Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Appendix K: Pictures in “The Great Controversy”

A present-day critic adds for good measure to his plagiarism charge: “Mrs. White not only purloined the thoughts of others, but she was also guilty of using illustrations without credit.” Then he lists some pictures that appeared in The Great Controversy in 1885 that were taken from Wylie’s History of Protestantism, an English work. He speaks of such use of pictures as stealing. EGWC 643.11

This indictment is not properly before us in this book which deals with charges against Mrs. White. There is no reason to believe that she, any more than any other author, concerned herself with illustrations and credit lines for them. That is a part of the mechanics of bookmaking. EGWC 644.1

It is true that Mrs. White’s literary assistants included in their task the providing of illustrations on many books. However, in this particular instance the critic himself notes that the credit line on the pictures in question is that of the printers and publishers, and not Mrs. White’s office. EGWC 644.2

We are not here concerned to defend the practices of publishers, even Mrs. White’s publishers. However, if her publishers were thieves for using such illustrations, then American publishers in general in those days were thieves, for it was the common custom for these publishers to use, without payment, and often without credit, such pictures as they might desire from English books. The facts are, they were not thieves. Such pictures, along with the books in which they were found, were in the public domain, for they were covered by no copyright law in the United States. We have no interest in discussing with the critics the question of publishers’ ethics. There was nothing unlawful in what the various American publishers did. These pictures were as certainly in the public domain as was Mrs. White’s last will and testament which the present-day critic, who brings this picture charge, copied free and regularly sells! EGWC 644.3