Review and Herald Publishing Association

The Review and Herald Publishing Association's history begins before there was a Seventh-day Adventist Church, before there was a General Conference, and before there was a stable publishing plant. It began with small periodicals, a scattered community, and James White’s conviction that print could bind together believers who were geographically separated but theologically united. From The Present Truth in 1849 to the digital and resource-center functions of the twenty-first century, the Review and Herald story is also the story of Adventism’s transition from a small post-Millerite network into a world church. The roots of the Review and Herald Publishing Association lie in The Present Truth, first issued in July 1849. Early issues described the paper as “published semi-monthly—by James White,” and the early 1849 numbers already showed the Sabbatarian focus that would shape the movement’s earliest literature.¹ The Present Truth was not yet a publishing house in any formal sense. It was a missionary periodical, dependent on donations, improvised production arrangements, and the energy of a few leaders. Yet it provided the essential theological and social infrastructure for Sabbatarian Adventists. Through the paper, scattered believers rehearsed arguments about the Sabbath, sanctuary, prophecy, and Christian duty.

The early periodical project soon expanded. The facsimile collection of early Adventist periodicals notes that The Present Truth consisted of eleven numbers issued in 1849 and 1850, edited and published by James White, and that The Advent Review followed with five regular numbers in the summer and fall of 1850.² The purpose of The Advent Review was partly retrospective and apologetic: it reprinted and defended Adventist positions associated with the 1844 movement and helped define Sabbatarian Adventists as the true continuators of the Advent hope. In November 1850, the line from The Present Truth and The Advent Review converged in the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, the direct ancestor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald and later Adventist Review.³

In these years, the publishing enterprise had no permanent home. The paper was printed in various places as James and Ellen White traveled and as circumstances required. A later historical summary in the Review traced the movement from Paris, Maine, in 1850, to Saratoga Springs in August 1851, Rochester seven months later, and finally Battle Creek in 1855.⁴ These moves show how closely the publishing work followed the developing movement itself. The paper was not simply an information sheet; it was the portable center of Adventist cohesion.

Era II: Battle Creek and Institutional Formation, 1855-1861

The move to Battle Creek, Michigan, marked the beginning of a more stable publishing era. The first issue of the paper printed from Battle Creek was dated December 4, 1855.⁵ Battle Creek soon became the operational center of Sabbatarian Adventism. The earliest building was modest, but it gave the cause a physical home. Later accounts recalled that the first Battle Creek publishing building, with land and construction, cost $1,200 and was held in James White’s name.⁶ This arrangement, however, created a problem. As Adventist organization developed, leaders increasingly recognized the need for legal incorporation so that church property would not rest in private hands.

In May 1861 the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association was incorporated. The first annual meeting was held in Battle Creek on October 4, 1861. The report stated that fifty-seven members were present, representing 107 votes. It also recorded the transfer of office property from James White to the Association on June 2, 1861, with assets including presses, engine, type, books, stock, and accounts valued at $6,833.08, plus $201.72 cash on hand.⁷ The officers at the close of the meeting were James White, president, and E. S. Walker, secretary.⁸

This was a decisive step. The publishing association predated the General Conference, which would not be organized until 1863, and thus became the first major corporate expression of Adventist organization. The immediate motive was practical: to hold property, manage debts, print papers, and publish books. But the theological significance was also large. Adventists who had been cautious about formal organization now accepted that the mission required legal structures.

Era III: Expansion, Book Publishing, and the Missionary Press, 1861-1902

During the Battle Creek decades, the Review and Herald grew from a periodical office into a broad publishing operation. The Review remained central, but the Association also issued tracts, pamphlets, Sabbath School materials, doctrinal books, and larger subscription volumes. The Youth’s Instructor, founded earlier in 1852, became another important publication for Adventist children and youth. By the late nineteenth century, the Association helped create not only a reading public but a denominational culture.

Several major books and book families stand out. Uriah Smith’s writings on Daniel and Revelation became among the most influential Adventist prophetic works. By the early 1880s, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation had entered the subscription-book era, a turning point in Adventist literature evangelism. Later reminiscence identified George A. King’s sale of the newly combined volume in 1882 as a key moment in the rise of Adventist subscription-book work.⁹ J. N. Andrews’s History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week also became a major statement of Adventist Sabbath apologetics. Ellen G. White’s books, including editions of The Great Controversy and other works issued or circulated through Adventist publishing channels, further enlarged the theological and devotional reach of the press.

One of the most durable Review and Herald titles was Bible Readings for the Home Circle. Its late nineteenth-century forms grew from the Bible-reading movement, and the 1888 Bible-Reading Gazette already contained 162 Bible readings on doctrinal, practical, and prophetic subjects.¹⁰ In later editions, Bible Readings for the Home Circle became one of Adventism’s classic household books. Its question-and-answer structure made Adventist doctrine portable, teachable, and useful for both family worship and public evangelism.

The Association also participated in a wider Adventist publishing ecosystem. Pacific Press emerged on the West Coast in the 1870s, and foreign-language publishing developed as Adventism spread. Yet the Review and Herald remained the symbolic center. It was the house of the general church paper and the chief eastern publishing institution. Its presses, editors, and book committees helped shape the theological and devotional vocabulary of Adventists across North America and beyond.

The expansion brought difficulties. The Review was enlarged in the 1860s, costs increased, and financial pressures mounted. Later historical work on the Review and Herald Literary Society notes that during Jotham M. Aldrich’s administration the paper increased first from eight to twelve pages in December 1866, then to sixteen pages in June 1867, with costs rising faster than subscription income.¹¹ The founding of the Review and Herald Literary Society in 1871 reflected concern for the quality and circulation of Adventist periodicals. It was an attempt to make the publishing work not merely mechanical but literary, theological, and educational.

By the end of the nineteenth century the Battle Creek plant had become large and technically sophisticated. A 1903 Review article summarized its physical development: an original office building in 1855, an Adams press and steam engine in 1857, a new brick office building, additions in 1871 and 1873, a large four-story connecting building in 1878, and a pressroom addition in 1881 that brought floor space to approximately forty thousand square feet. The plant included machinery for printing, folding, bookbinding, electrotyping, stereotyping, photographing, photo-engraving, mailing, and shipping.¹² Adventist publishing had become an industrial enterprise.

Era IV: Fire, Crisis, and Transfer to Washington, 1902-1905

The greatest rupture in Review and Herald history came on December 30, 1902, when fire destroyed the main Battle Creek plant. The Review report published the next week stated that the alarm was first given at 7:30 p.m.; employees were in the building but could not identify how the fire began. Smoke filled the structure, lights went out, and workers escaped by fire escapes because stairways and entrances were already cut off. The fire spread with “almost incredible rapidity,” and within half an hour the structure was a “roaring furnace.”¹³ Ellen G. White later interpreted the fire as a providential judgment and warning, while also emphasizing the mercy shown in the preservation of life.¹⁴

The loss was severe, but not total. The West Building, containing the bank, book depository, and General Conference offices, was uninjured. Safes in the business office were opened and their contents found in good condition, though back numbers of the Review could not be supplied because of the fire.¹⁵ The directors acted immediately. The day after the fire, they authorized the manager to order machinery and materials sufficient to print the Review and Youth’s Instructor, and the chapel room in the West Building was turned into a temporary printing office.¹⁶

The fire also forced a larger question: should the Association rebuild in Battle Creek? At the 1903 General Conference session, resolutions advised that the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association should not rebuild its factory in Battle Creek and should consider transferring the Review and Herald and Youth’s Instructor to an eastern publishing concern.¹⁷ The legal transfer was completed through the creation of a new corporation under District of Columbia law: the Review and Herald Publishing Association. The 1905 report of the legal transfer explained that the new corporation was to be non-stock and non-dividend-paying, with net earnings belonging to the General Conference for the proclamation of the gospel. It also stated that when General Conference headquarters moved from Battle Creek to Washington in August 1903, the new Association assumed publication of the Review and Herald and Youth’s Instructor.¹⁸

This transfer changed the institution’s character. The old Battle Creek corporation had been linked to stockholders and local development. The new Washington corporation was tied more directly to the General Conference and to the world mission of the church.

Era V: Takoma Park and the Denominational Publishing System, 1903-1980

In the Washington/Takoma Park era, Review and Herald became a mature denominational publishing house. It stood near General Conference headquarters and served the Atlantic, Columbia, and Lake Union territories. The 1924 Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook listed the Association at Takoma Park, Washington, D.C., and summarized its chronology: “Established 1849; incorporated 1861; reincorporated 1903.”¹⁹ Its officers in 1924 were F. M. Wilcox, president; J. L. Shaw, vice-president; E. R. Palmer, general manager; E. L. Richmond, manager; R. T. Dowsett, treasurer; and L. W. Graham, secretary.²⁰

The same Yearbook shows the breadth of its periodical work. Editors were listed for the Review and Herald, Youth’s Instructor, Life and Health, Liberty, Sabbath School Worker, Home and School, Present Truth, and Church Officers’ Gazette.²¹ This range indicates that Review and Herald was not merely a book publisher. It served adults, youth, Sabbath School teachers, religious liberty advocates, health readers, church officers, and families. Its periodicals were part of a coordinated denominational print culture.

The Takoma Park era produced or distributed many of Adventism’s defining books. Among the most important were Bible Readings for the Home Circle, editions of Ellen G. White’s works, devotional books, doctrinal manuals, missionary biographies, children’s books, and historical works. In the mid-twentieth century the Association undertook one of its most ambitious editorial projects, the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. After the nine-volume Commentary was completed in 1962, the Association voted to publish a companion encyclopedia; the one-volume Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia appeared in January 1966, with revised editions following in 1976 and 1996.²² Together, the Commentary and Encyclopedia gave Adventism a reference library for pastors, teachers, students, and lay readers.

Another widely known product was Arthur S. Maxwell’s ten-volume The Bible Story. Later denominational news described it as perhaps the Association’s most famous product, noting its 1,200 full-color illustrations and its significance for Adventist families.²³ Through works like these, Review and Herald shaped the religious imagination of children as well as the doctrinal vocabulary of adults.

Era VI: Hagerstown, Merger, and Late Print Expansion, 1980-2014

In 1980 the debt-burdened Southern Publishing Association was folded into the Review and Herald, making RHPA the surviving eastern publishing corporation.²⁴ In 1983 the Association opened a new facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. This move reflected both optimism and the scale of late twentieth-century Adventist publishing. The Hagerstown plant printed and distributed books, magazines, Sabbath School materials, and church periodicals. By 2010 RHPA was still printing Adventist Review, Adventist World for North America and several other regions, Guide, Insight, Listen, Message, Vibrant Life, Women of Spirit, Sabbath School curriculum materials, Liberty, and Mission.²⁵

Yet the print environment was changing. By the early twenty-first century, declining book sales, changing distribution systems, digital reading habits, and the weakening of traditional Adventist Book Center and literature-evangelism channels created serious financial stress. RHPA’s leadership changed in 2010, when Robert S. Smith, president since 2000, retired and Mark B. Thomas was named interim president.²⁶

The crisis culminated in 2014, when the constituencies of Review and Herald and Pacific Press approved a major restructuring of North American Adventist publishing. Under the plan, the financially troubled Review and Herald would unwind operations at its Hagerstown facility; some assets and product lines could move to Pacific Press; and RHPA’s scaled-down operations would move to General Conference headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.²⁷ Leaders emphasized that publishing would continue, but printing and distribution would be reorganized.

Era VII: Resource Center and Digital-Age Publisher, 2014-Present

After 2014, the Review and Herald Publishing Association no longer functioned as a large independent printing plant. It continued as a General Conference institution with intellectual property, publishing identity, and limited publishing-house functions. In 2018 the RHPA board elected Brad J. Thorp as president and Melinda J. Worden as vice president for operations. The report noted that Robert Lemon, retired General Conference treasurer, had served as president during the transition.²⁸ The current Adventist Yearbook lists the Review and Herald Publishing Association at the General Conference address in Silver Spring, Maryland, with Ted N. C. Wilson as president and Karnik Doukmetzian as secretary.²⁹

RHPA’s contemporary catalog is smaller than the old Battle Creek, Takoma Park, or Hagerstown operations, but the Association continues to publish and market Adventist resources. Current offerings include titles such as Seventh-day Adventists Believe, the Church Manual, Sabbath studies, devotional materials, and new releases for the Adventist reading public.³⁰ The institution’s form has changed, but its essential purpose remains recognizable: to provide print and digital resources for Adventist belief, nurture, and mission.

Key Books and Publishing Contributions

• The Present Truth (1849-1850), the foundational Sabbatarian Adventist periodical.

• The Advent Review and Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald (1850), predecessors of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald.

• The Youth’s Instructor, an early and influential youth periodical.

• J. N. Andrews, History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week, a major Sabbath apologetic.

• Uriah Smith, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, one of Adventism’s defining prophetic works.

• Bible Readings for the Home Circle, a classic doctrinal and evangelistic handbook.

• Ellen G. White editions and denominationally distributed prophetic, devotional, and historical works.

• Arthur S. Maxwell, The Bible Story, a ten-volume children’s Bible set.

• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, completed as a major reference series by 1962.

• Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, first released in 1966, with later revised editions in 1976 and 1996.

• Seventh-day Adventists Believe and the Church Manual, continuing doctrinal and organizational resources.

Selected Key Officers

James White, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association (1861); E. S. Walker, secretary of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association (1861); F. M. Wilcox, president of the Review and Herald Publishing Association (1924); J. L. Shaw, vice-president (1924); E. R. Palmer, general manager (1924); E. L. Richmond, manager (1924); R. T. Dowsett, treasurer (1924); L. W. Graham, secretary (1924); Robert S. Smith, president (2000–2010); Mark B. Thomas, interim president (2010) and president by the restructuring period (2014); Robert Lemon, transition-era president after the Hagerstown restructuring; Brad J. Thorp, president (beginning April 16, 2018); Ted N. C. Wilson, listed as president in the current Adventist Yearbook entry.

Legacy

The Review and Herald Publishing Association was more than a press. It was Adventism’s first institution, a theological forum, an evangelistic agency, a youth educator, a children’s publisher, a reference-book producer, and a keeper of denominational memory. Its history can be read as a series of transformations: from a paper to a press, from a press to an incorporated association, from Battle Creek to Washington, from Takoma Park to Hagerstown, and from industrial printing to digital-age publishing support. Through all these changes, the Association’s central function remained the same: to place Adventist convictions into durable, portable, readable form.

Sources

“Adventist Church Will Release All-New Encyclopedia.” Adventist Review, April 17, 2015.

“Adventist Publishing House Faces Management Shift.” Inter-American Division News, April 30, 2010.

Andres, Aileen. “Church With a Unique Message and Mission.” ARH, November 13, 1975.

“Annual Meeting of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association.” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 8, 1861.

Bible-Readings by the Bible-Reading Gazette. Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald, 1888.

“Books and Records Preserved.” ARH, January 6, 1903.

Burton, Kevin M. “Review and Herald Literary Society.” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, January 29, 2020. Accessed June 15, 2026. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=DA1L.

Early S.D.A. Periodicals: Facsimile Reproductions of The Present Truth and The Advent Review. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946.

General Conference Bulletin. Oakland, CA, April 6, 1903.

“The Legal Transfer of the Publishing Work From Battle Creek to Washington.” ARH, March 9, 1905.

The Present Truth, August 1849.

The Present Truth, November 1850.

Review & Herald Publishing Association. “Home.” Accessed May 8, 2026.

“Review and Herald Publishing Association.” Adventist Yearbook. Accessed May 8, 2026.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1924.

“The Review Office.” ARH, January 6, 1903.

“Total Destruction of the Review and Herald Printing Plant.” ARH, January 6, 1903.

VandeVere, Emmett K. “The Book Work.” ARH, November 13, 1975.

Wahlen, Gina. “New Leadership for Review and Herald Publishing Association.” Adventist Review, May 3, 2018.

“With Goal of Repositioning Its Media, Adventist Church Overhauls North American Publishing Operations.” Inter-American Division News, June 17, 2014.

Notes

1. The Present Truth, August 1849, 17.↩

2. “Historical Setting of These Documents,” in Early S.D.A. Periodicals: Facsimile Reproductions of The Present Truth and The Advent Review (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1946), 7.↩

3. The Present Truth, November 1850, 81; “Historical Setting,” 7-8.↩

4. “The Review Office,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 6, 1903, 4.↩

5. “The Review Office,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 6, 1903, 4.↩

6. Aileen Andres, “Church With a Unique Message and Mission,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, November 13, 1975, 4.↩

7. “Annual Meeting of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 8, 1861, 152.↩

8. “Annual Meeting,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, October 8, 1861, 152.↩

9. Emmett K. VandeVere, “The Book Work,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, November 13, 1975, 10.↩

10. Bible-Readings by the Bible-Reading Gazette (Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald, 1888), title page and index.↩

11. Kevin M. Burton, “Review and Herald Literary Society,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, January 29, 2020.↩

12. “The Review Office,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 6, 1903, 4.↩

13. “Total Destruction of the Review and Herald Printing Plant,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 6, 1903, 12-13.↩

14. Ellen G. White, “Our Duty to Leave Battle Creek,” General Conference Bulletin, April 6, 1903, 85. White said, “In this the Lord spoke mercy with judgment,” and added that “the mercy of God was mingled with judgment.”↩

15. “Books and Records Preserved,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 6, 1903, 15.↩

16. Editorial note, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, January 6, 1903, 16.↩

17. “The Legal Transfer of the Publishing Work From Battle Creek to Washington,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 9, 1905, 17.↩

18. “The Legal Transfer,” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 9, 1905, 17.↩

19. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1924), 227.↩

20. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1924), 227.↩

21. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (1924), 228.↩

22. “Adventist Church Will Release All-New Encyclopedia,” Adventist Review, April 17, 2015.↩

23. “Adventist Publishing House Faces Management Shift,” Inter-American Division News, April 30, 2010.↩

24. “With Goal of Repositioning Its Media, Adventist Church Overhauls North American Publishing Operations,” Inter-American Division News, June 17, 2014.↩

25. “Adventist Publishing House Faces Management Shift,” Inter-American Division News, April 30, 2010.↩

26. “Adventist Publishing House Faces Management Shift,” Inter-American Division News, April 30, 2010.↩

27. “With Goal of Repositioning Its Media,” Inter-American Division News, June 17, 2014.↩

28. Gina Wahlen, “New Leadership for Review and Herald Publishing Association,” Adventist Review, May 3, 2018.↩

29. “Review and Herald Publishing Association,” Adventist Yearbook, accessed May 8, 2026.↩

30. Review & Herald Publishing Association, “Home,” accessed May 8, 2026.↩