A Night At The Museum

Early July brings about the annual Hill Cumorah Pageant. The Hill Cumorah Pageant brings about a whole lot of extra work.

We call this post " a Night at the Museum" because it details a bit of our work (outside of the bathrooms that we needed to clean) One thing that is kind of neat is the ability to clean and get behind the "barriers" where the regular visitors can't get. Here Sister Parkerson is standing in the "bindery" where the Book of Mormon was most probably bound together.

Here is a copy of the original printers manuscript which the Book of Mormon was set in type by.

Elder Parkerson was standing next to the printing press that was exactly the same type of standing press that the Book of Mormon was printed on. It would have been the latest invention and was the most advanced printing press in the country. It was shipped on the Erie Canal which has just recently been completed.

Geoff is standing next to a display case which holds one of the original 5000 copies of the "Book of Mormon". A volume like this one sold at an antique book auction in New Hampshire a few years ago for over $40,000. While the antique books are of great value the words which they contain are priceless!

Elder Parkerson at E. B. Grandin's old desk. This is the room that Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration, Martin Harris, and E. B. Grandin would have been sitting in when they signed that contract, Martin putting up 150 acres of his farm where we are living, to cover the cost of printing the first 5,000 copies of the Book of Mormon.

Sister Parkerson behind the counter of the bookstore section of Mr. Grandin's printing establishment. Behind are replicas of old paper back/bound books which were the most common of the day. Paper back books were far more afforable. The Book of Mormon was to be bound in pigskin leather. It would sell for $1.25 or about 3 days wages of that day. It was a book of great worth. It is today.


There was and is a special "Spirit" in that building as one works and cleans there. Although E.B was not converted by the book, one of the workers in the bindery was. As one learns of the history that took place and the miracles of the creation of the Book of Mormon from its translation to the completion of the first edition, its coming forth was truly miraculous.