More than 170 years ago, portraits of the pioneer apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints George A. Smith, his wife, Bathsheba W. Smith, and his mother, Clarissa L. Smith, hung in the celestial room of the original Nauvoo Temple.
Now those three portraits belong to the LDS Church History Museum thanks to the generosity of the Smith Family descendants.
On Dec. 13, the L. Stephen Richards Jr. family passed ownership of the oil paintings to the Church during a small ceremony at the museum. Elder Marcus B. Nash, a Seventy and the assistant executive director of the Church History Department, presided at the event.