“Joseph [Smith, Jr.] never had a curtain drawn between him and his scribe while he was translating. He would place the director [seer stone] in his hat, and then place his <face in his> hat, so as to exclude the light.”

Elizabeth Ann Whitmer Cowdery Affidavit – 15 February 1870, in Dan Vogel’s Early Mormon Documents – Volume 5 (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 2003), 260.