Joseph and Hyrum Smith's bodies were returned to Nauvoo the next day. The bodies were cleaned and examined, and death masks were made, preserving their facial features and structures.
A public viewing was held on June 29, 1844, after which empty coffins weighted with sandbags were used at the public burial. (This was done to prevent theft or mutilation of the bodies.) The coffins bearing the bodies of the Smith brothers were initially buried under the unfinished Nauvoo House, then disinterred and deeply reburied under an out-building on the Smith homestead.
In 1928 Frederick M. Smith, president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and grandson of Joseph Smith, fearing that rising water from the Mississippi River would destroy the grave site, authorized civil engineer William O. Hands to conduct an excavation to find Joseph and Hyrum's bodies. Hands conducted extensive digging on the Smith homestead, and located the bodies, as well as finding the remains of Joseph's wife, Emma, who was buried in the same place. The remains—which were badly decomposed—were examined and photographed, and the bodies were reinterred.
Probably in the archives of the RLDS (CofC) church. I have seen photos of the Smith brothers skulls. Hyrum's was must more intact, while Joseph's is badly disintegrated. It probably had to do with the damage/location of the bullet holes. At the time, the Utah first presidency was not happy with the publishing of the photos.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/26/2013 10:20PM by george.
Today the three Smith graves are underneath an imposing marble slab at the Smith Family Cemetery, alongside the Mississippi River in Nauvoo. The small cemetery is owned by the Community of Christ church.
Most of Mormon fundamentalism hangs on the belief that Joseph Smith was resurrected. One of the things that brought me to doubt Fundamentalism and soon found my way out of Mormonism all together was seeing the pictures of the skulls. That kills the story of a resurrected Joseph Smith who places his hands on John Taylor to give him the authority to ordain others to carry on plural marriage outside of the church. This has stumped other fundamentalists I've spoken with, and the only response I've gotten was, "well I guess there's a lot we don't know about the resurrection."
The resurrection of Joe Smith.A frightening thought... Surely, somebody in Nauvoo might have had the sense to stuff his mouth full of garlic, drive a sharp, wooden stake through his heart, and sprinkle the corpse with a few gallons of holy water...
The person writing this knows very little about the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints. Yet, if he is speaking of the Reorganized LDS Church then he could be right.
My wife got all flummoxed once when she found out that they had dug up Smith's remains and re-planted them. She insisted that that couldn't be done because according to the D&C, he'd been resurrected.
I think historically face masks were done to memorialize the dead. Just like people will snap photos of people in their coffins at the wake/funeral. Something to remember a person by.
Didn't they do a death mask of abraham lincoln?
Also, when they re-interred JS and all at the official plot alongside the mississippi river under that enormous marble slab, the RLDS had a dedication. My tbm friend was in nauvoo at the time and saw the announcement on a flyer. She decided to attend. Very few people attended the dedication. The current church prophet was there with his henchmen and strong-arms. She stood right behind him and he turned around and talked to her for awhile. I want to say it was Howard W. Hunter.
Anyway, who cares right? There a lot of people that died in the past as few can escape. Should we hold memorials for all of them?
Yeah, all kinds of European cultures, including Americans, did death masks. It was a way of always having the person's image as he or she was at the time of death. I think, for instance, you can go to the museums of many famous people--composers and the like--and their death masks are featured. Plus, they're easy to duplicate, and you can always have a spare on a back shelf in case the real one breaks.