Writings: Latter-day SaintsThe Characters Document7 of 10

Writings: Latter-day Saints

The Characters Document

The Characters Document is a torn sheet of characters titled Caractors, which the Joseph Smith Papers editors say is in John Whitmer's hand. The Papers, a Latter-day Saint church publication, date it about 1829 to 1831, without firm evidence. Some accounts tie it to Martin Harris's 1828 visit to Charles Anthon, but the editors say Anthon described another document.

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Three dates, kept apart

  1. The text's date: the tradition's view

    December 1827 to February 1828, when Joseph Smith says he copied characters from the plates in Pennsylvania (his account, Joseph Smith-History 1:62 and 1:63, gives the months, and the years are inferred from 1:59, which dates his receiving the plates to September 1827; the Joseph Smith Papers editors write that he made at least one document of copied characters by early 1828; the sources read give no year for the engraving of the characters themselves)

  2. The text's date: critical scholars' view

    December 1827 to February 1828, borrowed from the tradition row's reading of Smith's account for the making of the characters (the critical sources read, Brodie, Anthon, and the Egyptologists asked in 1956, give no dates of their own for making them)

  3. This copy made

    about 1829 to 1831, when the sheet with the title Caractors was made (the Joseph Smith Papers editors, who work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, write that no evidence dates it definitively and that it may be earlier or later; the earliest it could have been made is after John Whitmer met Joseph Smith in June 1829)

  4. This copy found

    1871 to 1888, from the first reports of this sheet or a similar one with the Whitmer family to David Whitmer's death, when he owned it (Kimball in 1970 dates the first report to Edward Stevenson's 1871 visit to David Whitmer; the Joseph Smith Papers editors give 1875, with John Whitmer, on loan from David; a photograph was made by 1886; not a find)

All four rows share one timeline. A row with no marker says why in words. How ancient texts are dated.

What it is

The Characters Document is a torn slip of paper about 8 by 21 centimeters (3 by 8 inches). It carries lines of characters in a script whose identity is disputed, under the title Caractors.1 The Joseph Smith Papers editors say the title is in the hand of John Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon, and the characters probably his.12 Stanley Kimball, a history professor, reported in 1970 that four writers (Webb, Crowley, Jessee, and Riley) thought the word across the top was in Joseph Smith's hand.3 A photograph made by 1886 shows it was once part of a taller sheet, torn or cut afterward.1

Some accounts tie it to the characters that, in Smith's account, he copied from the gold plates. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that these gold plates were the record he translated into the Book of Mormon.4 The sheet he gave Martin Harris, who showed it to the scholar Charles Anthon in 1828, is called the Anthon Transcript.5 The Papers editors write that none of the three characters documents they collect can be verified as a copy of a specific Smith document, and that the three likely are representative of characters Smith copied from the plates. This page reads the first point as leaving the link uncertain.6

How the copy was dated

The editors of the Joseph Smith Papers, the Latter-day Saint church's own scholarly publication, date the sheet to about 1829 to 1831. They write that no evidence exists to date this text definitively, and it is possible the creation date was earlier or later.11 The earliest date is June 1829, when Whitmer first met Smith. They think it likely he made the sheet in New York just before leaving for Ohio. He may also have made it in Missouri in 1831 or on a visit to Ohio in 1835 or 1836.1

The editors describe no test of ink or paper. Kimball wrote in BYU Studies, a journal of Brigham Young University, which the church founded, supports, and guides. In 1970 he said the Reorganized Church, now Community of Christ, held the paper to be old, and he added that no paper or ink tests had yet been run.37 He dates the first report to Edward Stevenson's visit to David Whitmer in 1871, the Papers editors to this or a similar document with John Whitmer in 1875. He adds that a committee of the Reorganized Church saw the sheet in 1884.13 For the methods, see how ancient texts are dated.

The text: its date and authorship

The strip marks the copying of characters from the plates, December 1827 to February 1828. Smith's account gives the months, December and the February following. The years are inferred from his date for receiving the plates, September 1827, and the Papers editors' note that he made a document of copied characters by early 1828. The critical bar borrows that span because the critical sources read give no dates of their own for making the characters.86

The tradition's view

This column carries the Joseph Smith Papers editors, the 1992 Encyclopedia of Mormonism, and scholars who write in the tradition's own journals. The Book of Mormon says its record was written in characters it calls reformed Egyptian (Mormon 9:32).9 David Whitmer held that this sheet was the paper Harris took to scholars in 1828.1 The encyclopedia calls Whitmer's identification uncertain, since Anthon described vertical columns. It adds that even if the sheet is not the original it almost certainly represents characters5 copied from the plates or from the document Harris carried.5

Kimball calls the definite resemblance3 of the sheet's characters to Egyptian ones the strongest argument that supporters of an Egyptian origin can make. He adds that it does not establish that the sheet is authentic.3 John Thompson, who holds a doctorate in Egyptology and writes in Interpreter, a journal that supports the church through scholarship, argues that Harris showed Anthon two sets of characters. He holds that one was in a script like hieratic, the cursive Egyptian script, and that this sheet, though not ruled out as one of them, is more likely a copy made for another purpose.10

Scholars of the characters and the Anthon visit: Anthon, Brodie, and three Egyptologists asked in 1956

This column carries Charles Anthon, the Columbia College professor Harris visited, the historian Fawn Brodie, and three Egyptologists. In his 1834 letter, as the Papers editors quote it, Anthon described a paper of all kinds of crooked characters disposed in columns.66

Brodie, in her biography of Smith, first published in 1945, reports that Anthon judged the matter a hoax or a scheme to cheat the farmer. She writes that Smith took Egyptian from his reading. She adds that the only paper, or portion of it, Harris preserved does not fit Anthon's description, though the pages read do not name this sheet.11

Kimball reports that Egyptologists asked in 1956 answered differently. William Hayes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art thought it could conceivably be an inaccurate copy of an Egyptian account in hieratic. Alan Gardiner of Oxford saw no resemblance to any form of Egyptian writing12; John Wilson of the University of Chicago wrote that it was not Egyptian writing as Egyptologists know it.12

The critical column's words date from 1834 to 1971, and the 1956 replies reach this page through Kimball's 1971 report. The sources read include no critical study of the sheet from the last fifty years, though the tradition's column includes a 2025 article. Thompson and Brodie each argue one thesis in the works cited here.

How it was found

The sheet was not found. This page reads the sources as giving no dated report of it before the 1870s; the editors do not say so. David Whitmer owned it at his death in 1888, and the editors do not know when or from whom he got it. They write that he probably got it from his brother John, who made it, or he may have received it from Oliver Cowdery. Cowdery gave him the printer's manuscript shortly before Cowdery died in 1850.1

It passed to David J. Whitmer and then to George Schweich, David Whitmer's grandson. In 2024 the Latter-day Saint church acquired it from Community of Christ, and the editors write that it is now held at the Church History Library in Salt Lake City.1

What it shows, and what it does not

The sheet shows that a page of characters titled Caractors was in the Whitmer family by 1886 and, in the editors' reading, that John Whitmer, who met Smith in 1829, probably wrote it.1 It also shows that the Egyptologists asked in 1956 did not agree on its script.12

It does not show that this is the sheet Harris took to Anthon. The editors write that Anthon described a different document and that Whitmer met Smith more than a year after Harris's journey.1

Nor does it show what the characters are. Kimball reports attempts to read them as Egyptian and as Maya, including Augustus Le Plongeon's 1892 attempt to translate six characters from Maya. He calls the Egyptian opinions inconclusive and debatable, but writes that the Egyptian case, though less than absolute, is much stronger than any other argument. He concludes that research on the sheet to date has accomplished little more than to define the problems connected with it.12

Sources

  1. Joseph Smith Papers editors (Church Historian's Press). Appendix 2, Document 1: Characters Copied by John Whitmer, circa 1829 to 1831. The Joseph Smith Papers, Church History Department (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), source note and historical introduction. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  2. Joseph Smith Papers editors (Church Historian's Press). Appendix 5: Testimony of Eight Witnesses, Late June 1829. The Joseph Smith Papers, Church History Department (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), source note, historical introduction, and the closing paragraph. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  3. Stanley B. Kimball. The Anthon Transcript: People, Primary Sources, and Problems. BYU Studies 10, no. 3 (Spring 1970), pp. 325 to 352 (Brigham Young University), 1970, pp. 325 to 352 (the saved web text has no page numbers; sections cited by name). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  4. Book of Mormon Translation. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gospel Topics Essays, 2016. Accessed 2026-11-03.
  5. Danel W. Bachman. Anthon Transcript (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, vol. 1, pp. 42 to 44). Macmillan, New York, 1992, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow (a reference work produced at Brigham Young University); read as posted by Scripture Central, 1992, the whole entry. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  6. Joseph Smith Papers editors (Church Historian's Press). Appendix 2: Copies of Book of Mormon Characters, Introduction. The Joseph Smith Papers, Church History Department (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), the introduction. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  7. About BYU (mission statement). Brigham Young University. Accessed 2026-11-04.
  8. Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith-History 1 (Pearl of Great Price), current edition. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, verses 3, 5-20, 27-54, 59, 62-63, 67. Accessed 2026-11-03.
  9. Mormon 9 (Book of Mormon), current edition. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (scriptures, Book of Mormon), verse 32. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  10. John S. Thompson. Looking Again at the Anthon Transcript(s). Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 63 (2025), pp. 353 to 366 (The Interpreter Foundation), 2025, pp. 353 to 366; the conclusions on pp. 365 to 366. Accessed 2026-11-06.
  11. Fawn M. Brodie. No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (chapters 4 and 5, 'A Marvelous Work and a Wonder' and 'Witnesses for God'). Alfred A. Knopf, 1945; the scan read is of a later printing (the 1971 second edition) uploaded to the Internet Archive; the scan's page numbers are cited, 1971, chapter 4, pp. 50 to 52 (Harris, the characters, and Anthon); chapter 5, pp. 76 to 79 (the witnesses). Accessed 2026-11-06.
  12. Stanley B. Kimball. The Anthon Transcript: Egyptian, Mesoamerican, or Phoenician? (Newsletter and Proceedings of the S.E.H.A., no. 126, August 1971, item 126.0). Society for Early Historic Archaeology, Brigham Young University; archived by permission of the Ancient America Foundation at Book of Mormon Central. A paper read at the Society's symposium on 10 October 1970., 1971, item 126.0, first three printed pages (the section 'Egyptian scripts'). Accessed 2026-11-06.