The Story of our Health Message

Mrs. White Tries the Dress

In September, 1865, Mrs. White put on such a dress, which she wore for a time “excepting at meetings, in the crowded streets of villages and cities, and when visiting distant relatives.” (Ibid.) After a time she wore it in all places and at all times. SHM 129.2

Her example was soon followed by several of the Seventh-day Adventist women in northern Michigan, and numerous letters of inquiry came from many quarters. When she saw that some were overemphasizing the question, as a matter of prime importance, she was led to protest: SHM 129.3

“The dress reform,” she declared, “was among the minor things that were to make up the great reform in health, and never should have been urged as a testing truth necessary to salvation. It was the design of God that at the right time, on proper occasions, the proper persons should set forth its benefits as a blessing, and recommend uniformity, and union of action.”—Ibid. SHM 129.4

Mrs. White’s advocacy of the health reform dress came thirteen years after Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Stanton, and Mrs. Bloomer had initiated in the United States the movement in favor of dress reform. There was scarcely a section of the country in which the voices of its friends were not heard. SHM 129.5

It had found able and honored advocates in its favor, as well as critics and defamers. Thousands of women were rejoicing in new-found freedom and health. Yet with all that might well be said in its favor, Mrs. White presented adequate reasons given to her why it was unsuitable for Seventh-day Adventists, and she determined to help her fellow sisters to find and adopt a style of dress in harmony with that shown her, one that would avoid the extreme and unfavorable aspects of the popular reform dress and yet give freedom of action and be healthful in every way. She was not, therefore, introducing and initiating a style of costume that was so ridiculous and strange as to merit the criticisms that some in later years have been led to present in a manner that seems plausible to those who are unaware of the circumstances which have been here presented. SHM 130.1

The particular costume adopted at the Health Reform Institute and recommended by Mrs. White was worn by many Seventh-day Adventist women for some years. The reasons for its being discarded afterward will be given in a later chapter.¹ SHM 130.2