One of the most recognizable architectural features of the original Nauvoo Temple is its sunstone capitals.
When completed in 1846, the temple walls featured 30 pilasters, each topped with a carved limestone capital sunstone. These supporting pillars surrounded the temple, with nine on each side and six each on the front and back.
Each 2½-ton stone depicted the carving of a radiant sun face emerging from cloud banks, beneath a pair of hand-held trumpets.
“The sunstone depicts the heavenly light of Christ’s latter-day Church breaking through the clouds of darkness (see Revelation 12:1). Trumpets announce the Restoration of the gospel before Jesus Christ comes again to the earth,“ reads a display in the new Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center.
After the temple was destroyed by fire and a tornado, arguably only two sunstones have survived intact.
One is now on display in the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center, on lease from the State of Illinois to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The other is housed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Previously displayed at a museum in Quincy, Illinois, it was purchased by the Smithsonian from the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County for $100,000, the Church News reported in 1989.
A third sunstone — significantly damaged, with its nose missing and other visible wear — was part of the transfer of sacred sites and historic documents from Community of Christ to the Church in March 2024.
Alexander Baugh, a retired Brigham Young University professor of Church history and doctrine, has researched the journey of the sunstone on lease to the Church from the State of Illinois from the original temple to its current location in the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center today.
“I believe an understanding of this important and rare historical artifact from the original Nauvoo Temple can provide patrons with a deeper appreciation for the early men who helped construct the temple, but even more particularly the artisans who painstakingly crafted such a unique and symbolic spiritual representation of the Restoration of the gospel and the ordinances of the temple by Jesus Christ to the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Baugh wrote in an email to the Church News.
Stone carvers
Skilled stonecutters began the intricate work of shaping the capital sunstones in March 1844.
Those known to have worked as stone carvers on the Nauvoo Temple capital sunstones include Charles Lambert, Benjamin T. Mitchell, Harvey Stanley, John Harper, James Sharp, Rufus Allen and James Henry Rollins, according to a BYU article authored by Baugh.
Workers installed the first capital sunstone on Sept. 23, 1844.
Nauvoo Visitors’ Center sunstone timeline
How did the one sunstone end up at the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center?
Baugh compiled the following timeline:
1865 — George W. Gray, president of the Methodist English and German College, in Quincy, Illinois (often referred to as the Methodist College), went to Nauvoo, where he acquired two capital sunstones from what remained of the original Nauvoo Temple ruins. The sunstones were intact, but the base stones and the top abacus stones were missing. Gray transported the capital stones by steamboat to Quincy, where they were placed on opposite sides of the main entrance of the school grounds of the college, which at the time was located at Third and Spring Streets.
1870 — One of the sunstones from the Methodist English and German College was donated to or acquired by the State of Illinois and taken to Springfield, where it was placed on the old statehouse (the former state capitol building made famous by Abraham Lincoln).
1876 — The sunstone was moved southwest four blocks to the new state capitol grounds, where samples of native Illinois stones were being brought for the new capitol building (the current state capitol), which was then under construction.
1894 — The sunstone was moved to the entrance of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield and placed in the middle of a decorative lily pond.
1955 — The sunstone was transported from Springfield and placed in the Nauvoo State Park.
1992-1994 — The sunstone, owned by the State of Illinois, was leased to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In June 1994, it was moved to the original temple block on the bluff and placed in a sealed display case to protect it from vandalism and the elements.
1999 — The sunstone and the sealed display case were moved just outside the north entrance to what is now called the Historic Nauvoo North Visitors’ Center.
November 2012 — The stone was placed in an open display case inside the Historic Nauvoo North Visitors’ Center.
June 2026 — The sunstone was placed inside the new Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center, located a short distance northwest of the reconstructed Nauvoo Illinois Temple.
How to see the sunstone
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the new Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center on June 27.
The center opened to the public on June 29. Visitors are welcome during regular business hours.
Those who are unable to travel in person to the new visitors’ center can still enjoy and appreciate some measure of the exhibit by visiting an online exhibit that shares many of the messages and images.
Learn more about the Church’s Illinois historic sites and the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
