While no confirmed photograph of Joseph Smith exists, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has accepted from an unnamed donor a locket containing a daguerreotype purportedly featuring the Prophet’s image.
In response to media inquiries, the Church announced the acceptance of the donation and released a statement with photos of the locket and daguerreotype, according to a June 4 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
The statement reads:
“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has accepted, by donation, a locket containing a daguerreotype reported to be from the 1840s. Some believe it may be an image of Joseph Smith. As we have acknowledged, since the discovery of the locket in 2020, we cannot draw a conclusion about who is pictured in the daguerreotype.
“This donation adds to an extensive collection of artifacts from that time period that invite people to study and prayerfully ponder the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the extraordinary life and ministry of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
“For more information, we invite people to learn more at the Church History Catalog.”
Joseph Smith was the Church’s founding Prophet and first President. He was born in Vermont in 1805 and killed by an Illinois mob in 1844.
In 1839, Louis Daguerre announced his invention of the daguerreotype, the first photographic process available to the public.
The John Whitmer Historical Association announced the discovery of the locket and image in July 2022. The discovery was made by Daniel Larsen, Joseph Smith’s great-great-grandson and a Latter-day Saint, who inherited family heirlooms from his mother, Lois Smith Larsen, prior to her death in 1992, according to the Deseret News.
Among the collection were two pocket watches, one of which he was unable to open due to the release mechanism being bent. Larsen didn’t look at it again until 2020, when he managed to get it open. Inside he found a daguerreotype of a man with a likeness to his ancestor, Joseph Smith.
