Primary Sources: golden plates

List of descriptions of the golden plates.

Material

 * Joseph Smith, Jr.: "These records were engraven on plates which had the appearance of gold..." [1]
 * The Eight Witnesses: "...Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold..." [2]
 * Orson Pratt: "the appearance of gold" [3]
 * David Whitmer: "golden plates" [4]
 * William Smith: "a mixture of gold and copper" [5]
 * Catholic Telegraph: "pure gold" [6]
 * Eber Dudley Howe: "whitish yellow" [7]
 * Parley P. Pratt: "engraven on plates of gold" [8]
 * A.S.: "this pretended Revelation was written on golden plates, or something resembling golden plates" [9]

Weight

 * Martin Harris: "weighing altogether from forty to sixty lbs." [10]
 * William Smith: "I was permitted to lift them. . . . They weighed about sixty pounds according to the best of my judgement." [11]
 * William Smith: "I . . . judged them to have weighed about sixty pounds." [12]
 * William Smith: "They were much heavier than a stone, and very much heavier than wood. . . . As near as I could tell, about sixty pounds." [13]
 * Martin Harris: "My daughter said, they were about as much as she could lift. They were now in the glass-box, and my wife said they were very heavy. They both lifted them...I hefted the plates, and I knew from the heft that they were lead or gold." [14]
 * Emma Smith: "I moved them from place to place on the table, as it was necessary in doing my work." [15]
 * Catherine Smith Salisbury, while she was dusting in the room where he had been translating, "hefted those plates [which were covered with a cloth] and found them very heavy." [16]

Size of each plate

 * A.S.: "7 inches in length, 6 inches in breadth" [9]
 * Joseph Smith, Jr.: "six inches wide by eight inches long" [1]
 * Martin Harris: "seven inches wide by eight inches in length" [17]
 * Martin Harris: "seven by eight inches" [10]
 * David Whitmer: "about eight inches long, seven inches wide" [18]
 * Eber Dudley Howe: "about eight inches square" [7]
 * Fredonia Censor: "six or eight inches square" [19]
 * Parley P. Pratt: "The plates were each about 7 by 8 inches in width and length." [8]
 * Attributed to Lucy Mack Smith: "about eight inches long, and six wide" [20]
 * W. I. Appleby: "Each plate was about six by eight inches" [21]