Revelations of Joseph Smith - First Vision Accounts

8 reported in first person by or from the Prophet himself:

1. Joseph Smith History Account (1832)
six-page autobiographical narrative, earliest known account, only known account in Joseph’s handwriting

2 and 3. Joseph Smith Journal Account (November 9, 1835) and History (1834-1836)
account from Joseph dictated to Warren Parrish about a visit from Robert Matthias, a religious eccentric who claimed to be a Jewish minister

4 and 5. Joseph Smith Journal Account (November 14, 1835) and History 1834-1836)
account from Joseph dictated to Warren Parrish relating his vision to Erastus Holmes, from Newberry, Clermont County, Ohio

6. Joseph Smith History Account (1838)
Joseph dictated a history of the church to James Mulholland. Later published in History of the Church, and later canonized as scripture in the Pearl of Great Price.

7. Joseph Smith Account For Barstow History (1842)
Editor of the Chicago Democrat, John Wentworth, asked for an account of the rise, persecution, and faith of Church for George Barstow, who was writing a history of New Hampshire. Was published in the Nauvoo paper, Time and Seasons.

8. Joseph Smith Account for Rupp History (1843)
Israel Rupp, a Pennsylvania historian, requested a chapter about the Mormons from Joseph Smith to publish in a work containing the history and doctrine of religious organizations in the United States. Essentially the same account as the one sent to John Wentworth.

5 contemporary reports by others who heard him relate his experience and recorded what he said in the third person:

1. Orson Pratt Report (1840)
While serving a mission in Edinburgh, Scotland, Pratt published a pamphlet titled “A[n] Interesting Account of Several Remarkable Visions, and of the Late Discovery of Ancient American Records”

2. 1842 Orson Hyde Report (1842)
Orson Hyde wrote a treatise on the faith, doctrine and history of the Church while in London. Later translated it into German, titled “Ein Ruf aus der Wuste.” The first time an account of the First Vision was published in a foreign language.

3. Levi Richards Report (1843)
Levi Richards, brother of Willard Richards, Thompsonian physician. Attended lecture given by Joseph Smith and George J. Adams to the Saints, and reported the lecture.

4. David Nye White Report (1843)
Senior editor of the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, visited with Joseph Smith and published an article which included a First Vision account in the Gazette.

5. Alexander Neibaur Report (1844)
A Latter-day Saint convert from Germany, recorded in his diary what the Prophet had said when Neibaur visited in Joseph’s home.

(Dean C. Jesse, “The Earliest Documented Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision”, Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844, ed. John W. Welch with Erick B. Carlson (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Brigham Young University Press, 2005), 1-33.

Subsequent Recollections of First Vision Accounts:

1. Joseph Curtis recollection of an 1835 sermon by Joseph Smith in Pontiac, Michigan.

2. The First Vision as related by John Taylor on December 7, 1879 at Salt Lake City, Utah.

3. An account related by Charles Walker, as told to him by John Alger.

4. A Prophecy given by the Prophet to those that believe; as related by the Prophet in 1834 and recorded by Edward Stevenson in 1893.

5. A Prophecy given by the Prophet unto those that believe; as related by Edward Stevenson on July 15, 1894.

(Fred C. Collier, Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Salt Lake City: Collier’s Publishing Co., 1993) 2:39-44; and Dean C. Jesse,” The Earliest Documented Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision”, Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844, ed. John W. Welch with Erick B. Carlson (Salt Lake City and Provo, UT: Deseret Book and Brigham Young University Press, 2005), 1-33).