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SALT LAKE CITY — Liberty Jail, a place where Joseph Smith and other early leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were held for about four months, has been destroyed but pieces of it remain, including a door that is part of a new exhibit at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City.
The door, along with paintings and documents in the exhibit, which opened on Monday, is one of the historical artifacts recently purchased by the church from the Community of Christ along with the Kirtland Temple and multiple other buildings.
Riley Lorimer, director of the Church History Museum, said the door — which weighs between 200 and 300 pounds — some window bars and foundation stones are the only pieces left of the jail, which was demolished in 1904.
She said the new exhibit was able to open quickly within a few weeks of the purchase because the Community of Christ took such good care of the items. Lorimer said it was "a bit of a production" to transport the door — a conservator packed it safely before it was placed on a wooden board with handles and carried by multiple people and driven across the country.
The door was recovered when Joseph Smith III and other members of what was then the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visited the jail which had been closed and brought the door back to Independence, Missouri.
Lorimer shared a quote from Mercy Fielding Thompson, the sister-in-law of Hyrum Smith, who said the creaking of the door's hinges will stay in her memory.
She expressed a hope that those who come see the exhibit will gain an appreciation for the Community of Christ for its stewardship of the historical items and feel a power that comes from being with the physical object.
"I hope people are excited to ... be in the same space as these objects that are a witness of God's work," she said.
Portraits of Joseph and Emma Smith
Laura Paulsen Howe, art history curator for the Church History Museum, said they are "thrilled" to care for and share two paintings, one of Joseph Smith and the other of his wife Emma Smith.
She said the paintings are designed to go together. She said the couple's struggles, leading a church, losing children and raising a family together, is an important story to tell. Between the two paintings the exhibit holds a collection of letters the couple wrote to each other while they were separated.
"For us to have the chance to be able to share the story of that relationship is wonderful," Howe said.
She said the art is a historical record, but more importantly it is "marking a sacred history" of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"We have wonderful things on display that are landmark, that make that history real. We can understand that history is made up of real people doing their best as God restores his kingdom on the earth," she said.
She said the paintings are two of very few paintings done while Joseph and Emma Smith were alive, and were referenced to create many of the other paintings of Joseph and Emma Smith.
Howe said the paintings have been in Independence Missouri, but have been reproduced and seen in other places. The paintings hung in Emma Smith's home throughout her life.
A historical record
Spencer McBride, associate managing historian of the Joseph Smith Papers, echoed Howe and Lorimer Monday in thanking the Community of Christ for preserving the artifacts so well.
The documents on display in the exhibit include one showing characters transcribed from the gold plates, a copy of a Bible Joseph Smith put notations in while working on the Joseph Smith Translation, a handwritten version of the Joseph Smith Translation and a history of the church written by John Whitmer before he was excommunicated in 1837.
McBride said Joseph Smith asked Whitmer to return the history, but Whitmer insisted on keeping it. Now The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints finally has that historical record, one of the first attempts at writing the history of the church. He said the history has a lot of documents copied into it that were only recorded there.
Although members of the church have not previously been able to view these documents at the museum in Salt Lake City, they are all part of The Joseph Smith Papers, which are accessible online, McBride said. However, he said there is something special about seeing the physical items.
"There's ... something really exciting about proximity to the artifacts, to the documents. To be able to pick them up, to be able to turn the pages, to be able to be able to imagine the early Latter-day Saints who made these documents and to learn from their experience," he said.
McBride said when such documents are handled, it is done very carefully with the best archival practices. Digital images are used when researching almost all of the time.
Lorimer said Latter-day Saints care about history and keeping records, which include not just documents but items. She said these are a record of God's dealings with his people.
"We're hugely grateful to our sisters and brothers in the Community of Christ for their long-standing, excellent stewardship of these remnants of our shared history," she said.
The exhibit will be in the Church History Museum until Oct. 26. Lorimer said the documents will go to the Church History Library's archive after the exhibit closes, and the portraits and jail door will be assessed for future conservation needs before they go to the museum's archives or back to historic sites.
