I love history. And as a JW, I was fascinated with their history. While at Brooklyn Bethel (about 1974) I'd spend a lot of time in the Bethel library and the old Gilead library that was in the 107 building. I remember vividly that the Gilead library had a box of old Herald of the Mornings, the magazine that C.T. Russell was affiliated with N.H. Barbour before he started The Watch Tower in 1879. There were several issues in this box, some before they parted company and some afterwards.
Even though I left the JWs in 1980, I still find a strange fascination with early Bible Student/JW history. About two years ago someone contacted me and said they'd loan me some copies of the Herald of the Morning from 1878 and 1879. I was excited to see these again and to make PDFs of them, even if the print was a bit hard to read. As far as I know these issues had not been made public before. For newbies, these magazines are online in a few places. For example, half of 1878 (from July to December) can be found here:
http://www.archive.org/details/1878HeraldOfTheMorning
and half of 1879 (from January to June) can be found here:
http://www.archive.org/details/1879HeraldOfTheMorning
Now, some earlier issues of the Herald (text version, not scanned) are online as well:
http://www.archive.org/details/1874-1876HeraldOfTheMorning
In the last issue in that collection (March 1876) is a reference by its editor, N.H. Barbour, to C.T. Russell (page 221 of that PDF). Barbour mentions he's out of money and is planning on stopping publishing monthly. Instead, he plans on occasional issues. Of course, we know that Russell, whom Barbour had just met, started pouring money into the Herald of the Morning and financed the publication of The Three Worlds, which was published the next year (1877).
What happened to the Herald of the Morning between 1876 and 1878? Well, Russell explains what happened in the Supplement to the first issue (July 1879) of Zion's Watch Tower:
http://www.agsconsulting.com/htdbv5/zwt0644.htm
Br. B[arbour] and I talked over various methods of promulgating these truths and finally decided to travel and preach them wherever men and women would hear, and to thus spend (D.V.) the remainder of the harvest, which we then supposed was three and a half years, and would close in 1878. While I was arranging my affairs, brother B. returned to Rochester to prepare for publication of the "Three Worlds." (We found during the Philadelphia meetings that such a book was necessary to furnish hearers with chapter and verse for what was claimed), and to close up the "Herald" as it could not be properly attended to while traveling, and the suggestion was made that if any new evidences or truths were developed, a paper could at any time be published and issued from any point. In the meantime, to do justice to subscribers and give them reading matter for the remainder of their year, brother B. had parts of the "Three Worlds" book, then on the press, arranged with a heading, "Herald of the Morning Quarterly," which were left with a sister in Rochester to be mailed as they became due.
So, the Herald was "closed up," but there was a serialization of the Three Worlds book sent to subscribers for a time.
However, this serialization was only temporary and publication began again. Notice, what Russell says next:
We, Bros. Barbour, Paton and myself, traveled, lectured, etc., for some months, when it seemed advisable to us all that a paper should go continuously to those who were hearing, thus keeping alive and watering seed sown. This seemed good to us all, and while brother Paton and I continued lecturing, brother B. went to Rochester and fitted up our office, type, etc., for which I furnished the money. The old type, &c., had been sold before we started out, although I know nothing of how much was obtained for it, nor what was done with the money. The paper thus started was essentially another paper but took the same name because we could think of none better or more expressive. That it was a new paper, or had at least undergone a change of management, was witnessed monthly by the heading of its fourth page where it expressly states that it is "Published by C. T. Russell and N. H. Barbour." Since the paper's change of form, July 1878, this has been omitted. Possibly Bro. B. forgot it, or possibly he thought that the page being small this could be advantageously left out. What amount of money I invested in the paper I do not know. Of such things I never keep account.
So, at some point they started up a regular monthly paper due to all the interest that had been developed. In July of 1878, the format of this paper changed. (This is the first issue we currently have available for 1878.) Based on this, there were several issues of the Herald of the Morning prior to July of 1878 that were not part of the serialization of The Three Worlds. I wonder what are in these issues? This is an extremely important time in the development of the Bible Student movement. As Russell mentioned above, they were expecting the close of the Harvest in 1878. Were there articles that developed that theme? What other signficant articles were published during that era?
Further indication of issues of the Herald of the Morning earlier than July 1878 can be found in citations in Edward Peter's The Theocratic Kingdom. On page 842 of this PDF (in Volume 2 of Peter's set), he refers to two issues of the Herald that we do not have: June 15, 1878 and August 1, 1877
see:
http://www.archive.org/details/TheTheocraticKingdomPetersVols1-3
I bet these magazines for 1877 and 1878 still exist somewhere. Perhaps in someone's personal collection or in some uncategorized collection in a library somewhere? What a treasure trove these could be for researchers of the early Bible Student movement during this time before "the close of the Harvest"! On a side note, even issues of the Herald of the Morning after the break with Russell (starting with July 1879) would be a significant contribution to the historical understanding as these contain futher information on the dispute between Barbour and Russell.
Some collectors do not want rare materials to be made public. The benefactor who shared the issues I scanned from 1878 and 1879 insisted on remaining anonymous. This person (not a JW) was concerned that they'd be criticized for making them public. I was just glad that this person did do so. I understand that there's a bit of value on such rare items. Still, making copies available for researchers might not decrease their value. If some issues contain significant material, these could become even more valuable. Issues from 1877 and 1878 written by C.T. Russell, for example, would be worth much more than issues with articles by other early Bible Students.
At any rate, I wanted to post this information about these missing, significant issues of the Herald of the Morning for 1877 and 1878. Perhaps someone, somewhere, knows of some of these issues. Perhaps someday these other issues could see the light of day and be made available to historical researchers.
