The great-great-grandson of Smith, Dan Larsen inherited the locket shortly before his mother's death in 1992. Its finial was bent and he was not able to open it, so he put it away for safekeeping. Read more

Who were these women, and what are their stories?

Smith was already married when he began to set his sights on other women.

His first wife, Emma, had wed the handsome, charismatic religious leader in 1827 with the firm belief that it would be a traditional relationship.

Emma suffered multiple miscarriages during her life and lost several children after they were born.

When her husband began to practice polygamy, she may have felt like something of a failure, according to Jana Riess, a Mormon blogger for Religion News Service.

"Imagine what it would have felt like to be her, and see her husband apparently abandoning her to be with others who might be able to bear him children," said Riess.

Church officials could not provide The Huffington Post with a comprehensive list of Smith's wives.

But historians have been able to learn quite a lot about the women by piecing together information from diaries and family histories.

The church's public affairs department directed HuffPost to Todd Compton, a Mormon researcher whose 1997 book In Sacred Loneliness compiles a list of 33 well-documented wives of Joseph Smith — although the total number is likely as high as 40.

Emma was allegedly disturbed by the doctrine on polygamy, which Joseph claims he received through divine revelation.

Her stance put the prophet in the position of having to choose between God's will and his wife's.

As Joseph would later tell it, it wasn't until an angel appeared to him, brandishing a sword and threatening destruction, that the prophet finally agreed to obey the commandment fully. Continue reading

Sources

• Huff Post Religion
• Image: Dear Kitty

The church's teachings had previously portrayed Smith has having been happily married to one woman only.

The revelations of Smith's polygamy came in an essay posted on the LDS church's website, The Telegraph reported.

This followed speculation on the Internet concerning Smith's marital history.

Addressing Smith's wife count, the essay notes that "careful estimates put the number between 30 and 40".

Some of these women were already married to others, while one wife was just short of her 15th birthday.

The church also notes that Smith's multiple marriages caused great pain to his first wife Emma.

"Plural marriage was difficult for all involved.

"For Joseph Smith's wife Emma, it was an excruciating ordeal," the essay stated.

The LDS church disavowed plural marriage in 1890 under pressure from the US government.

Their home territory of Utah was granted statehood as part of the deal, though some breakaway Mormon cults have continued the practice.

According to the essay, Smith was a reluctant polygamist but relented under the threats of an angel which ordered him to obey "the commandment fully".

Smith regarded his fledgling church as a restoration of the "ancient principles" of Biblical prophets such as Abraham, who practised plural marriage.

He also authorised other Mormons to practice plural marriage, it said.

The Church notes that Smith would not have consummated all the marriages as some were "eternity only sealings" - relationships to be taken up in the afterlife.

Smith' marriage to his 14-year-old bride was in this category, the church added, implying that it had never been consummated.

The essay also noted polygamy rapidly increased the Mormon population at a time when the church faced religious persecution and economic hardship.

Sources

• The Telegraph
• Image: Salon.com