"Behold, there shall be a record kept among you." (Doctrine & Covenants 21:1)
The above statement headed a revelation Joseph Smith received on April 6, 1830, the day the Church of Jesus Christ (which later added "of Latter-day Saints") was organized. At the time, a majority of those who adhered to the Mormon message could fit in the small house in which the organization took place, but the young church had plans that were as grandiose as Smith's revelations were bold. And from that point in time, the Mormon movement recorded meticulous minutes, kept voluminous journals, and, most important for the most recent volume of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, wrote numerous histories.
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