Adventist History
What's Up on the Web:
An Eclectic and Serendipitous View

Introduction

Five years ago today, at the ARS section at Montemorrelos, we looked at a list of Adventist Historical sites on the Web. At that time, according to my presentation notes, there was not a great deal of Adventist history on the World Wide Web. That has certainly changed. An Alta Vista search done May 12, 2004, using the terms Early Seventh-day Adventist Church History, resulted in 15,100 results. And that was using the Advanced search which requires all of the words to be present. A look through the results indicated that this search listed mainly histories of individual and local churches.

Naturally, the search needed to be refined. Using the "exact search" option and eliminating the term "early" resulted in a more manageable 45 hits. Using Google's advanced, exact phrase, search and the same search terms, 182 hits resulted. Dropping out "church" elicited 320 hits in Google and 194 in Alta Vista.

The focus of my search has changed from five years ago. In 1999, I focused mainly on the history of Adventism and Millerism in the United States, using the search terms "Adventist," "Millerite," "Millerism," "Seventh-day Adventist or SDA History," and personal names of several of the early Adventist pioneers in addition to William Miller. As noted earlier, this year I limited my search to Seventh-day Adventist Church History and Seventh-day Adventist History, with a few side trips for other related topics.

In actuality, perusing the results of the searches wasn't as structured as I expected. Instead, I found that choice of sites turned out to be somewhat eclectic. Furthermore, following the links on the chosen sites led to serendipitous discoveries.

Once again, the list of web sites presented today is only intended to be an overview of the types of Adventist history resources on the Web.

I've divided the web sites into the following main categories:

• The Big 5
• College Libraries Special Collections
  • Interactive
  • Descriptive
• Millerites
• Historic SDA Sites
  • Images
  • Tours - Official & Personal
• Individual Histories
  • Ministries
  • World Divisions and Conferences
  • NAD Divisions and Conferences
• Full or Partial Text Resources
• Indexes
• Controversial Literature
• Other English Language Sites

But first, a look at the 1999 list. Out of the 38 sites listed, seven no longer exist. They have been dropped from the revised list. Seven sites have changed their URL's, which have been updated on the following. All of the anti-SDA sites are still active and at the same URL.

1. THE BIG FIVE

   • Adventist Heritage Ministry/Adventist Historic Village
     http://www.adventistheritage.org

   • Center for Adventist Research at Andrews (Photo search)
     http://www.andrews.edu/library/car/index.html

   • E. G. White Estate (Photo search)
     http://www.whiteestate.org/

   • General Conference - Office of Archives & Statistics
     http://ast.gc.adventist.org/

   • Loma Linda University, Archives and Special Collections/Ellen G. White Estate Branch Office (Photo search)
     http://www.llu.edu/llu/library/heritage

2. COLLEGE LIBRARIES - SPECIAL COLLECTIONS - INTERACTIVE

   • La Sierra University Heritage Room
     http://www.lasierra.edu/library/heritage/index.html
     Description of holdings plus online document file index.

   • Pacific Union College: Heritage Room
     http://library.puc.edu/adventist/heritage.shtml
     Bibliographies

   • Pacific Union College: Pitcarin Islands Study Center
     http://library.puc.edu/pitcairn/index.shtml
     Contains a bibliography of the collection and Pitcarin links.

   • Walla Walla College Photo Project
     http://www.wwc.edu/academics/library/imlib/photos.php
     Almost 6,000 photos relating to WWC, local camp meetings, and valley history, some films.

3. COLLEGE LIBRARIES - SPECIAL COLLECTIONS - DESCRIPTIVE

   • Atlantic Union College Library: Seventh-day Adventist Collection
     http://library.atlanticuc.edu/screens/libinfo_08.html
     New England Adventist Heritage Center
     http://www.atlanticuc.edu/campuslife.neahc.php

   • Columbia Union College
     http://www3.cuc.edu/library/about
     Site covers library's own history plus descriptions of several special collections

   • Newbold Seventh-day Adventist Archive
     http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/41/1245.htm
     Mundus: Gateway to missionary collections in the United Kingdom

   • Oakwood Archives and Museum
     http://www.huntsville.org/african_american.php

   • Southwestern Adventist University, E.G. White-SDA Research Center
     http://library.swau.edu/heritage_center/

4. MILLERITES

   • Research Collections: The Millerites & Early Adventists, 1840-1870
     http://www.umi.com/research/pt-product-Millerites-and-Early-Adventists-299.shtml
     ProQuest site. Under "Product Detail," there is a description of the microform collection on this topic, including a brief summary of Millerism and Adventism. The microform collection is held by a number of SDA libraries, including Peterson Memorial Library at Walla Walla College.

   • Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture
     http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/sitemap.html
     Christian Texts & Images
     Millennialism Homepage

   • Christian History Institute
     http://www.gospelcom.net/chi/
     Five documents & stories on site search

   • American Political Prints: The Salamander Safe (From Harper's)
     http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/BrowseCartoonsList.asp

   • Apologetics Index: Religious cults & sects - Millerites
     http://www.apologeticsindex.org

   • Newspaper articles from Adventist Review & JAE
     October Morn by Howard Krug, Adventist Review Online Edition (2002)
     http://www.adventistreview.org/2002-1543/story1.html
     Ascension Robes & Other Millerite Fables by James Ehrlich, Journal of Adventist Education (1994)
     http://www.ssd.org/Education/jae/articles/jae199457011805.pdf

5. HISTORIC SDA SITES - IMAGES

   • Elmshaven
     http://www.elmshaven.org/

   • Michigan Historical Markers
     http://www.michmarkers.com/Frameset.htm

   • Find A Grave
     http://www.findagrave.com/
     Locates information on where people are buried, often includes image of cemetery and/or grave site. Oak Hill is included.

   • Historical Society of Battle Creek
     http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/9840
     Includes picture of the Kellogg Sanitarium and biographical material on John Harvey Kellogg.

6. HISTORIC SDA SITES - OFFICIAL & PERSONAL TOURS

   • Battle Creek Road to Wellness Tour
     http://www.battlecreekvisitors.org/RoadToWellnessTour.htm

7. HISTORIC SDA SITES - PERSONAL TOURS

   • Jay & Kendra's Adventist Heritage Tour
     http://homepage.mac.com/bibliophiles/photos/PhotoAlbum39.html

   • Historic Adventist Village (Church group tour?)
     http://www.universitysda.com/galleries/battlecreek/bc.html

8. INDIVIDUAL HISTORIES - MINISTRIES

   • Review & Herald
     http://www.rhpa.org/about_us/our_history.asp

   • Adventist Health
     http://www.adventisthealth.org/aboutus/goDocDocument.asp?CN=77&DID=525

   • Message Magazine
     http://www.messagemagazine.com/history.htm

   • Christian Record Services
     http://www.christianrecord.org/site/aboutus/history.php

   • Pathfinders
     http://www.pathfindersonline.org/html/about/index.html

   • Voice of Prophecy
     http://www.vop.com/about_us/hms_richards_founder.html

   • It Is Written
     http://www.iiw.org/about/fact-sheet.html

   • Maranatha
     http://www.maranatha.org/about/history.aspx

   • 3ABN
     http://www.3abn.org/about/history/index.php

   • Adventist Communication Network
     http://www.acnsat.org/about.htm

9. INDIVIDUAL HISTORIES - WORLD DIVISIONS AND CONFERENCES

   • Bahamas Conference
     http://www.bahamasconference.org/about-us.htm#Bahamas-History

   • SDA Church in Canada
     http://www.sdacc.org/about/history.html

   • Newfoundland Adventist Heritage
     http://www.tagnet.org/sdanf/heritage.html

   • SDA Church - South Pacific
     http://www.adventist.org.au/ws/spdlive.nsf/HomePage?openform&Entity=South+Pacific
     Under Information/Our History
     Also, info on E.G. White in South Pacific

10. INDIVIDUAL HISTORIES - NAD CONFERENCES

    • Columbia Union Conference
      http://www.columbiaunion.org/about/history/history.html
      Union and local conference brief histories

    • Lake Union Conference
      http://www.luc.adventist.org/pathways/background.html
      Describes history of the audio tape set called Pathways of the Pioneers. An SDA history series for children.

    • Oklahoma Conference
      http://www.oklahomasda.org/admin/history.htm

11. FULL OR PARTIAL TEXT RESOURCES

    • Adventist Pioneer Library
      http://www.aplib.org/Gallery.htm
      Gallery of photos and short biographies of early Adventist pioneers

    • American Memory
      http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amtitle.html
      Historical Collections for the National Digital Library project (USA).

    • Making of America (MOA)
      http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/moa/
      A major collaborative endeavor to preserve and make accessible through digital technology a significant body of primary sources related to the development of the U.S. Materials are drawn from the library collections at the University of Michigan and Cornell University.

      • Smith, Uriah. The United States in the light of prophecy ... Rev. 13:11-17...
      • Smith, Uriah. The sanctuary and the twenty-three hundred days of Daniel VII,14.
      • White, Ellen. The spirit of prophecy, volumes 1-3.
      • White, James. Life incidents, in connection with the great Advent movement...
      • White, James. Sketches of the Christian life and public labors of William Miller...

    • Clarence L. Thomas IV's Home Page
      http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/clt4/

      • Smith, Uriah. Modern Spiritualism
      • Smith, Uriah. The Prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation
      • Snow, Charles Miles Snow. On the Throne of Sin

12. INDEXES

    • Seventh-day Adventist Periodical and Obituary Index
      http://143.207.5.3:82/screens/opacmenu.html
      Guides to articles and obituaries in SDA periodicals.

    • University of Michigan Historical Center for the Health Sciences: Source Link
      http://www.si.umich.edu/HCHS/HCHS-GUIDE/hchs.contents.html
      Index includes references to archival collections on Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek College, and John Harvey Kellogg.

13. CONTROVERSIAL LITERATURE

    • The Ellen G. White Research Project
      http://ellenwhite.org
      and http://ellenwhite.org/espanol/index.html
      This site looks so legitimate that it is misleading at first. However, it contains materials critical of Ellen White and the church. It seems to be maintained by ex-SDA's. The Spanish version is a computer translation of the English.

    • Ballenger, Albion F. Cast out for the Cross of Christ
      http://web2.airmail.net/billtod/cocc.htm
      Full-text chapter-by-chapter.

    • Cainright, D. M. Seventh-day Adventism Renounced
      http://web2.airmail.net/billtod/renounce.htm
      Chapter-by-chapter full-text of the work.

    • Jones, A. T. Some History Some Experience and Some Facts, 1906.
      http://www.ex-sda.com/atj1.htm
      The URL for this site proclaims it as ex-SDA. In addition to the full-text statement listed above, this site includes a number of other works critical of Ellen White, the SDA Church, and William Miller.

    • Present Truth Articles by E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones
      http://shepherds-rod.org/1888/pta.htm
      The URL for this site proclaims it as a Shepherds-Rod site. Includes text of articles.

14. OTHER ENGLISH LANGUAGE SITES

    • Great American Quacks: The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
      http://mtn.org/quack/amquacks/kellogg.htm
      Contains an entry on Dr. John Harvey Kellogg who is listed even though "he was not a true quack" because "he engaged in questionable medical procedures such as flectherizing, electropathy, and radium cures."

    • The Religious Movements homepage
      http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc257/home.htm
      From the main page, choose Religious Group Profiles, choose "s" in the alphabetical list, then choose Seventh-day Adventists. Contains photos of William Miller, Ellen G. White, James White, and Joseph Bates. Pictures are courtesy of the Adventist Pioneer Library. Gives brief history of the church and the Millerite and additional web links.