Anonymous source ("P.") sees mummies and papyri, says that LMS told them about the coming forth of the BOM in connection with the exhibit.

Date
Aug 26, 1845
Type
News (traditional)
Source
"P."
Non-LDS
Hearsay
Direct
Unsourced
Journalism
Reference

"P.," Letter to the Albany Evening Atlas, August 26, 1845, in “Atlas Correspondence,” Albany Evening Atlas 4, no. 1539 (September 9, 1845): [2]

Scribe/Publisher
Albany Evening Atlas
People
Joseph Smith, Jr., Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph Smith III, William Smith, "P."
Audience
Reading Public
Transcription

I of course called upon the widow of Joe Smith, who I found a plain woman enough, without anything remarkable about her that I could observe. She appeared not at all displeased with the attention of our party in calling upon her, and answered our questions very readily. She had a little Joe [Joseph Smith III] in her arms. The mother of the deceased prophet is quite another sort of woman. The old lady is the keeper of the Egyptian mummies, and various relics and curiosities, which she exhibits to the public at two bits per head. While exhibiting the traps, the old lady gives an account of the manner of her son's finding the golden plates, and also informs the spectator that her deceased son interpreted the hieroglyphics upon the mummy cases, which figures corroborated perfectly every thing Joe had ever said, and confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt his divine mission. She tells the same things to every visitor, and if she weeps as much with every one as she did while relating her stories to me, she would be invaluable in Broadway on a dusty day. Poor old woman, she trusts in the prophet Joseph with her whole heart.

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