The images of Joseph Smith, Jr. used by the Mormon Church have changed many times over the years.

Many years ago, I saw Bryce Chamberlain do his one man show of the life of Joseph Smith, Jr. at BYU, including explaining the use of make up and how he combed his hair, because of scars after he and Sydney Rigden were tarred and feathered.

Today, I found this YouTube from 2016, showing various images, including a daguerreotype which may be the best image of Joseph Smith Jr. This analysis seems to think so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjpd7ufLGIk



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2018 09:38PM by SusieQ#1.

That was interesting and made a lot of sense, in that in the painting we have of him and the one possible photo, he does not look like a ladykiller!

But this new possible photo does present us an interesting, and even handsome man.

Not that it matters a whit. He did what he did, and how he did.

whatever he looked like, he must have had charisma to attract so many, including my ancestors, to the new crazy, changing religion.

So does part of my heritage include highly suggestible people who fall for he schemes of narcissist?

Joseph Smith Jr had several things going for him, one very important one was his appearance. He was tall and good looked maybe even "sexy" for those days, in addition to amazing charisma. Reading history and how people gravitated to him, I wondered if looking at him, women likely swooned. Who wouldn't want to be one of his special women? Listening to him speak, he had the amazing skill of convincing people they could see things and hear things that were not there. He could convince people they were reading words of God. I've never discounted the ability of this physically attractive man and his incredible ability to draw people to him. He was definitely a man of the times.

Of course, he knew he was a charlatan, or at least, at one time. It's possible, even he began to believe what he was preaching.

People wonder how he could get such a toe-hold in those seeking religious enlightenment. I can understand how he did it. In fact, it came naturally to him, like a magician, he performed his tricks. The power of the "spiritual-eye" witness. Interestingly, it's accepted as a physical eye testimony.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2018 06:10PM by SusieQ#1.

SusieQ#1 Wrote:
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>
> Of course, he knew he was a charlatan, or at
> least, at one time. It's possible, even he began
> to believe what he was preaching.
>

I think he knew darn well he was a charlatan all the way to his grave.
I think this accounts for his attitude of 100% confidence. He wasn't relying on anyone before him (although he stole from others before him). I think much the same thing can be said of BY.

Joe was the one person who knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was all a scam. It was his creation alone and he had no one to bow to or answer to, and this gave his life and actions the totally audacious mendacity we don't see in any of the subsequent "prophets" (except Briggy maybe).

all the likenesses I had seen from the 60s and 70s represented a man that did not seem very attractive.

However, the daguerrotype in youtube represented a much more handsome man.

In my limited experience, the narcissists whom I have known are very conscious of their physical attractiveness (if any), devote substantial attention to their appearance, and have an almost instinctual ability to employ their charm to persuade and seduce.

On another ex Mormon blog a guy superimposed the death mask on photos of his grown up son's. To give an accurate photo. He doesn't look as noble as the LDS painting s. The community of Christ has photos of his skull so you could do one of those re construction s they do of ancient people to see what he actually looked like!

Britboy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> On another ex Mormon blog a guy superimposed the
> death mask on photos of his grown up son's. To
> give an accurate photo. He doesn't look as noble
> as the LDS painting s. The community of Christ has
> photos of his skull so you could do one of those
> re construction s they do of ancient people to see
> what he actually looked like.

I have not seen that exhibit. Sounds interesting. This is done with bodies that were missing for a long time. They are able to identify them by superimposing photos on skulls.
Fascinating.

I think this is an actual photo of Joseph and Brigham.

https://www.google.com/search?q=joseph+smith+and+brigham+young+photo&client=firefox-b-1&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=SU9fgB9ybIVkOM%253A%252C4HyyThYOIexk0M%252C_&usg=AFrqEzeSehy6JRfP-rjPkLEEC9fWc1o2Zg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi58uXi37ndAhU_wMQHHdcfAu8Q9QEwAHoECAAQBA#imgrc=SU9fgB9ybIVkOM:

I always thought he probably looked like Nicolas Cage. His death mask reminds me of a current actor who is in a lot of movies, but whose name always escapes me because he tends to be a minor character.

Some of the more romanticized images from the church always remind me of the late actor Michel Wilding.

It would be quite possible to score the photo with the death mask, using very accurate measurements. If this was a serious study they would have done that, which they don't. My guess is the photo does not match the death mask, when the photos are superimposed you can see a non symmetric rescaling of one of the images taking place. In other words they fudge it.

There are lots of contempory sketches of Joseph Smith by amature artists, such as the famous picture of him on horseback leading the Nauvoo Legion. He had a very bird like nose in profile and features that were believed to be handsome and aristocratic in that age, that we now veiw differently, and the church plays down those candid, and probably very accurate drawings.

Oh yes. An actual photo can be very accurately reproduced, if they wanted to do that.

But, like everything else, the Mormon Church uses fiction to sell everything as believable.

Yep

I've seen the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum and it's still hard to tell what they actually looked like, but I think it was more charisma; especially if the profile pictures of him are accurate. IMO, most charismatic evil leaders were as ugly as a mud fence! No offense to horses, but Warren Jeffs has horse teeth and a dopy face. Hitler was as ugly as they come and he also had his weird looking mustache.