There are a lot of Adventist History ephemera, photographs, manuscripts, and books that are in archives, libraries, research centers, and vaults of entities that index and catalog. These places can be categorized as “the zoo.” Other items are “in the wild” and are unknown to researchers as of yet. Church basements, family member’s attics, and dusty boxes in used books stores, contain treasures waiting for researchers exploring Adventist history.

Diane Fickett, a church member in the Northern New England Conference, from Friendship, Maine, talked with Merlin Burt and decided to give Adventist historical items in her possession to the Center for Adventist Research. She gave the book “Beautiful Living,” which is signed by S. N. Haskell; a photograph of Charlotte Bourdeau, wife of A. C. Bourdeau; and also a photograph of six unidentified men, possibly related to the Bourdeau family.

Augustin (A. C.) Bourdeau (1834-1916) was a pioneer French language evangelist, conference president, and missionary to Europe. In his early ministry he was closely associated with James and Ellen White.

Stephen (S. N.) Haskell (1833-1922) was an evangelist and an administrator having an impact on many areas including church organization, missions, and education.

“It is exciting to see how many important Adventist historical materials are out in people’s hands. They don’t always appreciate the significance of what they have. I hope that they give thought so that things don’t get lost to posterity,” said Merlin D. Burt, director of the Center for Adventist Research.

Katy Wolfer, Special Projects Manager / Katy enjoys traveling and contemplates in her spare time where she’d go if she had her own sailboat.

On Friday, November 9, 2012, 10 – 11 a.m. the Center for Adventist Research celebrated the publication of the remainder of the Ellen G. White periodicals. This event was an opportunity to express our thanks to Daniel Woolf for his donation of a book scanner and funding for scanning the remaining English language periodicals articles by Ellen G. White. His generous donation allowed us to complete this ambitious task, which will lead to the publication of Volumes 3 & 4 of the “Ellen G. White Periodical Resource Collection”.

This publication has fulfilled a long wished for dream held by Tim Poirier, Vice-Director of the White Estate. When he last worked on this project 23 years ago, he put his work on the shelf with the hope that he would once again we able to pull the materials out and send them off for publication. Though unable to attend the celebration event in person he sent a letter that expressed his appreciation. He writes in his letter:  “I was asked to compile these volumes toward the end of the 1980s, but with the release of the Ellen White CD-ROM in 1990, which included nearly all these articles, the publishing house decided to abandon the plan of issuing the rest of the articles in printed volumes.  Since 1990 I’ve had the daily reminder of this unfinished project sitting on the bookshelf in my office, with the table of contents for volumes three and four archived in my overhead cabinet—hoping for a day when there would be sufficient interest and resources to complete the series.”

Juliette Johnson, Digitization Manager at the Center for Adventist Research, spent many hours working on the final computer file to submit for publication. Speaking of her work, Julie says when digitizing these materials and making corrections,  and cleaning up the text, she can’t help but read the material. She has grown in her appreciation for the material and the work we are doing here at the Center to increase access for researchers around the world. Also putting in many hours towards completing this project student workers employed by the Center. Samuel Pagán did most of the scanning, and  Joseph Abandon-Sam helped with some of the cleanup and with typing up the index and table of contents.  Lubasi Ngonda was involved as well in a variety of tasks.

Dr. Niels-Erik Andreasen, President of Andrews University, speaks a few words of appreciation to Dan Woolf for his donation that made the completion of the Ellen White Periodical Resource Collection possible.

The Center is grateful to all of our friends for what they have done over the years.  It has made a real difference in acquiring and making available important Adventist resources.  This has helped the Seventh-day Adventist Church strengthen our sense of identity and mission. To our friends, we say thank you for your continued interest in and support of the work of the Center for Adventist Research.

Each year the Center for Adventist Research continues to promote and preserve our Adventist heritage. Through digitization projects, Adventist history tours, assistance to researchers, and symposiums many lives are changed for the better.

In particular the paper digitization project has enjoyed great success in the past year. All the foreign language Ellen White titles held in our collection have been scanned. We have made good progress on converting our White Document File to digital form. Through the General Conference we purchased new equipment, an Indus BookScanner 9000, that increased the quality and productivity of paper digitization. These materials have been processed and the digital file has been made accessible to the world via the Internet.

The goal of the Center for Adventist Research is to continue to provide historical resources for the Seventh-day Adventist church and world. With the help of donations from supporters such as you we will continue to see improvements in understanding of Adventist identity and purpose.

Thanks again to our friends for your generous support of our efforts to serve our library patron’s research requests originating from all over the world.

On September 23, 2009, the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and the Center for Adventist Research at Andrews University held a memorial service “Remembering Elder Edward Earl Cleveland: Learning from a Life of Mission and Ministry. The program and a nearly 14-minute audio-visual presentation featuring memorable remarks by Cleveland are provided.

Cleveland Montage Video (318 MB)
Cleveland Memorial Program (545 KB)

Cleveland is remembered as a preeminent twentieth-century evangelist, preacher, civil rights activist, mentor, and leader in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He did evangelism and preaching in over 70 countries and six continents over a period of more than 60 years. Thousands of people trace their conversion to the influence of this man.

In November 2007 Edward Earl Cleveland donated to the Center for Adventist Research his personal papers consisting of nearly 2,000 sermons, manuscripts, clippings, photographs, audio and visual recordings, artifacts and books. They are contained in 44 archival boxes and are described in the personal papers register. At the time of the donation, Cleveland also was interviewed and reflected on his life and ministry. The 40-minute interview is available through the Center.

44 archival boxes of materials contain the collection. They include personal papers with several thousand sermon manuscripts, clippings, and manuscripts. There are many artifacts and particularly dozens of awards he received over the years. The collection also has photographs and many of the books that were in his personal library. There are also audiovisual materials that were produced over the years.

Edward Earl Cleveland speaking at an appreciation event held at the time of his donation of his personal papers to the Center for Adventist Research.

During April 2007, Verdabelle A. Spaulding donated models of the H.M.S. Bounty and the Pitcairn longboat along with other significant artifacts and correspondence. Mrs. Spaulding met and interacted with Floyd and Violet McCoy. Floyd, now deceased, was a descendant of one of the original mutineers. He is the person who made the models that we house in the Center. Among the artifacts donated is a small copper fragment from the H.M.S. Bounty and a woven basket from Pitcairn Island.