The Deseret alphabet is a phonemic English spelling reform developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah) under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The two main contributors to the alphabet’s character development were Pratt and George D. Watt, a local expert on shorthand systems. In addition, a Frenchman visiting Utah at the time the alphabet was being developed reported that William W. Phelps “worked out the letters”.

At least four books were published in the new alphabet: The First Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Second Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Book of Mormon, and a Book of Mormon excerpt called “First Nephi–Omni”.

Considerable non-printed material in the Deseret alphabet still exists, including one replica headstone in Cedar City, some coinage, letters, diaries, and meeting minutes. Pratt supervised the transcription of the complete Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants.

One of the more curious items found in the Deseret alphabet is an English-Hopi dictionary.

The Deseret alphabet was (obviously) never widely adopted, partially because of the cost of actually re-transcribing materials printed in English, partially because a minimum threshold of regular users never materialized.

Some use persists today, however, and it has even been added to the Unicode Standard for use online.

Coin an 1860 Utah gold piece with the inscription “Holiness to the Lord”.
Physical art by Bob Moss of Salt Lake City.
Book cover via Playing the World.

Quoted text via Wikipedia.