Before there was Arnold Friberg, before Living Scriptures and the Book of Mormon comic books, there was George Reynolds (1842-1909).

Some of Reynolds’ writings about the Book of Mormon were state-of-the-scholarship for his day:  His Complete Concordance to the Book of Mormon, A Dictionary to the Book of Mormon, and several refutations of the Spaulding story fall into this category. Other writings attempted to simplify and popularize the Book of Mormon among church members, especially the youth. So far as I have been able to determine — and my search has not been exhaustive, so I could quite easily be corrected here — his 1888 The Story of the Book of Mormon may contain the first illustrations of the Book of Mormon, all of them paintings of varying quality produced by various Mormon artists.

Continue reading George Reynolds and C.C.A. Christensen: Illustrated Book of Mormon Stories →