Evening and Morning Star

The Evening and the Morning Star was an early publication sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the first periodical printed by the Church. The periodical was published monthly in Independence, Missouri, from June 1832 to July 1833, and then in Kirtland, Ohio, from December 1833 to September 1834. It was first published in fourteen eight-paged, double-columned monthly issues.

The periodical was published in the printing office operated by William Wines Phelps in Independence, Missouri, until the office was destroyed by a mob on 20 July 1833. The mob also destroyed numerous uncompleted copies of the Book of Commandments, which was later renamed the Doctrine and Covenants. After the Latter Day Saints were expelled from Missouri in late 1833, the publication was printed in Kirtland, Ohio, in a shop owned by Frederick G. Williams. Because the circulation of the Missouri-printed Star was small and localized, Oliver Cowdery reprinted all the original twenty-four issues in Kirtland between January 1835 and October 1836, in a new sixteen-page format, with numerous grammatical improvements, and a few articles deleted. The Evening and the Morning Star was succeeded by the Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate in October 1834 (HC 2:167).

Printed in it was a brief History of the Church, a number of LDS hymns, instructions to members of the Church, letters reporting its progress throughout the country, and many of the revelations received by the Prophet Joseph Smith. Oliver Cowdery, its editor in Ohio, printed reports and commentaries about the Saints' difficulties in Missouri and some of the doctrinal writings of Sidney Rigdon, a counselor in the First Presidency.

The Community of Christ (Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) holds archives of the complete run, accessible here.