National Museum of American History Displays Mormon Artifacts from Church Early History

By Moroni Channel News
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

The National Museum of American History are displaying artifacts from the early history of the LDS Church in America. Visitors will be able to see an original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, a pair of Mormon Gold Coins, another pair of Kirtland Safety Society notes and an 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon.

”We would like visitors to come away with the understanding of three factors of early American life — religious diversity, religious freedom and religious growth,” said museum curator Peter Manseau. “To stand in the presence of the physical objects transports you to sharing space with those who had lived with them in early American history.”

Metcalf told the Mormon Newsroom that only 28 percent of the manuscript exists because it was stored in less than ideal conditions in the cornerstone of the Nauvoo House in Illinois for more than 40 years.

“In my opinion, the original manuscript is the most important record in possession of the Church,” said Brandon Metcalf, archivist at the Church History Department. “This is the first time we’ve ever loaned a page of the original manuscript because it is so rare. Many of the pages that did survive are illegible, and so it’s one of our most treasured collections.”