Joseph Smith Papyri

The Joseph Smith Papyri (JSP) are eleven Egyptian papyrus fragments which were once owned by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. Joseph Smith purportedly translated a portion of these papyri into the Book of Abraham.

After Smith's death, they passed through several hands and were erroneously presumed by Smith's followers to have reached a museum in Chicago and been destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. The fragments were eventually acquired in 1947 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met). In 1966, Dr. Aziz S. Atiya of the University of Utah noticed that these fragments were clearly part of Smith's collection of papyri. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) acquired the fragments in 1967.

The papyrus fragments are parts of some papyri and eleven mummies which were discovered in Thebes by Antonio Lebolo between 1818 and 1822. At that time Lebolo was working as superintendent of archaeological digs for Bernardino Drovetti. Sometime between 1822 and his death on February 19, 1830, Lebolo arranged to have them sold. The mummies were shipped to New York, where they were purchased by Michael Chandler in 1833. Over the next two years Chandler toured the eastern United States, displaying and selling some of the mummies.

In July 1835, Chandler brought four mummies and associated papyri to Kirtland, Ohio, then headquarters of the church. Although the Rosetta Stone had been discovered in 1799, the ability to read Egyptian was not well developed until the 1850s. Chandler asked Joseph Smith to look at the scrolls and give some insight into what was written on them, due to Smith's notoriety and claim to have translated the Book of Mormon from golden plates.

Shortly after examining the scrolls Joseph Smith, Joseph Coe and Simeon Andrews purchased the four mummies and at least five papyrus documents for $2400.

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