Larry W. Draper holds a BA degree in philosophy from California State University at Fresno and MLS (masters of library science) and MA (history) degrees from Brigham Young University. He worked for eighteen years at the LDS Church History Department and for seventeen years as curator of print Americana and Mormonism at the L. Tom Perry Special Collections in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University before retiring in March 2014. He served a full-time mission with his wife, Mary Jean Davis, at the Church historic sites in Palmyra, New York from 2014 to 2015.