The Joseph Smith Papers (JSP) site inexplicably omits Cumorah from important resources and downplays it in others. In this post we'll propose improvements in the JSP regarding Cumorah.
_____
Places and Glossary
The JSP includes references for Places and a Glossary. These are awesome reference materials that provide lots of useful details and links. The Places page is so comprehensive that it includes such obscure sites as "Cook’s Mills tavern stand, Cookstown, New Jersey."
Inexplicably, neither Places nor Glossary mention "Cumorah," or "Hill Cumorah."
Both should.
After all, Cumorah played a critical role in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. There are numerous references to Cumorah throughout the JSP, as well as in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants.
To improve the JSP, readers need a Places reference for Cumorah, which I propose below. A similar reference should be included in the Glossary to explain what Cumorah refers to.
Here is the JSP page for Places "C." Notice the "Cooks' Mills tavern stand," and then notice the omission of Cumorah.
![]() |
(click to enlarge) |
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/reference/places?filter=c
It's interesting also that if you click on the maps for the area around Cumorah, such as Manchester or Palmyra, you can scroll around and see that the JSP map doesn't even show Cumorah. But the default Google map does.
JSP map (scrolled up from Manchester), which omits Cumorah.
Basic Google map, which shows Cumorah.
We all realize there are different settings in Google, but the JSP inexplicably elected to omit Cumorah from the maps of early Church history it includes in its Places site.
Below I'll offer a proposed improvement for JSP in the form of an entry they can use for "Cumorah" on the Places site.
_____
If the JSP editors decline to include "Cumorah" among the "Places" in Church History, they should at least include "Cumorah" in the Glossary so readers can learn what the term means. Like David Whitmer, who didn't know what "Cumorah" meant when he heard the term from the messenger who was taking the abridged plates from Harmony to Cumorah, readers of the JSP will not know what Cumorah means unless someone tells them.
Actually, "Cumorah" should be on both the Places page and in the Glossary. JSP can use the same entry for both, except the Places page for Cumorah should include a map.
JSP page for Glossary "C" which omits Cumorah.
![]() |
(click to enlarge) |
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/reference/topics?filter=c
_____
Here's my proposed entry for Cumorah which should be in both Places and Glossary.
The Hill Cumorah
Insert the same Google map that is used as for other locations, except adding Cumorah to the map.
Summary
1. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/41
2. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68
3. Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt,
https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofp00prat/page/58/mode/2up
4. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/1115. REPORT OF ELDERS ORSON PRATT AND JOSEPH F. SMITH to President John Taylor and Council of the Twelve. https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/dca15baa-a0ac-4fc1-b2ec-7f3cd75e4906/0/44
6. http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90
7. https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/91
_____
Another area for improvement is the search function.
Inexplicably, a search for "Cumorah" in the JSP search bar produces 26 results, but omits the one from Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1845. This reference should be included in the results for a search for "Cumorah."
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1845/111
_____
The Events section includes following entry at https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/event/jss-visit-to-hill-cumorah. However, neither the entry nor the footnote explains Cumorah. The footnote should include a reference to Cumorah.
JS’s Visit to Hill Cumorah
22 September 1823
Proposed revision of note 1:
1 JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 4; Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, Page [11], bk. 3; History, 1834–1836, Page 93-9
_____
The Glossary includes an entry on "Gold Plates" that contains a misleading sentence and lack of explanation. The bolded sentence implies that the name Cumorah is a modern invention, contrary to the historical record that shows it was Moroni who identified the hill as Cumorah both anciently and in modern times when he first visited JS.
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/topic/gold-plates
Gold plates
Summary
3 JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 4; “The Book of Mormon,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1833, [1]–[3].
Proposed improvement: replace the bolded sentence and accompanying note with this:
Moroni explained that the record was written and deposited not far from JS home in the hill Moroni referred to as Cumorah.
3 JS History, ca. Summer 1832, 4; Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, Page [11], bk. 3; History, 1834–1836, Page 65
No comments:
Post a Comment