revelation to argue that priesthood authority remained with those who kept the “fundamentals.” His writings provided the theological glue for a displaced people, demonstrating that religious identity is often most sharply defined in conflict with the mainstream. In this interview, historian Cristina Rosetti explores Musser’s enduring influence on the fundamentalist movement.

William Marks was a close associate of Joseph Smith whose legacy has been largely overlooked. His story sheds light on some of the most pivotal and contested moments of the early Latter-day Saint movement. For example, he was the Nauvoo Stake President during the turbulent years leading up to Joseph Smith’s death, played a crucial role in the Church’s succession crisis, resisted the introduction of plural marriage, and eventually aligned with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This interview with Cheryl Bruno explores the fascinating biography of William Marks.

The Spencer W. Kimball journals offer a rare, daily look into the life of a prophet who presided over a transformative era of global Church growth. Far from being strictly formal records, these diaries function as personal scrapbooks where handwritten accounts of the 1978 priesthood revelation sit alongside pressed flowers, travel brochures, and newspaper clippings from remote mission tours. They reveal a man who meticulously documented his own health struggles and human frustrations with the same care he gave to high-level administrative decisions. In this interview, Church History Library archivists Jeffrey Anderson and Brandon Metcalf discuss the unique “everyman” quality of these newly released records.