BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY Crawford, Robert P. An index, or reference, to the second and third editions of the Book of Mormon, alphabetically arranged. By Robert P. Crawford. Philadelphia: Brown, Bicking & Guilbert, Printers, No. 56 N. Third St. 1842.
21 pp. 15 cm.
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Crawford’s Index is a set of topical references or an extended table of contents for the 1837 and 1840 editions of the Book of Mormon, arranged alphabetically. Crawford apparently drew on the index to the 1841 Book of Mormon. His index and the 1841 Liverpool edition of the Book of Mormon have about five–sixths of their entries in common, and a few of these common entries are sufficiently novel to suggest that they came from the same source. Only about a third of the common entries, however, are identically worded. Since it mentions only the second and third editions of the Book of Mormon, he probably published it before the 1842 Book of Mormon was advertised. In June and July 1844 The Prophet offered it for sale at 6¢ a copy or $2 per hundred.
Virtually nothing is known about Robert P. Crawford. He labored in Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Erastus Snow in February 1841. And the Times and Seasons (see this digital collection) listed him among its traveling agents from January to July 1841 and as its agent in Delaware in February, June, and July 1842. Beyond this, his name seems to be absent from the records of the LDS Church.
Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]). Item 158, p. 204-05.
Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University