Before the information age, text and writings were intrinsically attached to the medium upon which they were written or printed. Now, text takes on a much more intangible and ethereal nature, and allows such features as instant transferability, searchability, database indexibility, and duplicability.

This website serves as evidence of the realm of possibilities that come with digital text, in this case, the text of the Book of Mormon. But these possibilities were not always so. The Book of Mormon as we know it was once nothing more than ink on a manuscript, then ink on printed pages. With the ease of copying and pasting that we now enjoy, it is easy to forget the original nature of our scriptural texts.

With that in mind, it is with great pleasure that I present to you five online facsimiles of historical editions of the Book of Mormon, brought to you on the latest technology in online documents, iPaper.

• 1828 Printer’s Manuscript
• 1830 Palmyra Edition
• 1837 Kirtland Edition
• 1840 Nauvoo Edition
• 1920 Salt Lake City Edition

The 1928 Manuscript is Oliver Cowdery’s transcription of the orginal manuscript (which unfortuately has only survived in fragmentary form, and is not available on iPaper,) This was the document used by John Gilbert to type set the original 1830 edition, printed in Palmyra.

You will notice that the 1837 Kirtland edition’s published date is far later that 1837—this copy is a reprinting of the Kirtland edition that was printed in Liverpool England. While some formatting changes exist, it is true to the Kirtland Edition’s text.

The Nauvoo edition was printed in 1840 under Joseph Smith’s careful direction, but the printing plates were lost in the exodus west.

The 1920 editon, published under Heber J. Grant’s presidency, introduced the 2 column format, and served as the Church’s primary edition until 1981, when the current edition was produced under Spencer W. Kimball’s leadership.

I hope you enjoy these facsimiles, they provide rare insight into the founding years of the Church.