From the First Presidency Office Journal, dated September 2, 1878, the following minutes were recorded:
An informal meeting of the council was held after Elders Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith had been set apart for their mission to the United States. Present-Pres[ident]. John Taylor and Elders Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith and A[lbert]. Carrington.
Brother Orson Pratt spoke of the desirability of obtaining the mss. of the Books of Abraham and of Joseph now in Woods Museum, Chicago.
Brother Taylor considered it to be well to do so though he thought it would be well not to appear too anxious, or advantage might be taken if such a feeling were manifested. He felt that anything that would throw light on the subject, embraced in the mission of Bro[ther]s. Pratt and Smith should be encouraged.1
From these minutes it is clear that LDS Church leadership either knew or believed that the Book of Abraham manuscripts (along with those of Joseph of Egypt) were held in the Wood Museum in Chicago in September 1878. This is quite interesting considering that 1) Church leadership was aware that the museum had acquired, in some way, the manuscripts from the possession of Emma Hale Smith Bidamon and/or her family, and 2) the Great Chicago Fire took place in October 1871. Church leadership, at that time, was apparently unaware that the manuscripts had actually been destroyed 7 years earlier.
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1 Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1893 [Vol. 1] (Salt Lake City, UT: Privately Published, 2010), 315
