1831–1844 (documented through 1879)

Joseph Smith's Plural Marriage

Polygamy, polyandry, and the women sealed to the founding prophet

20 sources, ordered by evidentiary weight — primary and contemporary first, then documentary editions, then the argument. 16 of them are held as full text in the Mormon Corpus; the other 4 are reached only as quotations inside works that are held, and are marked.

1835

Article on Marriage, Doctrine and Covenants (1835 first edition), section 101

Oliver Cowdery (attributed)

Primary source Primary Text held in the CorpusThe 1835 Doctrine and Covenants is held as a separate text alongside the 1833 Book of Commandments.

That the church's own canon declared for monogamy from 1835 until the statement was replaced in 1876.

1838

Letter, Oliver Cowdery to Warren A. Cowdery, 21 January 1838 (Cowdery Letterbook)

Oliver Cowdery

Primary source Primary Not held — reached at second handNot held as a document. Reproduced verbatim in Brodie, in Utah Lighthouse Ministry volumes, on Hales's site and in Journal of Mormon History articles.

The only contemporary Kirtland accusation naming Joseph Smith and Fanny Alger.

1841

Times and Seasons, volumes 3–5 (1841–1845)

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Primary source Primary Text held in the CorpusComplete runs held in the early Latter-day Saint periodicals collection, editorials, letters and certificates included.

The public denials printed while the practice was under way, including the 1 October 1842 reprint of the Article on Marriage with signed certificates.

1842

Revelation to Newel K. Whitney, 27 July 1842 (sealing of Sarah Ann Whitney)

Joseph Smith Jr.

Primary source Primary Not held — reached at second handReproduced in full in a B. H. Roberts Foundation record and in a Utah Lighthouse Ministry appendix; published in Joseph Smith Papers Documents vol. 10, which searches did not surface as a transcript.

The only known revelation giving the words of a plural-marriage ceremony, dictated for a seventeen-year-old bride's father to speak.

1843

Revelation, 12 July 1843 [Doctrine and Covenants 132]

Joseph Smith Jr.

Primary source Primary Text held in the CorpusDoctrine and Covenants 132 in the corpus's verse-addressable standard works; the Joseph Smith Papers editorial introduction to the document was also retrieved.

The text of the plural-marriage revelation, including its terms for virgins, its threat to Emma Smith, and its date of recording.

1844

Nauvoo Expositor, 7 June 1844 (the single issue)

William Law, Wilson Law, Charles Ivins, Francis M. Higbee, Chauncey L. Higbee, Robert D. Foster, Charles A. Foster

Primary source Primary Text held in the CorpusHeld in full as a scanned issue in the early periodicals collection; the OCR is rough and should be checked before close quotation.

The public exposure of the plural-marriage revelation by dissenters, including affidavits from Austin Cowles and William and Jane Law.

1861

Letter, W. W. Phelps to Brigham Young, 12 August 1861, reporting a revelation of 17 July 1831

William W. Phelps

Primary source Primary Not held — reached at second handText reproduced in full in a B. H. Roberts Foundation record and in FAIR and Utah Lighthouse Ministry works; the manuscript itself is not held.

The claimed 1831 origin of plural marriage, tied to a command to marry Lamanite and Nephite women.

1869

Affidavits on celestial marriage collected by Joseph F. Smith, 1869–1870

Joseph Bates Noble, Zina D. H. Young, Sarah Ann Whitney Kimball, Lorenzo Snow and others

Primary source Primary Not held — reached at second handIndividual affidavit texts reproduced verbatim in B. H. Roberts Foundation records, on Hales's site and in Journal of Mormon History articles; the affidavit books themselves are not held.

Sworn dates, officiators and witnesses for many of the Nauvoo sealings, collected twenty-five years after the fact to answer RLDS denials.

1879

Last Testimony of Sister Emma, Saints' Herald, 1 October 1879

Joseph Smith III (interviewer); Emma Smith Bidamon

Primary source Primary Text held in the CorpusReproduced in Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, vol. 1 (held in full as a documentary edition).

Emma Smith's final recorded denial that her husband ever had another wife, and the RLDS position built on it.

2006

Nauvoo Sealings, Adoptions, and Anointings: A Comprehensive Register of Persons Receiving LDS Temple Ordinances, 1841–1846

Lisle G. Brown

Primary source Documentary edition Text held in the CorpusHeld in full, 432 pages.

Who was sealed to whom in Nauvoo and in what capacity, including the January 1846 proxy sealings of women to Joseph Smith for eternity and to other men for time.

2014

Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Nauvoo (Gospel Topics essay)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Official LDS Official Text held in the CorpusHeld in full among the eleven Gospel Topics essays.

The institution's current public account, including its acknowledgement of Helen Mar Kimball's age and of sealings to already-married women.

2018

Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, Volume 1, The Standard of Truth

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Official LDS Official Text held in the CorpusAll four volumes held in full text, chapter by chapter with their footnotes.

How the church narrates plural marriage to its own membership today, in chapters 37, 40, 41 and 43.

1985

Mormon Polyandry in Nauvoo, Dialogue 18:3

Richard S. Van Wagoner

Nuanced Scholarly Text held in the CorpusDialogue is held effectively complete as scanned issues; Van Wagoner's book Mormon Polygamy: A History is not held.

The case-by-case account of the sealings to women with living husbands that framed the modern polyandry debate.

1994

Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith

Linda King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery

Neutral academic Scholarly Text held in the CorpusUniversity of Illinois Press edition, held in full.

The standard scholarly reconstruction of what Emma knew and when, and the first check to run on any claim about her.

1996

A Trajectory of Plurality: An Overview of Joseph Smith's Thirty-three Plural Wives, Dialogue 29:2; and Fanny Alger, Journal of Mormon History 22:1

Todd M. Compton

Nuanced Scholarly Text held in the CorpusBoth journal issues held in full. Compton's book In Sacred Loneliness is NOT held by the corpus, though it is cited throughout it.

The conservative list of thirty-three wives that most later scholarship, including Bushman's, works from, and the fullest treatment of Fanny Alger available in the corpus.

2005

Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling

Richard Lyman Bushman

Nuanced Scholarly Text held in the CorpusHeld in full.

The standard believing-scholarly account, including its estimate of twenty-eight to thirty-three wives and its dynastic reading of Joseph's motives.

2025

Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet

John G. Turner

Neutral academic Scholarly Text held in the CorpusYale University Press, held in full.

The most recent non-confessional biographical narrative of the Kirtland and Nauvoo sealings and the Bennett and Rigdon scandals.

2013

josephsmithspolygamy.org

Brian C. Hales

Faithful / apologetic Apologetic Text held in the Corpus158 works held, including biographical pages for individual wives and a large set of reproduced primary documents.

The fullest faithful-apologetic case, in particular the argument that sealings to legally married women were eternity-only and non-sexual.

1945

No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith

Fawn M. Brodie

Critical / secular Critical Text held in the CorpusKnopf edition, held in full, including Appendix C on the plural wives.

The first systematic critical list of the wives, and the reading of plural marriage as libertinism given theological cover.

2023

Charisma under Pressure

Dan Vogel

Critical / secular Critical Text held in the CorpusSignature Books, held in full (advance reading copy pagination).

The current naturalistic reconstruction of the Fanny Alger episode and of Joseph Smith's management of scandal.

What this topic needs that the corpus does not hold

Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (1997) is NOT held by this corpus, though it is cited on nearly every page of every camp's treatment. Its absence matters more here than on any other topic, because it is the standard biographical treatment of the women themselves. Compton's Dialogue and Journal of Mormon History articles from 1996 and 1999 ARE held and cover much of the same ground in summary.
Richard S. Van Wagoner's Mormon Polygamy: A History and D. Michael Quinn's Origins of Power are not held, so two of the standard critical tallies of wives are reachable only through others' quotation of them. Van Wagoner's 1985 Dialogue article on polyandry is held.
The William Clayton Nauvoo journals, the single most important contemporaneous source for 1842–44, are held only as UNVERIFIED TRANSCRIPTS: searchable, but explicitly not citable, with verification by the Church History Library expected in 2027. Every Clayton quotation here therefore comes through a published secondary work that reproduces it.
The manuscript originals of the load-bearing documents — the Cowdery letterbook, the Phelps 1861 letter, the Joseph F. Smith affidavit books, the Temple Lot depositions — are not held. All of them are reachable only as reproductions inside works with a stance, which means every quotation should be checked against the repository before it is relied on.

People who also appear elsewhere

Joseph Smith Jr.Oliver Cowdery William Law Eliza R. Snow

Joseph Smith's Plural Marriage

What this topic needs that the corpus does not hold

Related topics

People who also appear elsewhere