Church Historian and Recorder

His office gathers history sources and preserves records, ordinances, minutes, revelations, procedures, and other documents.

[2] This office is based on revelations to Joseph Smith calling for keeping records and preparing a church history.

[3] Oliver Cowdery, the first in this position, originally recorded meeting minutes, patriarchal blessings, membership information, priesthood ordinations, and a kind of narrative church history.

Larsen then moved on to other assignments, such as serving in the Temple Department[49] and Area Presidencies[50][51] and was not active in any historical role, though he was still technically the Church Historian until his release from the Seventy in 1997.

[48] While holding the office of Church Historian, and afterward, others succeeded Larsen as Executive Directors of the Historical Department.