Joseph Smith Gives 19 Year-Old Nancy Rigdon the 'Happiness Letter' After Her Polygamy Rejection

Tags

Painted scene inside a dimly lit Nauvoo parlor at dusk. From left: Joseph Smith leans forward in a dark coat, pointing accusingly toward a young woman while holding out a handwritten letter. In the center, 19-year-old Nancy Rigdon recoils in a gray-green dress with her hands raised in refusal, an alarmed expression on her face. To the right, her father Sidney Rigdon stands grim-faced in a dark suit and bow tie. Onlookers in period dress watch from the shadows. An old wall clock and a window framing the Nauvoo skyline anchor the room.

A painted dramatization of the 1842 confrontation in which Joseph Smith attempts to justify his plural marriage proposal to 19-year-old Nancy Rigdon, daughter of First Presidency counselor Sidney Rigdon. After Nancy refused Smith's proposal, he gave her the now-famous 'Happiness Letter,' arguing that 'That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another.' Sidney Rigdon was outraged when the letter surfaced, and the episode became one of the earliest public scandals of Nauvoo-era polygamy.

License

  • Strictly Personal Use: Free for private individuals only. Any use by organizations (commercial, nonprofit, educational, or religious) is strictly prohibited without prior authorization.
  • Mandatory Attribution: You must display "Image courtesy of Timothy P. Schreiber & MormonImages.com" immediately adjacent to the media wherever it is publicly used.
  • No Redistribution: You may use the media in your personal projects, but you cannot upload or submit the original files to stock repositories, archives, or media galleries.
  • Derivatives Permitted: You may modify or crop the media for personal use, provided the strict attribution requirements are still met.

Read the full MormonImages.com Personal Use License here.