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  "path": "/faith/2026/06/05/church-of-jesus-christ-acquires-daguerreotype-some-say-is-the-only-photo-of-joseph-smith/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-05T16:14:44.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.deseret.com",
  "tags": [
    "Joseph Smith",
    "news release",
    "Does an image of Joseph Smith exist? What one descendant found in a forgotten family heirloom",
    "www.jwha.info",
    "reported",
    "Church History Catalog",
    "Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ"
  ],
  "textContent": "No confirmed photograph of Joseph Smith exists, but an unnamed donor has given a locket containing a daguerreotype purported to contain an image of him to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.\n\n“As we have acknowledged since the discovery of the locket in 2020, we cannot draw a conclusion about who is pictured in the daguerreotype,” the church stated in a news release about the donation.\n\nDoes an image of Joseph Smith exist? What one descendant found in a forgotten family heirloom\n\nThe church released the statement in response to media questions.\n\nJoseph Smith was born in 1805 and murdered in 1844.\n\nLouis Daguerre announced his invention of the first publicly available photographic process in 1839.\n\nThe discovery of the locket and the image were announced in a 2022 issue of the John Whitmer Historical Association Journal (www.jwha.info).\n\nThe discovery was made by Daniel Larsen, Joseph Smith’s great-great grandson and a Latter-day Saint, who inherited family heirlooms from his mother, Lois Smith Larsen, prior to her death in 1992.\n\nThe collection included two pocket watches, one with Joseph Smith III’s initials engraved on the front. The second watch featured an image of several buildings along the shore of a lake. Larsen was unable to open the second piece because he said the release mechanism was bent. He set the watch aside and forgot about it.\n\nLarsen picked up the object again in 2020 and managed to open it. Inside he found the image that he came to believe was his great-great-grandfather.\n\nLarsen believes the watch was actually a watch locket, a piece of daguerrean jewelry that looks like a pocket watch when closed.\n\nResearch by Lachlan Mackay, a member of the Community of Christ’s Council of Twelve Apostles, and Ronald Romig found that a Latter-day Saint daguerreotypist named Lucian Foster moved from New York City to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844 and lived in the Smith mansion house for two months before Joseph Smith’s death.\n\nIt is known that Foster made daguerreotypes in the area after that, and Joseph Smith III repeatedly stated that Foster made a daguerreotype of his father, Mackay reported.\n\nThe church’s statement invited people to learn more at the Church History Catalog. A search for “Joseph Smith daguerreotype” returns three results. A search for “Smith, Joseph, 1805-1844 -- Portraits” returns a few more.\n\nThe results generally point readers to articles about speculation that a daguerreotype might exist.\n\nThe catalog includes a 1918 letter to the First Presidency about the rumors of a possible Joseph Smith daguerreotype.\n\n“It would seem possible therefore,” the letter writer stated, “that a daguerreotype picture of the Prophet Joseph Smith may have been made, there being an interval of five years between the introduction of the daguerreotype and the death of the Prophet.”\n\nThe letter writer included a fact sheet about the history of daguerreotypes, which were superseded by other processes in the 1850s.\n\n“In the year 1839 Daguerre made known his beautiful method of obtaining photographic pictures upon metallic plates,” the letter stated, quoting “Miller’s Chemistry.”\n\nThe church regularly obtains historic items by donation.\n\n“This donation,” the church’s news release stated, “adds to an extensive collection of artifacts from that time period that invite people to study and prayerfully ponder the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the extraordinary life and ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith.\"",
  "title": "Church of Jesus Christ acquires daguerreotype some say is the only photo of Joseph Smith"
}