852-1916
Founder of Jehovah's Witnesses

Multimedia.

At the time of his death from heart failure on 31 October 1916, Charles Taze Russell, the founder and soul of the Jehovah's Witnesses, was among the most widely read columnists in America. The new century had brought with it new technologies, and Russell, who began spreading his faith in the 1870s via publication and public speaking, had taken full advantage of the chance to "harvest" followers, as he referred to his work. His newspaper columns and sermons had expanded by 1913 to some two thousand newspapers with an estimated readership of fifteen million. His own publication The Watch Tower referred to it as "newspaper gospelling," but his word had found other avenues besides the printed page. An example of Russell's innovation and forward thinking for spreading his word was his "Photo-Drama Creation." This multimedia event begun in 1914 was quickly taken overseas...