Road Trip 2015 Palmyra Book of Mormon

Joseph Smith Jr. translated the gold plates he received at Hill Cumorah into what would become the Book of Mormon. Once translated, it had to be published; if the Book was to be distributed to the members of the new church as well as to be used by missionaries.

Rear entrance to the Grandon Building located in downtown Palmyra, New York.  After translating the gold plates, Joseph Smith convinced Egbert B. Grandon publisher to print five thousand copies of the Book of Mormon.

Hand written translation manuscript used to set the type for printing.

These trays hold the letters of the alphabet printed in reverse.  Each word had to be written backward with these letters to form the sentences (also backwards).

The lines of text were then arranged to print a page (type setting).  The large rattle looking things she is holding are made of soft leather.  They are pressed into ink and then used to apply ink to the lead letters in the set.

16 separate, consecutive pages were printed with each setting.  Settings for each of the 5000 copies were completed before setting up to print the next 16 pages.

Once printed, the pages were hung for the ink to dry.

Pages like the large ones on the right were cut and then folded as shown on the left.

Small groups of pages were then hand stitched to form the beginnings of the book.
This picture shows many of the small groups stacked together.

The stack of sewn pages was then placed in the binding press aligned and glued.

The bound pages were then prepared for attaching the hard leather cover.

The completed product.  The Book of Mormon ready to be read.