Vlogging my Journey
Over the course of a handful of years, I have researched, bought a photograph I believe is of Joseph Smith. Studying Church History, traveling to meet with Academics and Professionals has only led me to further believe that this is of Joseph Smith. I hid all my videos on youtube, to prevent anyone from seeing them out of order for many reasons, for a time- so I started this page to showcase my journey in a logical manner. Since then, most videos have come back up, and a scientific paper was published, Jan. 2023, in the Anthropological Review, saying my little Carte de Visite matches the death mask of Joseph Smith very well, to the point two scientists have declared it probably is him (100% is not possible, as a death mask solely being used, to verify a photograph of someone with no other verified photograph, has not been done yet).
CDV, Copied from a Daguerreotype, Forensics Say is Likely to Depict The Prophet Joseph Smith
December 9th, 2023
Follow up video explaining the evidence of J.S. Bibbin's father, Elisha Bibbins, and the Hale family being good old friends.
December 1, 2023
For six plus years I've theorized the Photographic Artist J.S. Bibbin's Father, Elisha Bibbins was the Methodist circuit ride who taught the Hale Family in Harmony, Pennsylvania in 1812 and beyond, but this day it was theory no long, but fact. Emma Smith knew J.S. Bibbin's Father, and he in fact knew her family and the whole town in Harmony Pennsylvania, thanks to a very detailed book by his friend.
September 26, 2023
Historical accounts verify that David Rogers painting the Forward Facing painting of Joseph Smith in 1842 and according to David Hyrum Smith, and Joseph Smith III Hyrum too had a forward facing painting hanging in their parlor in the early 1870s, that BY and others were very upset about... I theorize could be the image seen on a CDV of a painting of Hyrum Smith.
August 26, 2023
Sky lights did not start popping up across the USA until the late 1840, so bad lighting was somewhat of a given. If you compare J.S. Bibbin's studio work to Nauvoo Era daguerreotypes (likely by Lucian Rose Foster), you see a huge difference. With sky lights and reflectors what I would call "good lighting" was possible, smooth even lighting is commonly found in Bibbins work, but not in the image he copied from a daguerreotype (that I believe is Joseph Smith) and harsh side lighting, short draped backgrounds are found in Wilford and Phoebe Woodruff's earliest daguerreotypes (who per journal entries are known to have had their daguerreotypes taken by Lucian Foster Summer of 1844), and Emma Smith's earliest known daguerreotype too has side lighting, and a short draped background. All of this proves my CDV was an original work of J.S. Bibbins but a copy of someone else's earlier work, prior to Sky lights.
July 14, 2023
Amazing things were found when I traced Sutcliffe Maudsley's artwork of Joseph Smith (from life).
July 9, 2023
In this video I trace what lines up with the man in my CDV to Joseph Smith's Oil Portrait by David Rogers. The results were so neat, to see the high cheek bones, missing in the Larsen Locket, line up so well, the hairline is perfect on the right side of his face, the chin lines up, the mouth, even the amount of poofiness of the hair.
July 5, 2023
For the first time I edited my photograph for a test, to see how 1840s Illinois Man's hairline would fair when taking light distortion into account, which tends to blow things up- or make them larger (like his collar, the right side of his collar appears thicker than the left) the results were astounding, as the hairline I then noticed was uneven, as seen on the death mask, something I hadn't really taken into account prior.
June 16, 2023
This day, I discovered historians already proved Emma Smith FOR SURE went to Plano, Kendall County, Illinois in the 1860s (mere miles from where my CDV had been printed, in the 1860s)!!
June 15, 2023
Analyzing Joseph Smith's hairline, because the face matches too well, people have to keep harping on something so stupid as "that".
June 13, 2023
3D model of Joseph Smith's pedestal Death mask shows that Joseph Smith had no hair on the left side of his head.
June 10, 2023
Unique Identifier found on Likely Photo of JS and the Skull Dr. Herrod, Van de Graff, Norcross...
June 6, 2023
June of 2023 was the beginning of an bullying from some unkind individuals. I tried my hardest to be nice and respond with why I did... NOT agree with them and help educate others in camera distortion and how that affects or debunks the use of Photo-Anthropometry. Novices have learned to use this debunked technique, but not being professionals they are not aware of the latest information, and although this is also not my profession of choice, those who I worked with- it is and I've learned a lot from them and from other kinds souls working in Forensic Anthropology- Specializing in identifying People in Faces, like Maciej Henneberg.
May 21, 2023
I made the discovery that Joseph Slocum Bibbins lived in "Little Rock" Township sometime before he died. I knew his headstone stated he died in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, but to see evidence that he was of that exact county Joseph Smith III lived in (when my CDV of Joseph Smith Jr. was made).
May 5, 2023
Ancestry's website is where I've found most of the Bibbin's family history, from Family genealogy books, to Census Records, I've come to really enjoy their website. In this video I show the historical evidences found there, show the similarities between Joseph Smith's vest and the vest the man in my CDV is wearing.
April 13, 2023
This slideshow presentation was explaining the side of provenance, as I knew it thus far. Since there a lot has miraculously been discovered. I go through the family history of the Bibbin's of Newark Family, explain authentication process I went through in 2020 and what historical evidence supports this 1860s Carte de Visite as being the Prophet Joseph Smith.
April 2, 2023
I compare 1840s Newark, Ill. man to the sons of Joseph Smith, David and Joseph III, both had super retreating foreheads. 16 year old David’s forehead clearly was high as a baby and as a young 16 yo, it even matches the hairline seen in my CDV. Updates to my website’s page “Artistic Facial Analysis”, https://www.theprophetsscars.com/facialcomparison
February 19th, 2023
February 15th, 2023
Joseph’s Retreating Forehead/Receding Hairline
February 9th, 2023
Lately I have been opening up about my traumatic last few months and why I chose to share some of my private spiritual experiences online. A lot has been going on, unrelated to this photograph or its research. I have been called a liar, had my words twisted, private spiritual experiences thrown to the wind, it's sucked. Somehow, I know something good can still come from owning my little photograph of a Prophet. Also, note- I was being sarcastic about the story of the Elisha and the children mocking his "bald head"- that was 2 Kings 2:23-24, and I am not being literal, I do NOT literally think that the Archivist who made fun of the hairline of the man in CDV, that I know is Joseph Smith, will be torn by bears...
​
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/2-kgs/2?lang=eng https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-december-1841-december-1842/82#XB7538EB9-FC09-4743-8FA3-B2226C784F11
​
Free study on the photograph of Joseph Smith, TOTALLY FREE: https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/ar/article/view/15192/15471
February 5th, 2023
The scientific Paper on the photograph of Joseph Smith is FREE btw, many places to download from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366838319_A_morphological_comparison_between_a_death_mask_of_the_American_Prophet_Joseph_Smith_and_a_photograph_likely_to_depict_him https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/ar/issue/view/126
January 30, 2023
My camera cut off twice, thus the flow is off in my video below (actually always does since 2019, after 10 minutes, if that person who wants ME to buy a microphone will buy me a video camera and microphone (not using a camera made for videos)- that would sooo awesome... but I have my doubts they will do it )). I had some transitions to soften the change in flow, those also got messed up, but been ill and tired, by accident- the sound was off (had a voice over, so not my best work). Sorry... not my best editing folks!
Please do NOT be offended by my views, I felt good about posting it! Teghan Lucas being interviewed on “Be Smart”: https://youtu.be/4AQm22YQfYU
John Hammer interview: https://youtu.be/s5aUTj-VvRM Ignore my facial expression listening to the above interview, the right side of my face doesn’t move well, I wasn’t mad, maybe irritated remembering everything going on last summer.
I've had spiritual experiences, that I hold sacred, if we share them too much, we stop having them. THAT SAID, I believe Elder Eyring answers the oft brought up question, "Why can't the Prophet just tell us which photograph is right?" In 2018, I contacted, on twitter, Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints about my newly bought possible photograph of Joseph Smith, Elder Eyring's (which I was sure would get deleted as all their socials have disclaimers, any comments with links will be deleted, but I tried...). I believe Elder Eyring saw it, and felt he was responding in this talk (talking about how many don't recognize Prophets, let alone Jesus- when they are resurrected... so... they can look different, an injured man won't be so injured no more): https://youtu.be/6Gpi2muuc84
​
January 24th, 2023
This video, I look at the March 30, 2009 blog, by Jared T: SOMEONE was convinced that the Family Album my 1860s Carte de Visite, of a man from the 1840s (copied from a daguerreotype or tin), found in a "Smith ID" photo album, from the "Joseph Smith Trail", by a man with ties to the Community of Christ, who only saw a strong resemblance to the sons of Joseph Smith and loved the idea of seeing the Urim and Thummin, he did NOT grow up with 4 years of release time Seminary, or four MORE years at a Church School, I did and STILL struggled with knowing who's who in Church History! This blog is where my CDV "came from" (where I found it), and I analyze it with a fine tooth comb. At the end, I read the comments on this blog, and wonder: What if Ardis Parshall bought it, and gave it as a souvenir to Jared T? What would it's fate have been? Would he have been careful with it? If I had not bought it myself, would it have been victim to paint, as most of the images left in the ebay seller's store were? I felt it in my bones, summer of 2017, it was going to be chucked, damaged in some way and I PERSONALLY believe God answers prayers. I believe people were praying for a real photo of Joseph Smith, I also believe the "new" painting of Scannell kiddo, Fall of 2017 (this all started Spring 2017), that made it's way into Deseret Book (official Church Bookstore) had A LOT to do with it, but I was just someone who listened.
January 14th, 2023
https://www.theprophetsscars.com/life-drawings-of-joseph-smith
https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/ar/article/view/15192
​
In this video I study the life sketches and paintings of Joseph Smith and find incredible similarities.
January 11th, 2023
Slideshow Presentation on the Plausible Photograph of Joseph Smith, with introductions to the team of individuals, scientists and artist who wrote, "A morphological comparison between a death mask of the American Prophet Joseph Smith and a photograph likely to depict him". Maciej Henneberg and Teghan Lucas, of Australia have persevered with me, first- through the horrific fires in Australia, that devastated their country, COVID, Lockdowns, trial after trial, since March 2019, they said they would never gave up and they didn't, and miraculously, we are finally published in the Anthropological Review: https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/ar/article/view/15192 This is the first analysis of a death mask to a photograph, by Forensic Scientists. Teghan Lucas interview with "It's ok to be Smart", 2011 scientific journal publication, "Investigation into the use of photoanthropometry in facial image comparison": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379073811003082#!
January 7, 2023
I talk about the highlights, give my opinions, insights into our paper that I am a LUCKY GIRL to get have contributed to: https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/ar/article/view/15192 Read my own paper of sorts, here: https://www.theprophetsscars.com/ Learn some more about Dr. Teghan Lucas: https://www.insideedition.com/anthropologist-debunks-theory-that-early-20th-century-girl-is-greta-thunberg-57434 Learn some more about Dr. Maciej Henneberg (rather famous for his studies into the alleged hobbit bones): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3198815-the-hobbit-trap
January 5th, 2023
https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/ar/article/view/15192
Click the Link above to finally read out Publication!!
​
Four years ago, I contacted Teghan Lucas, after watching her in "It's Okay to Be Smart" about Doppelgängers, and she responded to my email and for years we discussed everything related to pictures/paintings of Joseph Smith. I skyped with her and Maciej Henneberg March of 2019, where they told me their quick, but exciting analysis of my image to the death mask and promised to the write a paper, and we did!! Four years of study under our belts. I had barely owned ONE year, back then, now I know so much. I am super grateful. I am grateful for their kindness and great effort to ask pertinent questions, published now, in the “ANTHROPOLOGICAL REVIEW”, Titled, “A morphological comparison between a death mask of the American Prophet Joseph Smith and a photograph likely to depict him”, read here: Further research can be found at: https://www.theprophetsscars.com/ #forensicscientists #photographofjosephsmith #daguerreotypeofjosephsmith #mormon
December 2, 2022
Joseph Smith III and Joseph Slocum Bibbins both lived in the same County, Kendall County from 1866-1881 (the man who I think is the son of the man in my CDV and the man who created my 1860s CDV from an older Daguerreotype- ending up in a "Smith Family Album"). Kendall County includes both- the cities of Plano and Newark:
When researching the Provenance of J.S. Bibbins (photographic artist that took my CDV) who was from the cities of Newark, Kendall County, Illinois and Joseph Smith III (J.S. III) who lived in Plano, Kendall County Illinois (from 1866-1881), census records often showed the name of their "township" they were from- instead of the towns or counties, example Joseph Slocum Bibbins from the 1860 census is recorded as an "artist"- tax records specify "artist" and "Photographer", but no where is named on the record "Newark" but "Big Grove"- which was a township- that included "Newark"- link here.
Joseph Smith III writes about moving to Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, but the Joseph Smith Paper's notes him "moving" to "Little Rock", giving the reference as the 1870 U.S. Census records, however further research again proves that there was a TOWNSHIP of Little Rock, that INCLUDED Plano, and although the 1880 census states "Plano" as where J.S. III lived (the JS Papers says that he "moved back" there), very likely he never left, but the Census record used the Little Rock Township name, which included Plano.
November 22nd, 2022
Video analyzing the Library of Congress photo and copies of the David Roger's painting: https://youtu.be/RurzlL4mYfY Video: The Case of the Wedding Ring, why William B. McCarl was not right (not his fault, if he had access to the Saint's Herald August 1879- he would have known, Junius F. Wells DID Know what he was talking about (man who met Emma in 1875, spoke with her about the forward facing painting and boldly claimed it was by David Rogers), the advert in the Saint's Herald (RLDS newspaper, that JS III was the editor of and was making money from this advert), only supports the claim of it being one- from life and done by David Rogers (done when his Father was 36, Joseph Smith was 36 in 1842, died when he was 38.5, why would a painting done when he was alive NOT be from life- especially when the artist spent FOUR DAY working on it, with Joseph Smith present...? enough time to do a profile and a forward facing painting as well) : https://youtu.be/TBM1YOm6XGc Comparing the latest daguerreotype, found in a locket, to Joseph Smith III's second wife, Bertha Madison (that the owner of the locket is descended from- she is his great... grandmother), how much alike they appear, their facial expressions, hair (curly), eyebrows (thin and dropping- agree with this artist on that).https://youtu.be/tnxrA_7mEsM
October 15th, 2022
https://youtu.be/s5aUTj-VvRM (minute 11:11) John Hammer’s ancestor, in the 1880s (when Carter’s photos of the 1842 painting came out), complained how the forward facing painting did not show Joseph’s “retreating forehead”, his forehead is farther back, receding hairline is likely the term, just not used back then. I already covered this, back in January 2020, will link that video at the end (basically, no, it's not super accurate, major differences with the death mask). When comparing to artwork done 6 months prior to the making of this September 1842 painting, hairline was corrected (whereas Maudsley showed him with a receding hairline in June 1842), and hair was made to look more full, than it really was, a common criticism of Joseph's popular forward facing painting, noting a "retreating forehead"- not depicted in this exact painting...
October 13, 2022
Superimposition Video overlay my CDV onto the 1842 painting, by David Rogers, which may or may not have been altered later on, but done from life, is considered authentic by the son of Joseph Smith, JS III, and done when Joseph Smith Junior was 36 years old (he died in 1844, at the age of 38). I have talked extensively about how different the painting is, compared to the death mask, and artwork prior and after this was completed (namely the hair-line).
October 2, 2022
Changes to my website are detailed in this latest video, where I explain, with references, the most notable violent injuries Joseph Smith sustained, prior to death, to cause the injuries seen and noted by many forensic studies, by Doctors.
September 27, 2022
Reading the 1984 ENSIGN article, by Buddy Youngreen, I found an item that had not caught my attention before, a watch fob, owned by Joseph Smith. I researched these fobs, and looked at my picture AGAIN, and began to wonder if a blurry, but now possibly very uniformly rectangular darker shape, on the vest's lapel, in my CDV, could match the shape of this fob. I analyze it with superimposition, and find their are very similar, then I size it to his nose, it's slightly smaller, and size wise: average male nose is 2.2 inches long, Joseph's nose was longer/larger than average, and the fob's length is 2 inches, which is plausible to be that artifact is when superimposed it IS smaller than my man's nose, but not too much. I found many unique ways people wore their fobs, and one so decorative, Joseph could decide to show it off on his lapel (watches often were put into pockets, and the chain would hang off the other end with a "fob", many turned into charms, some were small, this one at 2 inches was not so small, many were pinned down).
September 22, 2022
This is basically part two, of my facial analysis. The eyebrows are analyzed, but with a better contrasting color, and I finish my story about being hacked.
September 21, 2022
I do a superimposition technique, I learned from... me, where I sketch the features of a man, in this case the man in my Newark, Illinois CDV, and take each and every individual feature and place it onto the death mask of Joseph Smith, and... I talk about how I got hacked, on facebook, and try to tell the story (clearly I can't do two things at once, if one requires concentration). I complain about doing a bad color on the eyebrows, thus, there was a second half. Basically, moral of the story, check your settings, do two factor authentication, see what IP addresses have logged into your page, and whatnot- might scare you- did me... it was many places, different coasts, within the same day... it wasn't me and someone posted as me and was getting me in trouble, HUGE disgusting mess. I rarely stay on facebook for long, gives me anxiety anyway, so my page about my photograph is gone, probably was the intent of the hacker.
September 10, 2022
In this video, I am 100% speaking as an artist. Analyzing faces is not my profession, but drawing them has been my training for decades. I wasn't going to even add ANY of my videos about the Locket Larsen image, but felt that I should. This video is IMPORTANT, as finding so many saying the locket image looked like Ben Stiller, I had compared the two, and found a great likeness (not joking, the furrow in the brow, exact same place... and only over their left brow), except- Ben's nose is BIGGER than the man in the locket photograph. I talk about how I can tell it's bigger (shadows show where the bridge of the nose begins), I compare Ben to profiles of Joseph and clearly- Joseph's nose is even BIGGER than Ben Stiller's, so the nose is enough to conclude the locket image has some major differences from the death mask. It's all about shading, which artists are experts at, not ALL, but most. Some professional artists are simply not that good, and sorry if I've offended anyone, brain differences, emotions, can effect how we see things and what we produce. One artist, who WAS very skilled, seemed to create versions of Joseph Smith, that looked him, his family (he was a descendant of Hyrum), but.. the nose he always gave Joseph looked MORE like Hyrum's, tip of the nose was ALWAYS lower, not like Joseph's... emotional connection effected his work.
August 28, 2022
Not too many, maybe TWO individuals have contacted me about my image and tried to contend it can't be "him" because he's not "fat enough", continually referring to William Law calling Joseph "portly". I tackle this point. I do believe Joseph Smith lost a lot of muscle, being detained in Liberty Jail (Winter 1838-Spring 1839), and coming to Commerce- Nauvoo, people would have tried to "save the prophet", MANY would have fed this frail TALL man, stories of Joseph being brought- ironically, "pork"- or pig, ham from friends and neighbors was common, it was the meat he did eat, likely he would have had a lowered metabolism, for a while and in turn- gained more fat, than muscle- at first. In 1842, when he was painted by Rogers and Maudsley, he was house bound, hiding, NOT wrestling, as he normally did, contributing to weight gain. However... Lucian Foster was NOT in Nauvoo in 1842, he was there in 1844, after becoming mayor, trying to be the leader of the Church, helping to carry stone for the Nauvoo temple, wrestling (one teen said he would get up from the "dinner table" and wrestle anyone who wanted to- so... being active was more important than eating), oh and in his journal, will note this on my website later, he was often stomach ill, unable to eat the amount of food Emma brought him..., one famous politician called him, NOT fat, but "athletic". Who of us did not gain weight when we were injured, or sick, but generally love working out and TWO YEARS later, have gotten back into "normal life", it happened to ME this past year, on new medications that lowered my BP and made me MORE lethargic (but helping my anxiety), being on meds I SHOULD have been on in the first place, and overcoming fear of working out, with a diagnosis of a hEDS, physical therapy session after session, I am BACK to working out, not how I used to, but I am not scared to and am not so lethargic... I do NOT believe Joseph COULD be sedentary, unless he was un hiding the entire summer of 1842 (which... he WAS). STOP judging how Joseph Smith looked in 1842, to possible 1844 photograph. People CHANGE.
August 25, 2022
Since first analyzing a CDV that matches the death mask of Joseph Smith, so well that I have spent loads of cash, some I don't even have, traveling and doing research in order to uncover any stone- relevant to this case. The first few months of owning this image, and analyzing my own scanned version, I was intrigued by every little detail, and somehow one high dpi scanned version, when I upped the contrast, and lowered the highlights, I could see some wording, that may say "cesar"; why is that interesting? Well, as perfect timing would have it, I was reading the end of Lucy Mack Smith's dictated book, "History of Joseph Smith, by His Mother", Chapter 53, she writes,
"..in the winter of 1843 and 1844, which was as follows. Joseph, in organizing the city police, remarked that, "were it not for enemies within the city, there would be no danger from foes without," adding, "If it were not for a Brutus, I might live as long as Caesar would have lived."
Smith, Lucy Mack. History of Joseph Smith by His Mother - LDS/Mormon . Packard Technologies. Kindle Edition.
​
Back in 2017, when I first read this chapter, Caesar was misspelled as Cesar, in another edition of the book, and the same misspelling appeared to be on my photograph... alas, it was not super clear and yes, I had doubts of what it said (thus, a friend tried to get me in touch with someone in SLC, who had access to some high tech machinery which was excellent in finding pencil markings, alas- the gatekeeper was... (you can watch the video to find out).
August 21, 2022
I found out that the same men who just brought up the Locket photograph (they bolding claim is for sure, the Prophet Joseph Smith), brought us the Scannell Daguerreotype (not so bolding concluding it was "him", but still quite convinced (frankly, the Scannell kid matches better than the locket photo- and it TOO doesn't really match the death mask enough OR age). I talk about many related topics and things.
August 20, 2022
I felt inspired to remind the Public that my work, all of it, on my website and vlogs, have been timestamped, I have made numerous videos anytime I have updated my website, with my OLD website (www.plausiblephotographofjosephsmithjunior.com- which is now gone), and this past summer has made me really grateful that I did that!! This summer has made me see the worst in people, but grateful for the Spirit of God who inspires me to do little things, that may not make sense, and when I ignore it... I regret it... and I am left knowing the Spirit speaks TRUTH.
August 12, 2022
One individual complained about the music in my videos (likely the handful that are superimpositions), so I changed the music in a few of them, hopefully they are more pleasant to watch. One in particular was the one with the sons of Joseph Smith, it is fun to see how well the boy's eyebrows, face shape and even ears match. David Hyrum has his Dad's "retreating forehead" or today would be called a "high forehead".
August 9, 2022
I purchased my CDV back in 2017, from a somewhat known ebay seller, in the "Utah Community" (he is not from Utah, but people in Utah knew of him and wrote about him, mostly unkind, Jared T and Ardis Parshall calling him "Crank" and a "fool"). With 8 plus years of an internet footprint, this man, "G" first sold many pictures from the Smith Family Album, my image was from, in 2009; one person in California was so convinced he bought $500 worth of images, which Jared T, from the Juvenile Instructor mocked, but by 2017- when I found the seller, and when I heard of this crappy situation on the internet blog, only my image and two other images remained, "G" just wanted money, even if it meant selling the whole album, one image at a time (common practice, I have been finding). There was ONE image of a lady with pencil writing below, saying "Mrs. Smith", my memory is it was printed in Missouri and she was heavier set, lighter eyes... kicking myself, cause who else was a little heavier? Bertha Madison Smith. Although Bertha died in Iowa, plans to move to Missouri and visiting there (Alex moved there before Emma died), maybe one of their wives (JS III had three, all blue eyed), I guess this made me want to find this one image, floating around somewhere... I had asked "G" if he had high resolution copies of images, even though the originals are gone, and his old computer had them and does not work anymore. My hope is to either get enough attention that the man- or woman (or whatever title this human chooses to identify as), will want to contact me and at least share high resolution copies of those images from this Smith Family Album... If not, once we get published, I am confident this person WILL be aware, see my website, see this the SAME guy he bought him images from, and we can talk... I have a friendly little form you can contact me on, please... please... contact me if you bought images from Gregory, store was called "magic0circle", and another store was called "master of art 777", I would love to analyze the images that were bought in 2009, from the Smith "ID" (meaning for example the image had written "Mrs. Smith"- and wouldn't you think it he was faking, he would have written in pencil, below my image, "Joseph Smith"- but he did not, it was many OTHER images that had the last name "Smith" and clearly was a "Smith Family"- living in Kendall County, in the 1860s, and the sons of Joseph and Emma Smith would have carried on the "Smith name" and LIVED IN KENDALL COUNTY IN THE 1860s!!!
August 5, 2022
Having been convinced the gentleman in the Larsen locket daguerreotype could be Bertha Madison's Dad (both Mackay and Larsen are descended through Bertha Madison), as the locket photo shows a guy who looks incredibly similar to Bertha, much more than to Joseph Smith III, which is kinda odd. Alas, a super low quality version did appear (after begging family members to share it, with me if even privately to send to forensic scientists that are truly qualified), with very little details to analyze. One thing I did notice right off and may not have mentioned in the vlog below, is that Mads Madison looks taller than the man in the locket image, and was over 6 feet tall, and has higher cheekbones (the actual Mads Madison could probably rate a higher percentage of SIMILARITY to descriptions of Joseph Smith, AND the death mask, than the locket image). Similarities to the locket image, and Mads, left nostril is higher up, right side of their mouth (our left) droops heavily, both have have much more hair than is seen on the death mask of Joseph, or in artwork by Sutcliffe Maudsley (whose work was much more raw and not complimentary of Joseph). I wonder if there are images around of Bertha Madison's brothers?
Aug 4, 2022
I show a new page on my website about the artwork of Joseph Smith (from life). I find so many similarities from the hairline, to the eyebrows, eye shape, eyelashes, nose, mouth, and chin- that look like the artwork of Joseph Smith and I theorize my guy too, could be wearing a pocket watch, or something round and really, really shiny.
August 3, 2022
The background in my CDV compared to Lucian Foster's work is compared, and I share my opinions on some details alleged about the locket photograph.
August 3, 2022
In this video I share most of my story, from beginning to five years of research later. I am quite upset and passionate about finding out that Curtis Weber was asked to analyze the alleged locket photograph of Joseph Smith, having little to no training, and as far as I am concerned- NO legitimate training in identifying people in Photos. I emphasize how we should read the reports done in 1995, and the study of Joseph's facial features by the team Michael Tracy formed (which included two men from ZYGOTE media and two Doctors Dr. Niles Herrod and Dr. Van de Graff (who wrote BOOKS on anatomy).
August 1, 2022
Six doctors disagreed with Curtis Weber, but when he disagreed with them, they became one (Joseph Lyons). Nope, Curtis hides the fact these six doctors were more qualified individuals than him, by clumping them under Shannon Michale Tracy (who is not a doctor, he just was the producer of sorts). I read parts of their reports, explain how this came to be, that I would spend almost FIVE YEARS not knowing or being made aware, no thanks to Google, which also would make most believe only Joseph Lyons was a doctor who forensically analyzed the skulls; although it's found online that Michale Tracy studied the skulls, unless you google his first ever book- will you find the names of an anatomist Dr. Van de Graff and maxillofacial surgeon- Niles Herrod, let alone MANY other doctors since that 1995 study, "In Search of Joseph".
July 30, 2022
Video from April 2020 was getting lots of views, July-August 2022, and having not watched it in a while I remembered something- hiding it a month or less- after, as I found too many typos. The original was done while I possibly had COVID, it was going around Orange County at the time, before hitting the rest of the United States, and had spread really fast, and getting help was impossible (for various ridiculous reasons- not going into), so no official diagnosis, I could hardly breathe for a month or two, used my inhalers more than ever, but was ill as I made the first version. I did my best, being ill, but it was pretty bad- so when I realized how bad the typos were- took it down. Well, two years later I had hidden videos and brought them back so many times, not always remembering why I hid them... I later realized my video had been viewed from BYU Provo's message board, so THANK YOU for the support! I guess I don't care about being popular, as I took it down (unlisted it) and created this updated 2022 version, hopefully you all like it better... I tend to get anxious and ramble, yet, I keep on keeping on and feel that vlogging my studies is important, somehow. I added in some more updated finds (from fall 2021), cleaned up typos and grammar a bit and although this won't be viewed as much as the original (as the OP was apparently taken down), I know interest might surge and I want to be ready for another wave of interest in the Face of Joseph Smith.
July 23, 2022
I analyze the alleged daguerreotype of Lucy Mack Smith, and compare her to life portraits by two artists Sutcliffe Maudsley and Frederick Piercy .
The latter, Piercy, painting Lucy within a couple years of her death, facing forward. The only similarities seen, in my opinion, are their sunken eyes, differences are that in 1842- Lucy had white hair, seen through her shawl, and biggest difference I will say, in short is their nose. Joseph's nose had great similarities to Lucy's, per profiles, in that the tip of the nose was higher, we can see her nostrils from the front view sketch, whereas this alleged image as a dramatically different nose, tip of the nose is so low her nostrils are practically hidden, which is not seen in any of the artwork mentioned above. This round daguerreotype was used as comparison to the style of the locket daguerreotype, alleged by Mackay and Romig- to be of Joseph Smith Junior.
​
July 22, 2022
Lachlan Mackay and Daniel Larsen are descendants of Joseph Smith III, eldest son of Joseph Smith Jr., and J.S. III 2nd wife Bertha Madison. Bertha is seen wearing a locket, or watch, something round and shiny? Joseph Smith loved giving away and well, buying many gold watches, which he gave to all of his plural wives, Eliza R. Snow wore her's until the end of her life, and Emma of course had one as well (which her granddaughter Emma J. admired and wore, never mentioning a locket of Joseph Smith, as the news articles claimed). Having not read their article yet, basing my opinions on what I had read in news articles, I was struck by the similarities between the Daniel Larsen's alleged image of Joseph Smith, as declared as definitely such by his nephew- Lachlan Mackay, who got a 90% SIMILARITY (speaking months later, having read the report and watched their presentations), by an FBI Sketch ARTIST (who clearly saw 10% difference between Joseph Smith and the locket), the fact that it was found by a descendant of Joseph Smith, is wearing a popped UP collar... must be him! I saw greater likeness between this locket image to Bertha, could it be her father? In this video, I think so, but NOT because I could find a single photograph of her Father online to compare to, but because she shared similar traits, especially the shape of their Anti Helix, nose size and shape, chins and mouths are incredibly similar, the eyes are a similar shape and size, eyebrows light in color and THIN (Joseph Smith per artwork and word of mouth had "straight" and "thick" even described as "bushy" eyebrows or a "bettle brow")- this man has none, their hair is thick and CURLY, but... in the 1910 letter from Joseph Smith III, states that his father Joseph Smith Jr. did "not have curly hair", yet... this man does, and so... does... Bertha, who is the woman the two men who lay claim to the locket of this man- are descended from.
July 19, 2022
Two day after this video, on July 21st, 2022, I saw the story headline about the alleged photograph of Joseph Smith, in a locket. The 19th of July, I made this video and had no idea, but what I say in it, sounds like I caught wind... I did not. I cannot believe my statements about a descendant of Joseph Smith having his photograph and just not knowing what they have... that is still the case, they do not know what they have (probably Mads Madison's image because the man looks so much like Mads daughter and he could have had a daguerreotype taken in the 1840s, as adult, and he's the great... grandfather of Daniel Larsen). Oddly, the views on my website were higher than they'd ever been this day, then a year prior, but I would not know for days, I was not checking it that often. The NEXT day, the views on my website peaked, well before most of the world knew about what allegedly was found. It's all so strange...
July 17, 2022
I am a spiritual person, I pray everyday to have the Holy Ghost to be with me and he was this day. Pressing upon my mind was the May 18th, 1844 Conference in Newark, Kendall County Illinois, and Joseph Smith III's travels south of Sandwich, Illinois, I noticed how these Saints who stayed behind were mostly from Norway, according to George Albert Smith, and I realize that the city... La Salle was mentioned by both Joseph Smith III in his October 1860 travels (pg 80-82 in Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III), and George Albert Smith; you can even hear me pressing on the word La Salle, this was important for me to KNOW, I believe, as a few days later, I believe... strongly... that a photograph of a man from Norway, from La Salle was uncovered and written about as... basically I believe the Spirit was guiding me, I felt so much anxiety this whole week to just make more videos, probably because when I do I research for them, I think out loud, I work better when I am talking about what I am seeing and thinking, and then I can do THIS, document in real time, me learning... and I am floored...
July 17, 2022
Recently, I edited the section about skeletal remains of Joseph Smith, that were photographed in 1928, and in this video I share what has changed, along with commentary on why it took me so long to know that these reports even existed. Until I visited Salt lake City, most reports appeared to be free- online, such as Curtis Weber's study, "Skulls and Crossbones", from 2009, which he says was a forensic study he performed, after studying cranio-facial reconstruction on his own (he told me this) for two years, yet just being a linguist. Clearly, I side with the 6 (technically 7- doctors, as I discovered tonight, as I write this, the unqualified expert Rick Weathermon (per certain bloggers who choose to only quote the one doctor- from many studies), actually is a doctor and received his Phd in 2011 (4 years after his report was written in Michael Tracy's, "Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again" book). It is difficult to understand why so many have chosen to be so cynical about other's research; although in particular Ardis Parshall's book reviews do contain research I have found helpful in understanding what happed in 2008-09, a time when all that I cared about was successfully finishing school, and crying my eyes out over boys (I was in my 20s... living in Utah County, yep). I didn't catch wind of the Scannell daguerreotype until 2017, 8 years later, and didn't think it was Joseph for a second, as I'd already stared at the mask and my CDV for hours, the chin was shaped as flat and receding, not rounded and protruding as is seen on the Dibble Death Mask of Joseph Smith Jr. and my 1840s Illinois Man.
I harbor no animosity towards Ardis Parshall or Jared T, but tinge of sadness for how seller "G" (I know his name, but don't care to share without his permission), and frustration at the fact so many put this image down, in 2009, that this man partly because of this attack he found, commented on, may have led to him taking apart and not keeping together a family album, that very well might have been from a direct relative of Joseph Smith; be-it a grandaughter of Alva Hale (brother of Emma Smith, who lived in Sublette, Lee, Illinois (between Amboy and Plano, not too far from JS III in the year 1870), or her brother David Hale (who lived in Amboy, Illinois and died there in the 1878), or her sister Elizabeth Hale (whose son Lorenzo joined the Church and actually lived in Nauvoo, so even he could have been interested or a received of a CDV of the Prophet), Tryael Hale (who died in Amboy, Ill in 1860); all siblings of Emma Hale Smith- knew and possibly loved Joseph Smith, some of these brothers helped to scribe the Book of Mormon, and they all likely would have some "Smith ID" images their own family Albums...
July 15, 2022
When I made this video below, I was noticing someone was watching almost ALL of my videos, but not even 1/10th of them. Something fishy was going on and I was not happy, so I am here telling people to just watch the videos through or read through my website, don't just click on ALL of my videos for a few seconds, that is such a lazy... thing to do... Little did I know, what would be published 5-6 days later...
June 17, 2022
While I have some free-time, this summer, I have spent some extra hours fixing my website, like- finding out the mobile version of it was missing over 90 "elements" - which includes things as entire paragraphs, headers, pictures... Also, I am adding pages, so I can one- expound more than seems appropriate on an already long intro page; I added a page about Joseph Smith's clothing, his vest, that I believe is so similar- it could be the one the man in my CDV wore, and what 1840s men's clothing styles were, and how different they were in the succeeding decades. If my guy wore clothing was a later decade, not worn yet, this could be it; but upon analyzing one Illinois man, Abraham Lincoln, who was just 4 years younger and also in politics; I realized pretty quickly that this would not be an issue. I felt inspired to search, "Joseph Smith's vest", and when I did- I was floored how it appeared to have such similar horizontal stripes, in varying shades and indications that it was also brocade - which is a fabric with a woven tapestry on it (both striped with several shades and showing similar waves, swirls and possibly even indication of a big U shape- seen on my CDV's vest and the original vest. I was so excited that I thought this was good enough, to be time to contact the Church History Library (after calling the Church headquarters first, saying I thought that i had a photograph of Joseph Smith- she just casually said I could mail it on over... and then referred me to a link to someone who she guaranteed would be contacting me back, as I said I had emailed the Church history library- months before, with no response whatsoever- which turned into a week long- back and forth with "someone" who did not seem to even be looking at my CDV (as he claimed his collar was "too low" on his neck- it's so high it's covering his jaw line- which yes- was common in the 1840s to have this new style of a popped down collar, but that is very high up on the neck, with the use often of a longer scarf, double or triple wrapped));
June 16, 2022
Reading several accounts of people describing Joseph Smith as being "well over 6 feet", "athletic", "6"2'", I wanted to compare my image's male sitter to an unusually athletic man, who was 6 ft. 2 inch. as well, named Arnold Schwarzenegger. I had to also compare the massive trapezius muscle my image's sitter has, to the most popular alleged images of Joseph Smith: Scannell kid and the Spiritus' Joseph Smith (all appeared shorter and incredibly weaker), but I am just going off of my artistic opinions here. Enjoy!!
May 11, 2022
Below is a superimposition video, comparing the facial features of the man found in my 1860s-70s Carte de Visite, printed in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois by J.S. Bibbins (Joseph Slocum Bibbins), matching this location and family line, as well as occupation and have found no other J.S. Bibbins than that one born in 1821 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, living and working as a Photographer in Newark, Illinois.
Joseph Smith III (son of Joseph and Emma Smith who was THE source that mentions having a daguerreotype of his dad, he used to edit an painting (I believe- duplicate oil painting, of an original 1842 painting by David Rogers), he traveled south from Sandwhich Illinois, across the fox fiver, 2 miles from Millington, Ill. (which is adjacent to NEWARK, ILLINOIS) he was mere miles, from Bibbins in 1860... I think this is the closest I can place a direct descendant who has a daguerreotype of Joseph Smith, who could have had it copied by the photographic artist Bibbins, either in 1860, or anywhere from Jan. 1866-Oct. 1881, when he lived in Plano, Kendall County Illinois, often joined by his brothers Alexander, David Hyrum and his mother, Emma Smith (who letters prove, traveled the short journey from Nauvoo, Ill. to Plano, Illinois). Bibbins could have traveled to Plano in a "photo car", Emma mentioned trying to get her "negative copied", see source information on my page, Provenance.
May 11, 2022
Joseph Smith's lips were in question, by someone contacting me aggressively (not long after finding out who attacked the previous owner, and had called him "crank"), I talked extensively about the lips the first year of having it and didn't think there were major issues. Lip are greatly changed by facial expression, pursing of lips- that I have even seen Joseph Smith Jr. do in Maudsley's life paintings, and I can see my image shows a man pursing his lips by the C shaped shadow above and left of his cupid's bow, it's a shadow indicative of pursing lips, alas, the blown out side appears to have a lip upper life, but the shadow side- where you can see much detail (the lips appear to thicken greatly in the center, esp. if you squint your eyes). Model, Twiggy, I noticed pop up in my Pinterest feed and I saw how well her lips appeared to look shaped my Joseph's, and how much they CHANGED depending the light source, above- lips looked thinner, below, thicker, as the shape of her upper lip appears taper to the center in an angle uniquely similar to my image. When I trace my CDV's features, your eyes can't play tricks anymore, and claims from one archivist that my image showed a man with a much larger lower lip- are actually 100% debunked, my image shows his lower lip is thinner and his upper lip is nearly perfect, light very well hit his upper lip on the blown out side making it look like it's thinner on his left- but that doesn't make sense... I outline it as such, to be as raw and accurate as possible... but common sense shows no one's lips cut straight upward like that; his right portion of his upper lip shows it matches the ratio and thickness of Joseph's lips on the death mask.
Apr 9, 2022
The artist of the painting of Hyrum Smith, hanging in his Nauvoo home, was a mystery to me, until the week I posted this video. It wasn't a huge concern for me, but it was clear, whomever painted a painting of the photoshopped Joseph F. Smith image (made to look like his father, Hyrum Smith with huge side-burns, down tot he hair curl seen in artwork of Hyrum, enlarged nose...). I remember stating- or thinking... whoever did this- had to have had access to the original tin or daguerreotype of Joseph Fielding, and that seems to be right! Ken Corbett did this painting to sit side- by side with his version of the Scannell Daguerreotype (which he believed was Joseph Smith), so being included in the documentary as WELL as the book, Millions Shall Know Brother Joseph Again, you'd think if he believed... that his painting was based on a REAL photograph of Hyrum Smith, he would say something, make another documentary, or at least... write a blog about it?! Nope, he did not, so clearly he was in on this photoshopped image, "in on it"- meaning he either photoshopped it himself, solely as a basis for this side-by-side painting of brothers, got leaked??? OR he knew someone else created this work of "art" and then painted it, but I personally think that he made it, and legally- he can, the leaking onto Family Search and some anti Mormon blog (down defunct), may or may not have been his fault, being as he and no one wrote or proclaimed it was Hyrum's photograph, other than whoever uploaded it to Family Search (who I contacted, asked via email- if they "knew much about it" (stupid question)- and I got "No." and nothing more... ) . Corbett is a descendant of Hyrum Smith, so he might have actually had access to the original tin image of Joseph F. Smith (the photoshopped version was clearer and had more detail than the copies that I found online, that ironically were horribly damaged, missing detail, overly contrasted, but the photoshopped version- which was changed to look like his father, via the death mask, showed incredible detail on the vest, hands and jacker, hardly visible in images found of 18 yo Joseph F. I could find online or anywhere else.
Clearly, the finished painting by Ken, was much older looking, then this fake photo of Hyrum, other than that- it's perfectly copying the 18yo tin or daguerreotype of Joseph F. Smith and is made to look like Hyrum, even with the changed collar, larger nose, side-burns, hairstyle all match the photoshopped- image of the son. If he was the creator, it is his work of art, nothing illegal was done, he never made any claims about the image and refused to answer my questions, when I contacted him. I think it's an excellent, "likeness" to Hyrum. IN 1860s, Joseph F. visited Emma Smith in Nauvoo and she "marveled" at how much he looked like his father Hyrum Smith, so this would be a good reason for Ken to choose to photoshop Joseph F.'s image with the death mask of his dad, to get an idea for his next painting... my theory, no proof, just is something artists commonly do- created the prefect photo to paint, before painting. My art teachers did this, at BYU-Idaho.
Mar 19, 2022
In this video, I thought it would be fun to display the traveling of the biological son's of Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith III, Frederick, Alexander and David Hyrum), and of the Bibbin's family. A new, to me, census record, from 1865 has created a new mystery for me, a William Smith was next door neighbors to J.S. Bibbins, one... William Smith who was in Kendall County, around that time, has a way too similar family tree to Joseph Smith, though if or how closely related he is to the Joseph Smith Jr., is what I explore in the end of the video- below.
Mar 9, 2022
I was fascinated to discover six total doctors have concluded, what I thought no one had, that the skull buried as Hyrum was actually Joseph's and Hyrum's skull was in-fact shattered completely, from the brows to his chin (not shocking, as he was the only brother shot in the face). I also discovered an allergy doc, cardiologist and a gastroenterologist were the professions of the men who vied for the Scannell kid, as being Joseph Smith.
Mar 6, 2022
Joseph F. Smith's June 26th, 1856 journal entry, detailing objects lost in a fire, includes a daguerreotype of his father (Hyrum Smith, Uncle (Joseph Smith Jr.) and Brigham Young. I was not sure I could read Joseph F.'s handwriting, but skimming several times over, finally I was able to make out the statement another researched claimed to have found, and it was a lot clearer to understand/read than I thought. Other aspects, I go into the history of the photoshop mystery, that has yet to produce ANY answers, only many questions: Why did someone paint a painting nearly exactly of the fake Hyrum Smith tin, and hang it in his house? Why is the fake clearer, in many details, than all copies of the original tin found online (non-fake of the son Joseph F.- at age 18)?
Feb 16, 2022
In this video, that was planning to be a short one, begins with me researching the terminology used in Dr. Niles Herrod's analysis of the skulls of Joseph Smith (often credited as being- Michael Tracy's conclusion- but he was just a salesman that wanted to recruit doctors, digital media professionals- to produce a 3-D image of Joseph Smith, costing him 18 grande). Step deformity often causes what I see in my picture, of a man, from the 1840s, who is a "Smith"- whose left eye is drastically lower than his right.
I have been fascinated with the skulls of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and when I concluded the most popular belief in Utah- was the the skulls were buried under the right name, I didn't know how MANY Medical Professionals, have actually countered this more "popular" claim (by a linguist, without a medical degree); and it was NOT just these two doctors in 1995, it was three more who concurred in 2007, Dr. D. Cope Norcross MD, Dr. John Pickrell M.D., and Dr. Kent D. Katz. In 2008, Dr. Joseph Lyons- tests to see if it was possible for the upper left maxilla (Hyrum's left), could receive slight damage from a musket- and NOT break the left maxilla- not possible, concurring also with the 1995 study- published "In Search of Joseph"; also noting- Hyrum's left zygomatic bone appears to be crushed- just from looking at the death mask- which is intact- in the skull that was buried as Hyrum.
Six DOCTORS conclude the skull with no facial bones- is Hyrums and the skull buried as Hyrum is actually Joseph Smith's.
Feb 12, 2022
Dr. Herrod, a maxillofacial surgeon, studied the skulls of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and what he found is a link, linking injuries sustained, and healed... key point, that are seen in the same bones, on the death mask of Joseph Smith, the Duplicate Oil painting, the Historical Society of Iowa owns, and the "Hyrum Smith" skull. Watch. Read this- to understand what a step-deformity is.
Jan 16, 2022
This video is me outlining the features in the death mask, and superimposing that onto Illinois Man's face, which surprisingly is amazing, it was for a challenge, being much LESS contrast, instead of darker brows- it's all the same colored plaster, from 1844, discolored over time; yet I love a challenge and outlined as I would if I was creating a drawing. One thing you learn, in art, is to NOT think "symbolicly", we often do that, instead of thinking critically, this isn't a man with two matching eye lids or clearly defined lips, it's all trying to catch the curves the light catches in his face, but THAT is what has had me hooked, how can expression lines- match so well?- something that is the result of LIFE, not even so much genetics (a little, but it is unique to how you talk, choose to emote on a daily basis), and the very deep lines going down the middle of his cheeks, Joseph was a very emotional and expressive man, speaking to crowds for hours on end, laughing, crying, working in the sun, walking hundreds of miles- in the summer, he really lived a lot of life in a short time!!
Jan 11, 2022
I have learned a tremendous amount the past two-three years, since speaking with real forensic professionals, about the plausibility of my image really being of Joseph Smith. One girl kept asking me questions about the forward facing painting, summer of 2019, and I repeated whatever I'd read in blogs- this wasn't adequate. Scientists are very honest people, and as we read William B. McCarl's article, and as I read Joseph Smith's journals, the Joseph Smith paper's team had concluded the forward facing painting was done by David Rogers (thus done from life), but McCarl believed it was NOT from life, but done by William Major- from a daguerreotype... I set out every few months to research some more, and no joke- it didn't all make sense until THIS FALL (2021). So, after just a month ago of finding out so many amazing things, finding almost all of McCarl's sources, but in FULL (major difference in storyline when you read past his cuts). I felt it was important to change my website, that already had a long section of my ow theories, into a more straight forward TIMELINE. (if you watched my videos, I have known McCarl was very, very wrong on so man of his theories, like the ring hand- "proving" the painting was based on a daguerreotype- he has the same ring on his right- not left hand- in Maudsley's paintings, for SURE done from life).
Jan 3, 2022
This video really is coming from my frustration from someone arguing with me about CDVs not being able to be copies of old daguerreotypes, from the 1840s- this is a, "People, just look it up, I DID! All the evidence is there for you to SEE, YOURSELF! J.S. Bibbins on ancestry, Lucian Foster's work looks like my CDV- more than Bibbin's work looks like my CDV- printed my Bibbin's in the 1860s/70s."
Dec 30, 2021
Video Short, only music, images and words to follow up my voiceless video of a facial analysis, this goes into some of the provenance, which in-fact supports this being a plausible image of Joseph Smith.
Dec 18, 2021
When people point out features from the death mask and ask if that really is seen on the CDV, printed in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, in the 1860s/70s; it is easier for me to just SHOW you, that is this- no talking, music, titles and visualization video. In real time I outline the CDV, the death mask and superimpose, took me 15 minutes without talking (talking I would triple the time as I oo and awe- cause to me peeps, this is blows me away, every single time I do this, and yes, this is my preferred method of analysis, an artist, not a forensic scientist, but someone who has been BOLD enough to contact a few of them! So, wait patiently for them, but you don't have to wait to just SEE IT. It's AMAZING to me! (not my work, just the similarities amazed and shock me, this is a proverbial pinching of my own skin to see if I'm awake, or if Mr. Cray Cray is right, or Mrs. Flip Flop is really blind?
Dec 12, 2021
December 12th video, I explain what methods I know, world renowned forensic scientists use, and do NOT use, to rule people out- as "so and so" (which is important to be updated, often every few years, as the upmost accuracy in FBI investigations and murder investigations is important as people go more and more nuts out there); I have spoken with, and SKYPED with, such scientists. In this video-I explain one scientific journal- pointed out to me, that debunks one man's sole method of analysis and his quest to bring me down and make me give up! Nope, sorry, not giving up dude!!! (who ironically sounded like a man who spoke to me in 2018, via email, Curtis Weber. Individual last month- tried picking a public fight on my oldest summary videos (unlisted), from 2017, arguing about how CDVs cannot be copies of daguerreotypes- what?). Oh, and this all happened when I tried hard to find out who wrote that 2009 blog, calling my CDV a "fake" and a "daguerreotype" (not a daguerreotype, the ebay seller is more consistent than you, he always said it was a copy from a daguerreotype... not a daguerreotype and is raw, honest, sometimes used the wrong words and out of sequence, but I am finding men who are "good with words" are, more often then not, ever learning- but not learning very much, as the Book of Mormon says). About positive this is someone from the Church History Department who received my video, from me, asking for HELP, Fall of 2017 (didn't get any), and very well was face to face with the person was trying to bring me down October 2017, but you know what dude, you just made me work harder, longer, and to search every nook and cranny and every bread crumb lead to this still being a likely REAL Photograph of the Prophet Joseph Smith!
This video is different from all the others, this is first video in which I wrote a script out, still not perfect, I am not, but I trust the real professionals, which right now is A LOT of TOP people analyzing the likelihood of this being Joseph Smith.
Dec 2, 2021
In this video I show my website's page, Provenance, which has been ever changing, but I quote letters from David Hyrum Smith, letter heading is from Plano, Kendall County, Illinois- to his mother Emma Hale (Smith) Bidamon, letters from Emma to Joseph Smith III, talking about wanting to come to Plano, and see her grandchildren August 1866, some letters sound like she had been to Plano; Emma clearly went to Plano in the early 1870s, per David's letter- saying so, either way- I NOW know- FALL 2021... that Emma went to Plano! That is HUGE news... something that I always wondered, and never knew I COULD find out!!
Secondly, when I got back, I guess knowing I will be working full-time again soon (have been out of work, not wanting to talk about that, nor my increasing health problems, so dropping off the radar will be explained thus) I felt like finding more answers to my other questions; I felt that I should try and find the Duplicate Oil Painting, that I heard of, but could NOT, for the life of me, find online! I asked the Community of Christ archivist (talked to her so much past five years), and she said the Iowa Historical Society had it; I found their website- emailed and soon saw it (received permission for my website, thus my video of my website).
I wasn't very impressed with the quality of the Victor Kress painting, copying the original 1842 painting (clearly stating he used the 1844 daguerreotype, per the 1910 letter, as an aid), but when I zoomed in I was in awe with some of the facial details that I could only see in this painting- to my CDV, (not seen as well in the original, David Rogers painting), things like the thinning in the inner corner of my 1840s Illinois Man's right eye- you can see in the same place, that same thinning part on the brow bone, and the same right brow more clearly is so thick and shaped to be mostly straight, but to be at a sharp downward angle, going all the way down to the eye, and nearly so thick as to read the hairline on the right (the hairline his brushed forward hair- creates...); their left brow does NOT angle down, so much as you see a distinct darker line in the brow that angles upward, and his inner-left brow actually lands lower on the brow bone- no bald spot and IS thinner, than the right, and the eye LID- has the line, that I have been talking about for five years- I could see coming from the outer corner of my Illinois Man CDV's left outer eyelid, going down his cheek. As I looked at the original and the "duplicate", and read the 1910 letter, by Joseph Smith III, he really would have used the daguerreotype, he had to influence the copy from David Roger's 1842 painting; although many THINK the Original Forward facing painting was NOT from life- it was, Joseph Smith III said soon as he began copying it, that he orignal was done when his dad was "36" (so anywhere from Dec. 1841- Dec. 1842), and the artist was from New York- and per the 1910 letter- the artist also painting his uncle Hyrum, that all explains David Rogers, BUT the duplicate painting was NOT FROM LIFE, that painting DOES have differences from the original- to details that I DO see in my little CDV man's face!! Wowie!!!
​
I am excited, still! This fall has brought some cool information! (writing this in Early January 2022).
October 29th, 2021
In the video below, you will see a screen grab of my digital colorization of my CDV, which took a long time. Although in my last video, you see that My Heritage website has features that colorize your photos, and such, I actually used Procreate and legit drew/color on another layer, matching the shade of the area, but taking artistic liberties, while trying to maintain the integrity of the original. What the previous owner called "glowing orbs", I think is a carnation (indications of leaves I turned green), and a button of some sort on his lapel, and of course the vest was colorized, using the Pioneer Memorial Museum's vest.
​
You can buy copies of my colorized Plausible Image of Joseph Smith on etsy, here: https://www.etsy.com/Debrahart82/listing/1099431047/8x10-colorized-image-of-joseph-smith?utm_source=Copy&utm_medium=ListingManager&utm_campaign=Share&utm_term=so.lmsm&share_time=1635565424497
​
Running this website, traveling to research (as not everything has been digitized and I do not live close to Church History sites), paying people to authenticate this little image- is EXPENSIVE, and I have been struggling a lot this past year (who hasn't). As I hope for a long awaited project to come to fruition, I am getting the brunt of the weight, and this website has been designed and run by me alone, as are these videos. If you like my content, please buy a copy of this possible Photograph of Joseph Smith. Thank you.
September 21st, 2021
Joseph and Emma Smith had four children live to adulthood, and one adopted daughter (Julia). All of these boys had at least one photograph taken of them, before they died. There is no doubt that these are the biological children of Joseph and Emma. Four children were lost in child-birth and one child, Don Carlos was lost to illness at age one; along with an adopted son (Julia's brother) was lost around age one- during the 1832 mobbing.
I see a lot of similarities and differences, but after really analyzing I see similarities between all of the sons. Some of the descendants of Joseph Smith see the similarities as well. The eyes I see a lot in Alex and David, the nose- I see in Frederick, face shape and eyebrows I see in Joseph. I would LOVE a thorough study of these men's faces to be done someday, hopefully as each BABY STEP is taken, someone will take on the task!
Sep 20, 2021
I caught wind that Kim Marshall had been sent some of my videos analyzing the Library of Congress and other related images, but NEVER her's, until now. In a DM I was asked about her image, very recently, so I decided to sit down and fully analyze her image, to the painting and found that they had some unique characteristics, that I BELIEVE, fully, is evidence of the canvas itself on her image. I apologize if I sound mean to other people, when I am blunt in saying this is JUST another photograph of a painting, originally done by David Rogers, but when the anatomically incorrect areas, such as the TINY mouth- matches exactly to the painting, however a far cry from the WIDE mouth seen on the death mask, let alone the pencil thin- too long nose, just as long as the painting (both exact lengths in proportion to the eyes), this is just a copy of either the original painting, or one of the MANY duplicate oil paintings the RLDS owns and told me about.
September 13th, 2021
It took me over 3 hours to talk about everything I know about my photograph of Joseph Smith, in this slew of videos; from the Provenance, clothing that matches what Joseph Smith has been known to wear, to the history of the artwork done of him (huge chunk there, exhausted thinking about it).
​
I hate that there is so much controversy over so many of these issues, but I am so happy and grateful the Lord helped me to settle some matters, finding I at least agree with the LDS Historians who decided it was David Rogers who painted the forward facing painting (I have yet to see a published reason or logic behind it, but the sources are too numerous to ignore and I see why they concluded this and ended this "controversy", QUIETLY).
​
I read in the March 30th, 2009 blog post about my image, in the comments section things like, "By your grammar we shall know you", as a reason to make fun of the previous owner and disregard anything he was saying or thinking. I cannot speak for him, but I do believe he genuinely bought a Smith Family Album. I believe that he saw the name "Smith" written on some of the CDVs, because I saw some of them. I would LOVE to find out who bought all of these images, but clearly he sold most of them individually. Example was a female with pencil writing below saying "Mrs. Smith". 2009 Ebay seller "G" knew this man in my CDV looked so much like the sons of Joseph Smith Jr., so he was convinced he could be him, "Smith Famly Album", looks like the sons; alas, he never mentioned it being printed in Newark, just that the album had many images from outside of Chicago, and of course the Juvenile Instructor missed that major hint of provenance (they kept demanding for), which was that Kendall County, where my CDV was printed, is outside of Chicago and is where both Joseph Smith III, Alexander Smith and J.S. Bibbins lived (man who printed by image) lived in the 1860s-1880s. Joseph Smith III in Plano and Joseph Slocum B. in Newark.
Joseph Slocum was born in Pennsylvania in 1821, and just a few years prior his dad Elisha Bibbins was a Methodist circuit rider in Harmony Pennsylvania, teaching little Emma Smith, then converted her own father (as he heard them praying in the woods), from being against organized religion. Elisha was a traveler and not married at this time, this was 1812, but by 1814 he had traveled to an area near Scranton (farther east- Harmony is not called Harmony anymore, just a note if you try and research all of this too), there he married, started a family- staying until 1838- when he and his family moved to (Kendall County) Plano, Illinois, until his death, visiting friends in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Each time I re-review the information that I have- this connection of the families and the neighboring cities these two men lived in, the Provenance was way stronger than the Juvenile Instructor could have imagined, but they brushed this guy off for being "crank", having bad grammar, thus he was incapable of knowing anything. Rude.
​
I should write a book. I know someone has written their analysis, but I am pushing this website as most of this information is not in what they have written, assuming that work gets published soon- I feel like trying my hardest to just run through EVERYTHING, and it's a lot!!
​
This August 1st video I felt inspired to share some personal stories of professionals and historians I have personally talked to. Some people have been incredibly positive, others have inferred this could be another "Mark Hoffman", which I hate to admit, threw me on the defensive, and of course led to me spending several hundred dollars to get this seen by the highest recommended photo restorationist Gawain Weaver, who knows his stuff and who I DID talk to about this false accusation, he had a lot of perspective on this, but we've come a LONG way since Hoffman, and I certainly had no communication, no mention of this image to ANYONE, friend or foe, till 2017, and it's been online, with the Juvenile Instructor blog, since 2009. If the previous owner made a "fake Joseph", why would he NOT mention the family connection to the Bibbins, or how close Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, was/is to Plano/Kendall County Illinois (where this 1860s CDV was printed)? If this was a fake the previous owner would have intentionally stamped "Photographic Artist, J.S. Bibbins, Newark, Ill." and the Juvenile Instructor would have been talking about how he claimed it was printed near the eldest son of Joseph Smith, but nope, he only referenced it as "this Chicago..." obviously implying he just looked at a map for two seconds, and in two years compared his image to the images of the sons and knowing he had a Smith Family Album, thought SOMEONE would take him seriously, but only ME (8 years later and I bought it from him). All the previous owner used as evidence was this statement:
​
"I have studied all of the paintings drawings and ‘supposed photos’ of Joseph Smith on the web and photos of his descendants at various ages and have concluded this photograph IS HIGHLY PROBABLE (in view of all above) a photo of the Mormon founder Joseph Smith WEARING the “Urim and Thummim”!!!! (Personally, after 2 years of research, I believe it to be true, each must however decide for themselves)…"
​
​
July 6, 2021
In this, planned to be very short, but ended up being very long- video, I address facts that fully disprove William Major painted the forward facing painting, such as Joseph Smith III inputing the two facts of the artist- that he was from New York and he painted Joseph Smith Jr. (his father) when he was 36. Joseph Smith Jr. was born in December 1805, so he was 36 when David Rogers painted him, in September 1842 (turned 37 Dec. 1842...) and...Rogers was from New York.
William Major- who many, many, many bloggers believe painted Joseph Smith post mortem, by looking at a daguerreotype (no substantial evidence for this WHATSOEVER), but Major was from ENGLAND, not New York, and could not paint Joseph Smith from life, he didn't come to America until 1845 (Joseph Smith died June, 27th 1844) or from a daguerreotype WHEN he was 36, unless they shipped it to him, and that would be stupid.
June 23, 2021
August 1885 Deseret News article claimed Charles Carter had a daguerreotype of Joseph Smith Jr. and was copying it (editing it with Indian Ink, to make it more "true to life", and those alive, still (in 1885, 41 post Martyrdom)), stating those who had known Joseph Smith (alive), said that it was a good "likeness", and that it is blatantly a "Portrait of the Prophet", however this does not imply at all it is a genuine photograph of the man. Carter very well did talk for a long time to Joseph Smith III, month prior in July 1885) but only a short time about this picture, I believe (and most scholars believe) J.S. III simply handed him one of the photographs of the Roger's painting, which he had photographed and sold as ONLY a photographs of the painting (done in 1843, but stating his dad was 36- so REALLY he was mixed up and the painting was done in 1842, when we know Rogers painted Joseph and Hyrum Smith- in 1910 JS III says this same artist painted Hyrum...). AFTER this August article in the Deseret News, in 1885, October of the same years Junius F. Wells stated, in the Contributor... saying- in essence "hold your horses this is just a photograph of the painting Emma Smith Showed me", and how he's seen the forward facing painting, it was done by David Rogers (so 1842) that a daguerreotype of THAT is what Carter is copying, has finally edited and is selling.
​
I LOVE finding original sources, much better than the short points in LDS Scholarly articles, or blogs. In my searching I also found a 1920s SWORN affidavit, from the oldest living acquaintance of the Prophet Joseph, that a COPY of Lewis Ramsey's painting, was the closest likeness to the Prophet he had EVER seen. The Ramsey painting J.S. III condemned (in his 1910 letter to the Salt Lake Tribune), and this reproduction is not even as good as Maudsley's artwork and clearly is a photograph of a badly done, post 1910 painting (as Lewis's painting was done in 1910). Oddly this sworn affidavit sounds like this man has seen a REAL photograph of Joseph Smith, if this was a GOOD painting, to the level of Leon Parson, photographed, people WOULD believe THAT was a copy of the daguerreotype- by the strong wording!!
June 11th, 2021
Yesterday I felt strongly impressed to analyze the Spiritus.tv's "Joseph Smith" daguerreotype. For years, knowing supposed specialists in identifying people in images were going to take, "two years" (sounds familiar) to analyze their image (contact me if you could, may have met the same people). I am not a forensic analyst, I believed their story of it matching the forward facing painting's bouffant hairstyle, so I didn't spend much time analyzing it, as I did what I dubbed "Older Joseph" in summer 2017, then when it was mine and I found out more information, ALL shown below, I dubbed him "1840s Illinois Man".
I first saw a video analysis of this image in September 2016 and this led to me feeling impressed to, "keep searching", although I searched and found my Newark, Illinois CDV, but... I didn't take a "hint" and hyper focused on the image that I first analyze in my new YouTube video. He is a man in a daguerreotype, found in St. Louis Missouri (none of the sons ever lived here btw), having analyzed his face to the death mask, MANY times over, yes, I believed that he could be of Joseph Smith Jr., the lips really do match (if you flip the orientation), he has a more hooded left eye-lid (or right, depending on if this was the first and only daguerreotype and if they did not use a reversing prism), but the nose and eyebrows, even the chin have issues, and this "research team" deleted their website within a year.
​
2019 I talked to a real forensic specialist and this person (not named) said this man seemed one- too short, too plump, cheekbones too flat (not gaunt).
June 8th, 2021
In my search for the evidence of the forward facing painting being done by David Rogers, I found this article in the Saints Herald, run by the RLDS, in August 15th, 1879, month after JSIII copyrighted his "photograph" of his father with the Library of Congress (which they state is a photograph of a painting), he sells what he only describes as photographs of the forward facing painting of "Joseph, the Martyr", his Dad. He describes the artist as being from New York (David Rogers was from New York), and his Dad being 36 when the painting was done (Joseph Smith Jr. was 36 in September 1842- when Roger's painted him, for four days... from life).
MAY 7TH, 2021
Although my discovery the Joseph Smith Papers team concluded the forward facing painting was done by David Rogers, as if it was a fact (still waiting to hear back from them, on what other sources they have for this), basic logic, reading many of McCarl's sources (much of which IS online, such as scanned articles from the 1800s), his theory that the forward facing painting was NOT from life, but BASED on a daguerreotype is overwhelmingly debunked and although a profile painting exists, alleged to be by David Rogers as well, the sources for it being by David Roger's are good. Although a second hand source, Junius F. Wells spoke to Emma before she died and his detailed story of what she said about the painting was as consistent in 1885 as it was in 1920. J.S. III clearly looked at the daguerreotype of his Dad and had an OLD painting altered by an expert artist, but not as a means to totally base a BRAND NEW painting on the daguerreotype.
MAY 6TH, 2021
After a couple of years reading the Memoirs of President Joseph Smith III (RLDS book), rereading a few chapters, I realized how very close Joseph Smith III was to the "Photographic Artist", who printed my 1860s CDV, in the year 1860. JSIII describes being on the fox river, outside of Millington, Kendall County, Illinois, 2 miles away form Newark, Kendall County, Illinois, closer than the 10 miles he was away for 16 years. Why is this important? JS III was just starting to minister as the Leader of the RLDS Church, his first six months as President, standing in front of congregations full of men, women and children- he describes as crying - to see the face of a young son of the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr., talk about pressure; I can see how maybe this young man asked to just borrow his father's daguerreotype, as he leaves Nauvoo (where Emma Smith never permanently left, she only moved from Mansion house- to the old homestead and back again), then coming back to Nauvoo a few days later. I can see his mother, Emma, allowing her son to borrow this daguerreotype; possibly running into another young man with the exact same initials- J.S., and Bibbins himself would have heard of Emma's family (the Hales), his father Elisha converted to Methodism, who was now famous, too many reasons for them to strike up a conversation; parents knew each other, fathers were well known religious leaders.
MARCH 9TH, 2021
In this video I go into depth about reputable websites explaining 1840s, and 50s clothing styles, and studying the vest of Joseph Smith's.
DECEMBER 18TH, 2020
William B. McCarl's thesis, "the Visual Image of Joseph Smith", about 50 pages in takes a deep detour in his theories, to one that the forward facing painting was BASED on a daguerreotype. I go into why McCarl chose this theory, and why I disagree and agree with the Joseph Smith Paper's conclusions that David Rogers did in-fact originally paint the forward facing painting of Joseph Smith, from life. The painting was very likely was "sustained" in it's "characteristic likeness" to Joseph Smith Jr., by looking at the daguerreotype of him, but not to create a NEW painting, just to add a detail here or there. NEVER does Joseph Smith III state that he created a painting BASED on the daguerreotype, he always alleged the painting and daguerreotype were created around 1843, with some editing over time; very few paintings survive without some upkeep.
SEPTEMBER 14TH, 2020
The slight dilemma in finding out what works (daguerreotypes) were done by Lucian Foster, is that they rarely ever put their stamp or name on their art. I found out a lot of fascinating things about Wilford Woodruff. For those who don't know, Woodruff was one of the last Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ who personally knew Joseph Smith, and one of the few who quote specifically that he had his picture taken by Lucian Foster, his images are great to pick out details unique to Foster's work, his backgrounds... Only one other photographer is mentioned by early Saints as taking their picture, and that was Marsena Cannon- who was on the East Coast and stayed there, until moving from Boston straight to Salt Lake City, UT. Three years later, I have a grasp on Foster's work. Enjoy!
AUGUST 19TH, 2020
The biggest issue people find with my picture, of Joseph Smith, is how the outline of Illinois Man's face- superimposed to the death mask, seems to prove Joseph Smith had more hair- than him, and simply superimposing the hairline from the death mask- onto Illinois Man's head, for the first time I was surprised how it was near perfect. Hair- is hair, it grows, and when it's longer and pushed forward- hairline can be misconstrued, there is more hair caught in the mask on his left side, but Illinois Man man seems to be focused on pushing as much of his hair straight forward- on his left side anyway, maybe this was the side Joseph prematurely lost hair in the 1832 mobbing, and the side he grew his hair- longer? Levi Hancock mentions Joseph Smith Jr. showing him he'd had hair permanently ripped out, link here.
JULY 25TH, 2020
In this video, I am studying everything I know about 1840s clothing, and any evidence 1840s Illinois Man is wearing clothing owned by Joseph Smith, himself.
JULY 10TH, 2020
Video below is my newest superimposition video, superimposing the death mask onto Illinois Man's face.
JULY 7TH, 2020
I get real in this youtube video, to the very raw evidence to my image one- not being a hoax, and the likelyhood it really came from a Smith Family Album, as the e-bay seller states.
JULY 2ND, 2020
In this video, I get into many official census records of J.S. Bibbins (Joseph Slocum Bibbins, born in 1822), who reprinted my CDV- from a daguerreotype, from a Smith Family Album. Video is long, but I am going over a LOT of official documents.
APRIL 12TH, 2020
I analyze the symmetry in 1840s Illinois Man's- well- forehead, which is a topic of debate on social media, about my image (although so far people have been mostly polite, except one dude- you know who you are...), but I explain how there is clearly some light- distortion- different from camera distortion, my personal theory that Joseph's head injuries from his final fall, could have caused him to be partially scalped- pushing the left side of his scalp forward, just... a theory.
APRIL 4TH, 2020
My new 2020 Summary video, that has some typos, I am sorry, still need a good video editor.
MARCH 22ND, 2020
I drove 7 hours to and back from San Francisco, in one day, spent several hundred dollars- to get my little CDV authenticated. I was so excited to own official paper-work stating that my image was real, and it looks to be a copy from a daguerreotype, ebay. This was wonderful news, but I honestly was disappointed, at first. I asked Weaver if this means my image was in the wrong perspective, he tells me about common techniques- commonly used to put a man's face, or more often on an building- with writing, put into the right perspective, a special prism was added to flip the image around, or- they just took a second daguerreotype, of the original daguerreotype, and since daguerreotypes flipped things around, as we see in mirrors (or how instagram is doing it these days), I had reason to still believe my image was from a daguerreotype and still in the correct perspective. I had much fun talking to someone so knowledgeable about old photographs and daguerreotypes. The lock-downs started in San Francisco that MONDAY- I barely got up there in time! So... I was wrong! yay!!! It wasn't always a paper photograph (took me three years...).
FEBRUARY 11TH, 2020
For this video, I researched for hours, for my website and the project, everything David Rogers, his two alleged paintings, Frederick Piercy- I go into detail about him and his fascinating story. I compared my CDV to all the Life Paintings of Joseph Smith, which I now know includes the forward facing painting, but I still believed McCarl- that we just didn't know which painting was by David Rogers.
JANUARY 31, 2020
I show how similar the Library of Congress and Carter "Photographs of Joseph Smith" are to the forward facing painting, done by David Rogers (per the Joseph Smith Papers team). So many scholars and historians have already said this was basically fact, I am just showing that I agree with them, nothing "new". I was late to the truth that this painting was NOT based on a daguerreotype, it was BASED on a physical human being sitting in a chair for four days, named Joseph Smith Jr. and was likely edited- per the terminology J.S. III uses, "sustained the characteristic likeness of my father"- but to sustain something, it HAS TO ALREADY EXIST.
October 24th, 2019
This video below was unlisted for a reason, I had no idea who drew the first image and found inaccurate information- I will say now- it was NOT from life, but by Frederick Piercy who never met Joseph Smith Jr. or drew him from life, but it matches my image. I become enamored with his history, travels from England, to Salt Lake City, back to England and his long and very personal stay with Emma Smith- I theorize HE of all artists, saw MY image, that I am beginning to overcome my inaccurate "theories" that my image was always a paper photograph. I now KNOW Emma Smith's CDV was infact a direct copy of her 1845 daguerreotype, and HUGE discovery, we KNOW WHO PAINTED THE FORWARD FACING PAINTING- wait- what? I actually read McCarl's study more thoroughly and go back and forth, but today, May 2021, I agree it was done by David Rogers, from life, just edited by LOOKING at an old oxidized daguerreotype.
AUGUST 16TH, 2019
A detailed analysis of the not-fake Joseph F. Smith daguerreotype, compared to the photoshopped fake Hyrum Smith Image (probably created using this exact image in the video below).
MAY 13TH, 2019
In this video, I am basically just thinking out loud. I had just spoken with direct descendant of Joseph and Emma Smith, who said the paper CDV of Emma and baby David, was copied from a daguerreotype. I have doubts, but I soon will believe this. Good things in the video are me seeing how similar the two backgrounds are between Emma's image- believed to be taken by Lucian Foster and my CDV. I am really starting to think maybe Lucian Foster DID take the original of the image, seen in my CDV, and I'm still rambling on about how the forward facing painting is based on the daguerreotype, cause- everyone else believes it! I think there are two images of Joseph Smith Jr., still, in 2019. Good things- I am NOT ALONE and I have someone on my side asking questions, in a logical manner, making me work HARDER. I will stop believing almost everything I say in this video, soon. I flew out to SLC, took pictures of the death mask, the vest, sign paper-work for a project under-way, and I start to feel... the pain of having to be quiet about some things, no having any idea how long I will have to wait to be quiet, thankfully I now have permissions to show the vest on here, from the Pioneer Memorial Museum, but looking back to me- two years ago, I had a lot to figure out still. Whatever happens, thank you for stretching my brain!! If this was fake, wouldn't I have already known about Bibbins living near the sons of Joseph Smith, or at least asserted my image was from THE daguerreoype?- nope, I throw my own self under the bus and try to avoid the wheels ;)
DECEMBER 26TH, 2018
This video is all about J.S. Bibbins, his Father Elisha Bibbins and every source I'd found online about them.
DECEMBER 25TH, 2018
In this video I try something different, superimposing only individual "left-eyebrow", "right eyebrow" , "nose"... with no adjustment of size, other than sizing the dibble death mask to the man's face, by making it translucent and superimposing it, then putting it to the side.
I superimpose the outline of Illinois Man's facial features and it's astounding how well they match, in detail.
NOVEMBER 5TH, 2018
At this point I had tried contacting the Juvenile Instructor website, and couldn't get through to them. I thought they should retract their article, which says my image is a daguerreotype, it is not, and it says Kim Marshall is a man (she is not) and is mean; however, soon after I saw the good that came from it, how it documents the seller's store, in grande detail, which at this point was still up and running, that was stagnant, but overall showing how incapable the man is of creating fake photographs, he would have had something that perfectly resembled someone famous, by now, but has had many images of people he thinks are famous LDS, but who look little like the many people who do have verified images of.
NOVEMBER 1ST, 2018
Video below is a music only, "Summary Video", of everything that I learned so far. I start experimenting with superimposing only individual facial features onto the man's face, I show details I see in this man's vest- to the vest Joseph Smith is verified to have owned, and the Provenance side of things, such as J.S. Bibbin's Father knowing Emma Smith, as a little girl, Joseph Slocum Bibbins dying in Plano, Illinois, same town Joseph Smith III lived in for 16 years, at the same time.
OCTOBER 12, 2018
In this video I visually show how much distortion can happen when photographing with a cell phone, and how angle changes everything. My friend took photograph of the death mask at various angles, for me. I show how that can effect where the eyes, nose and lips line up.
JULY 20TH, 2018
First and only video superimposing the two plausible images of Joseph Smith.
MAY 5TH, 2018
This video I finally discovered that Joseph Smith III lived in Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, for 16 years (owned it about seven months, at this point); just ten miles away from J.S. Bibbins, working in Newark, Kendall County, Illinois (at the SAME TIME). I just found the article Mark Staker wrote, about the Hale family, researching this Methodist Circuit Rider, Elisha Bibbins, teaching the Hales around 1812. This was J.S. Bibbin's dad, who knew Emma Smith's family, same Methodist Minister is recorded in minute books as having moved to Eastern Penn. where J.S. Bibbin's is born. Elisha Bibbins taught Emma Smith how to pray for answers in the woods (Joseph Smith leaned towards methodism btw). Wow, this was a great discovery and I would be discovering a whole lot more in the next few months. I knew none of this until May 2018. The next several videos will be me pushing the theory I that Emma's CDV never came from a daguerreotype, but from a paper negative (they existed in 1845, but... I was wrong, thus I took most of these videos down).
APRIL 27TH, 2018
In this video I am showing in real time, me outlining the man's face, and superimposing it onto the death mask of Joseph Smith, and marking each point in which something matches.
FEBRUARY 26TH, 2018
Farther into 2018, you will see me starting to research more about Joseph Smith III. This video, I am still completely unaware of him living close to J.S. Bibbins, and I bluntly state that I believe the forward facing painting is "based" on a daguerreotype, per all the blogs out there (that I read for hours), and as I am beginning to read McCarl's thesis, I have no reason not to believe him, but I do see the major difference in hairline from that painting and Sutcliffe Maudsley's paintings (that mostly all show a receding hairline).
FEBRUARY 12, 2018
No one told me the Hyrum Smith image was fake, no one told me anything, actually. I had emailed the current owner of Hyrum's home, who had put that painting up- which matched this photograph in the house, he knew nothing about the painting, emailed anyone who posted this image of Hyrum online and either they too knew "little" or didn't respond back. I had Joseph F. Smith's image on my computer and I was comparing "Father" to "son" and... I saw it... same jacket, same pose, EXACT SAME lighting, I looked at it for a very long time, and my heart was heavy. God doesn't let us stay down for long, suddenly I had thousands of views on my website, overnight. I had people contacting me, AND I had just gotten off some heavy drugs to treat Shingles, on my face, and was unable to open my eyes for a week, I had complications that made me unable to open my eyes for long; I was in severe pain on and off, still unsure how badly my eye was damaged (it scarred my eyeball), and suddenly I was supposed to be able to talk to higher ups, I failed. I was very, very ill at this time, sorry for anyone I offended (I already apologized to them directly, they'll probably bring it up, you know who you are...). I really wanted this to be a real image of Hyrum Smith, I was really disappointed in this vid.
JANUARY 24TH, 2018
Video below, I play a recording of me superimposing the death mask onto my CDV, it's fun to watch and stop, hold the arrow here- or there. I say how I think the RLDS painting was done from a daguerreotype (I read blogs, and McCarl said so... so I believed him still, and I still thought that my image always was a paper photo). I am beginning to study about the crimes J.C. Bennett did in Nauvoo, read Meg Stout's blogs and book "Reluctant Polygamist", which was mostly about how bad the men who killed Joseph Smith was. Men oddly, in the Church, cover this up, (protecting the delicate feelings of the Church's females?), but I felt such peace after discovering some horrific things, and I saw Joseph Smith in a better light.
JANUARY 20TH, 2018
I discovered this alleged photograph of Hyrum Smith two days after I bought my CDV. Something incredible had happened. This image matched a painting shown in his last home, in Nauvoo, and it was uploaded to his Family Tree account, so I assumed it was "real". I love how I pop up a picture of his last born and say, "don't they look a lot a like..." If you haven't seen the update on this, a couple of weeks later, serious "Doh!" moment. It's an amazing likeness to Hyrum Smith's death mask. I had nothing else to study, I was in a lull, so this was cool to analyze. I even made side-by-side pictures of my CDV and this guy, saying I was excited about this picture was an understatement... I should paint this exact image, I think it's a great perspective on how his face is. I REALLY think Hyrum Smith looks like this.
DECEMBER 8TH, 2017
At this point, I have owned the CDV of Joseph two months, had no one that believed this was Joseph Smith, but me. Seriously. Talking was therapeutic, think about how you'd feel being so excited about a discovery and having no one to talk to about it. I felt joy in talking about everything I'd found, which in this video was me talking about finding images of Joseph Smith's sisters- who had similar ears, painting of Joseph Smith Senior- who he clearly inherited his ears from (notice his dad has a popped down collar).
​
At this point I am beginning to have my firm belief that my image was always a paper photograph. Henry Fox Talbot has patented his use of negatives in 1841 and written the "Pencil of Nature" in 1844, which had numerous paper photographs, in a book, all possible because only paper photographs had negatives, it was possible. I also didn't believe Emma's CDV was originally from a daguerreotype either! (until 2019, I was proven wrong, and I wouldn't be open to my image being copied from a daguerreotype until 2020). Folks, I had no stance that my image was from the daguerreotype J.S. III talked of, I am BARELY reading William B. McCarl's article, "The Visual Image of Joseph Smith", I didn't KNOW about the letter J.S. III wrote in 1910, yet.
NOVEMBER 1ST, 2017
I remember speeding this video up, this was a "real-time" video, showing me in the process of outlining the man in my CDV, then superimposing him onto the death mask. As you can see, I have a NEW image of him, now scanned at the highest DPI I could, I am able to fully analyze the entire CDV, and the drawing app now was letting me draw fine details, whereas it was impossible- the July before (as I had a low resolution image, I owned the CDV now).
OCTOBER 17TH, 2017
I made this video 10 days after I bought it, I'd physically had it something like 4 days? maybe? I was a NEWBIE, hardly knew a thing. I knew it was printed in Newark, Illinois (for about- 10 days). I just began studying it's Provenance, so I had very... little knowledge, I didn't even know Joseph Smith III lived 10 miles away from J.S. Bibbins, yet, when it was printed; I didn't know if Bibbins was a photographer in 1844- I assumed he was; but I knew about the matching vest, Emma's matching CDV, and that Abraham Lincoln ONLY is depicted wearing the super high collar with a triple or double- wrapped scarf- in the 1840s, NOT in the 1850s or 60s. The first step is always to date your image, so that step TERRIFIED me, but I did the WORK, I spent days researching anything I could find explaining 1840s, 50s and on... styles, and I was convinced he was wearing clothes worn back when he (Joseph) was alive. I didn't come into this a Scholar, but a Novice! BE KIND.
August 10th, 2017
My very first superimposition video, below. It took me a long time to figure out how others had done similar superimposition videos, thus this is almost two weeks later, but my intrigue is growing. Not too hard to do, you create another layer and make sure the death mask is on top and decrease the opacity. Try it, it's fun. At this point- I'm forgetting about the Spiritus' alleged "Joseph Smith".
July 28th, 2017
In this video, I had BARELY spent ten minutes learning how to use layers on the app, Procreate. Downside, I had a pixilated image, from the internet, thus... oddly, the app made my layer/outline- crap (same resolution- basically), but I get better. I had outlined the man's face and hit record, so I could capture my reaction as I- in REALTIME analyze the likeness to the death mask. I could hardly speak. As many have said to me to discredit me, I didn't know if it anything COULD match- even if he WAS Joseph Smith, as I was a CMA, I had taken several course- than even needed, of A&P and I knew what happens to a body hours after they die, so I was SHOOK.
July 22, 2017
This video I did something slightly different, I use my ipad and sketched on top of the Spiritus Joseph Smith, and the CDV, and the dibble death mask, my intensity of interest and concern of who owns the older Joseph was growing, I thought maybe a "Mormon in California" had bought him, and I just... wanted him to know he really has a photograph of Joseph Smith and for it to be proven so I can sell my digital drawing of him, that was it (as far as intentions go).
July 18th, 2017
What I remember about making this video, was I had been spending months drawing the Spiritus- "Joseph Smith"'s version, and something wouldn't let me delete the "Older Joseph" off of my ipad. I had finished this digital drawing and shown my roommate-who had asked me a few questions and I had no way to defend either image, until I began looking at the death mask, so this is my very FIRST artistic analysis of the older Joseph, as I beginning to think he COULD be Joseph Smith, but still believing some group in England is "proving" the Spiritus daguerreotype is "Joseph Smith", this older Joseph- had no backing and I was concerned, very concerned...