Franklin D. Richards assembled the first Pearl of Great Price as a mission pamphlet, gathering items British converts had little access to, and the 1851 collection's title, drawn from the parable of the merchant, described its purpose: precious things in small compass. The Book of Moses restores, in the movement's understanding, material lost from Genesis, unfolding the visions of Moses, the preaching of Enoch and the city of Zion taken to heaven, texts that ground distinctive doctrines including the premortal existence and God's weeping over human wickedness.
The Book of Abraham, published by Joseph Smith in 1842, presents the patriarch's first-person account of his near-sacrifice in Ur, his astronomy learned through the Urim and Thummim, with the governing star Kolob nearest the throne of God, and a creation narrative in which the Gods organise rather than create from nothing, foundations for Latter-day Saint teaching on the plurality of gods and eternal progression.
Joseph Smith Matthew reworks the Olivet discourse; Joseph Smith History gives the canonical account of the First Vision of 1820 and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon; and the Articles of Faith, from Smith's 1842 Wentworth letter, remain the church's most quoted summary of belief, memorised by generations of children. Canonisation came in Salt Lake City in October 1880, by the sustaining vote of a general conference, alongside the sustaining of Wilford Woodruff's revelations; later editions adjusted contents, moving two visions into the Doctrine and Covenants in 1976 to 1979.