Review and Herald Publishing Association


The Review and Herald Publishing Association is one of two major Seventh-day Adventist publishing houses in North America and was the oldest institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The organization published books, magazines, study guides, CDs, videos and games for Adventist churches, schools and individual subscribers. It also printed and distributed the Adventist Review magazine. In 2014 the Review and Herald Publishing Association was absorbed by its sister publisher, Pacific Press Publishing Association but maintains its board and administrators. The Maryland publishing house closed and some of its personnel and assets relocated to PPPA, in Nampa, Idaho.

History

The roots of the Review and Herald Publishing Association go back to 1849 when James White produced The Present Truth and, in 1850, The Advent Review. From there the publication house grew and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan.
A major fire on December 30, 1902 destroyed the offices. The headquarters was then moved to Takoma Park, Maryland. In the 1950s, the association developed The Bible Story by Arthur S. Maxwell. The set was notable for its size—including 411 stories from the Bible—and for having color illustrations on each page opening—an extravagant expense for a book publisher at that time.
In 1983, under the leadership of Elder Bud Otis, the organization moved to a new, $14 million facility in Hagerstown, Maryland on a campus; at that time the publishing house had 350 employees and an annual payroll of $6.7 million.
Edson White established the Gospel Herald Publishing Company in Nashville, Tennessee, which was renamed to Southern Publishing Association in 1901. It merged with the Review and Herald in 1980.

In creative works

The 2014 documentary film War in Heaven, War on Earth: The Birth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church During the American Civil War by Chris Small and Loren Small discusses the formation of the Review and Herald Publishing Association.