The Book of Mormon in Deseret

 
Identifier
BOK.NAM.1869AD.1
Title
The Book of Mormon in Deseret
Description
A copy of the Book of Mormon translated into the Deseret language. An instructional chart on how to read Deseret can be found on the first page.

The Deseret language was an effort made by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who settled in the Salt Lake Valley to "alleviate the problem of non-communication... created by the great influx of foreign speaking Saints" who immigrated there. The general idea was to create a hieroglyphic alphabet based on English grammar where each character represented an unchanging sound. It was "developed and encouraged by the Prophet Brigham Young and a few followers," but failed to achieve permanence in the community. It eventually died off "with Brigham Young in 1877," but is still used today by some scholars of Church history (Wintersteen).
* * *
Wintersteen, Larry Ray. A History of the Deseret Alphabet. Electronic version. Brigham Young University, 1970.
Date Created
1869 AD
Publisher
Published for the Deseret University by Russell Bros.
Audience
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Geographical Coverage
Temporal Coverage
19th Century
Format
Print
Collecting Areas
History of Writing Collection
Language
Deseret
Provenance
Ex libris on the verso side of the front cover. Coat of arms with "Schwendiman" underneath. "Library of Fred W. Schwendiman" under the coat of arms.
Subject
Type
Scripture
Bibliographic Citation
The Book of Mormon in Deseret. New York: Published for the Deseret University by Russell Bros., 1869.

Item sets