With more than 25 years of research, Patrick Bishop and Joseph Brickey created a figure and painting of what Joseph Smith may have actually looked like. They are a culmination of extensive forensic and historic research. (Courtesy of Joshua Bishop)
The "Brother Joseph Again: Restoring the Visual Image of Joseph Smith Jr." event answers a question that has been asked for the past 100 years.Joseph Brickey, a classical and forensic artist, and Patrick Bishop, an independent researcher, have spent the past 25 years researching the appearance of Joseph Smith Jr.On June 27, the anniversary of Joseph’s martyrdom, Brickey and Patrick presented their findings.The event included showings of portions of their documentary, photos of forensic work and segments of their book.Bishop explained that the question of Joseph Smith’s appearance has been an ongoing issue.“After everyone who knew Joseph Smith died, you started seeing articles in Church periodicals and magazines and books that asked that question,” Bishop said. “We felt like we could provide an answer with the research that Joseph and I have done over the last 25 years.”Brickey and Bishop started working independently to determine Joseph’s likeness and decided to join forces in the past year.
Patrick Bishop (left) and Joseph Brickey (right) presented their research on Joseph Smith's likeness. Part of the process included analyzing paintings and daguerreotypes. (Brittan Redford)
“I had first begun this when I was a student at BYU. My final project was to do a series of paintings of Joseph Smith,” Brickey said. “The nature of the painting required me to do my best attempt to research his likeness.”While Brickey focused his research on the forensic evidence, Bishop focused on the historic evidence.“It was a real serendipitous coming together of two minds that were already wrestling with the same things but had different backgrounds and strengths,” Brickey said.In the years they have spent researching Joseph Smith, the historical evidence shows that no one truly knows what he looked like.“We have pieces and glances of what he looked like from the historical sources of paintings and drawings that were done during his life,” Bishop said, “but we've never been able to put those altogether.”Brickey and Bishop have been able to use all kinds of evidence in their research.“We have portraits from his lifetime. We have physical descriptions of people that described him in their journals or newspaper articles. We have the skulls, the photographs that were exhumed in 1928, and we have the death mask,” Brickey said.Together, Brickey and Bishop have been able to do more than they could have accomplished alone.“Combining our approaches and our disciplines has really strengthened our work,” Brickey said.
People gathered at Utah Valley University to see Joseph Brickey and Patrick Bishop's presentation. The event was held on June 27, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. (Brittan Redford)
Brickey and Bishop hope that their research helps viewers gain a stronger connection to Joseph Smith as a person."Faith is so important to the human mind to get a sense of who someone is,” Brickey said.He explained that through their research they have come to know Joseph Smith as someone they can identify and connect with.Bishop explained that in order to truly know someone, you must know their voice, heart and mind and their face. “We come to know a little bit about Joseph's heart from reading about what people say about him and how he reacted, but that third element has been missing to help people come to know him again,” Bishop said.Bishop and Brickey hope that their research helps improve others’ lives as well.“My hope from this event is that people who have studied the life and teachings of Joseph Smith will get that last piece to the puzzle and they'll walk out the door knowing Brother Joseph again," Brickey said.The “Brother Joseph Again” documentary will come to theaters on October 9, 2026. The book will be available this fall.
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joseph smith
Patrick Bishop
Joseph Brickey
church history
lds church history
Joseph Smith death mask
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