5 years ago today - Feb 25, 2008

[Joseph Smith Papers project] The LDS Church announces establishment of The Church Historian's Press, which, as its first publishing project, will publish the Joseph Smith Papers. KUTV reports:

Church officials shopped the project to several university presses, including Oxford, Yale and the University of Virginia, but in the end decided to take charge of their own history, [LDS Church Historian Marlin] Jensen said.

The Mormon church already has ties to two other publishing imprints. The church-owned Brigham Young University Press and Deseret Book, a printing and retail outlet. Both publish work from Latter-day Saint historians and writers, but neither seemed like the right fit, Jensen said.

"They have established a reputation for certain types of publishing and though it's good, I think it's more diverse, probably, eclectic than we would want," he said. "We'll be much more limited and selective in what we do."

The project's website, josephsmithpapers.net, also debuts.

A page on the website states: "The Church Historian's Press will begin publishing the first volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers in 2008. Two to three volumes will be printed each year until the project's completion." Editorial methods are described here. A page on the volumes themselves states:

When completed, The Joseph Smith Papers will consist of more than thirty volumes in six series: Journals, Documents, Revelations and Translations, History, Legal and Business, and Administrative. Three volumes of Joseph Smith's journals cover the years 1832 through 1844. The Documents Series, in eleven volumes, spans 1828 to 1844. Four volumes-manuscript revelation books, other early revelation manuscripts including key Joseph Smith translation manuscripts, the Book of Mormon printer's manuscript, and published Joseph Smith-era scripture-make up the Revelations and Translations Series. Seven volumes of history encompass the period 1805 to 1844. The Legal and Business Series has three volumes that include records of cases occurring in New York/Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. Administrative records will publish minute books and letterbooks.

FAQs are available here. Bios for the project members are available here.

News articles:

"Historian Press will document LDS Church past" (Deseret News)

[Source: Joseph Smith Papers Timeline: History of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, MormonWasp Blog (defunct)]