Watch Tower Logos through the years

 

(guest post by Leroy)

The most read, translated and distributed magazine in the world has lived a long life. It was born in 1879 before the water closet toilet was generally introduced. It witnessed the invention of the radio, the telephone as we know it, the lightbulb, the airplane, cars, cinema, TV, internet, etc. It survived two world wars, countless economic recessions, and it survived pandemics like the yellow fever, cholera, the Spanish flu, Ebola, among others.

Throughout its history it has experimented with many internal changes, one of the most visible being its cover design. Today we are going to review, one by one, every cover logo the Watchtower magazine has had. We are including only magazine cover logos. There are other “institutional” logos used in letters and other documents, as well as in other publications; we are not including those in this article, only the ones that appeared in the cover of the Watchtower magazine.

NOTE: All logos included in this article had trademark registry in the past; however, we have consulted with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (uspto.gov) to confirm that none of them has a currently active trademark. We verified this because we don’t want to violate copyright laws nor the organization policies regarding the use of current logos. All the current logos that have active trademark registry can be found in the official website (jw.org)

1879
Years on the cover: 12

In July 1879 the first number of “Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald or Christ’s Presence” magazine was published, and it used this logo. The design appears to be inspired by the left side of the main gate of the Allegheny Cemetery, a very familiar place for young CTR. In it you can see a tower and a wall almost identical to the ones in the drawing that decorates the cover of the first number of the magazine.

Here are two photographs of the cemetery entrance, one seen from the front, and the other from the left side for comparison purposes.

Main entrance of Allegheny cemetery showing towers and gate. The first Watch Tower logo closely resembles this. Photograph by Jenny Karlsson and used with permission. 

Main gate of the Allegheny cemetery as seen from the left side.

1891

Years on the cover: 4

In January 1891 the previous logo was moved to the first interior page of the magazine, and they put this other logo on the cover. It includes for the first time the cross and crown symbol. This symbol was quite common among Christians since the XIX century, it was used by Baptists, Methodists, Adventists and other Christian groups and was later adopted by the masons. The meaning is simple: it makes reference to the fact that those who want to be kings with Christ (bear the crown), but must first live a life of sacrifice like his (carry the cross). In this logo they also changed the lettering for one much more adorned.

1895

Years on the cover: 14

This is one of the most identifiable logos of the Watchtower; the main letters were put on top of a cloth banner. Two symbols were added at the top, on the left the cross and crown symbol, and to the right a coat of arms symbolizing the Christian armor. Even though this exact logo was active for 14 years, this general idea remained until 1931, a total of 36 years.

1909 (January)

Years on the cover: 0 (9 months)

The main banner was redrawn and also the upper part symbols. The title “Zion’s Watch Tower” was changed for “The Watch Tower”. The slogan letters were also redrawn.

1909 (October)

Years on the cover: 9

In October 1909 they changed the lettering of the word “The” and they came back to the 1895 design of the letters, symbols and slogan style.

1911

Years on the cover: 0 (3 numbers)

Some copies of the number for August 15, 1911 featured a color cover. This same cover appeared again in the January 1^st issue of 1912, which was a special edition. For this cover all the logo was redrawn, keeping the same idea, but in full color. The same year, the April 15 issue featured the same color cover.

1918

Years on the cover: 13

In March 1918 the logo was retouched again. The most notable change was the lettering style of the slogan, this time a little more “square” like than the previous.

1931

Years on the cover: 8

 

The Oct 15 issue featured a substantial change in the cover logo. The cross and crown and coat of arms symbols were removed and the design of the main banner was simplified, now looking more like parchment as opposed to cloth. The words “Watch” and “Tower” were merged, changing the title to “The Watchtower” and the slogan was placed in the left side of the composition.

1939 (January)

Years on the cover: 0 (2 months)

The lettering style of the word “Watchtower” was changed and the parchment banner was redrawn. The slogan changed to “And Herald of Christ’s Kingdom” instead of “And Herald of Christ’s Presence”.

1939 (March)

Years on the cover: 11

The slogan was changed to “Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom”. By this time the magazine cover was printed in two inks.

1950

Years on the cover: 24

Another drastic change occurred in the August 15 issue of this year. The parchment was abandoned and they used letters in perspective. The slogan combined two different styles and it was moved to the right of the composition.

1974

Years on the cover: 4

In January, 1974 appeared a new logo, the only changes being the word “The”, changed to a cursive style, and the slogan typography. The slogan was also moved to the bottom of the cover.

1978

Years on the cover: 4

In this year the logo was simplified, they used capital square shaped letters for the title and they added for the first time the Watchtower shape over the letter W.

1982

Years on the cover: 2

This year the typography was changed for one in upper and lower case. The word “The” was increased in size. The left line of the Watchtower shape was shortened, and the slogan typography was changed for one with a bigger and slimmer style.

1984

Years on the cover: 2

The logo is the same as previously used but from this year onward the main title “The Watchtower” appeared in color, and the rest of the composition in black.

1986

Years on the cover: 1

This year they used the same logo but it was used all in one color rather than black.

1987

Years on the cover: 4

This year the word “The” was made smaller, the tower shape was redesigned, making the battlements shorter and it was relocated to be on top of the letters a, t and c. The slogan style was changed for a bold font.

1992

Years on the cover: approaching 30 at time of writing.

The typography was changed for one in upper caps with serif and the base of the tower was made thinner. This is the cover logo up to this time of writing.

Because this logo has active trademark protection we cannot show it here, but you can find it on the official website jw.org

Which one is your favorite?

Addenda

It appears that the original 1879 Tower logo was used on foreign language versions of Zion's Watch Tower for some time. Below is a graphic of a Swedish language Watch Tower from 1904.

Emma Martin

This article first appeared elsewhere in January 2019. Emma’s story with her photograph was later recounted in the opening article in The Watchtower magazine for October 2020, which focused on efforts to publicise her case and gain her release. The original article below has now been expanded with some additional information about Emma’s husband who was also a Bible Student, but who had died by the time she was arrested.

 

 

When the book The Finished Mystery was released in 1917 while Canada and the United States were at war it unleashed a wave of persecution against the Bible Students loyal to the IBSA. Statements about patriotism were viewed as pro-German propaganda and Bible Students fell afoul of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917. The book had been prepared before the act came into force, and the main offending pages were cut out of copies being circulated thereafter, but this didn’t stop the prosecution and conviction of the Brooklyn eight – J F Rutherford and seven others. This article addresses the fact that many others were also arrested in the hysteria of the times. One such person was Mrs J Emma Martin.

We know a little bit about Emma’s history. She was married to a doctor, and had at least one child who died in 1910.  The child’s death certificate and census returns from 1900 and 1905 provide most of what we know. She was born as Emma Hart in 1870 in Clinton, Iowa. Her husband, Jeffrey Martin, MD, was born in England in 1851 but came to America in 1879. The 1900 census lists him as a physician and surgeon. They were married in 1897. Their son, Paul, was born in Kansas and died in 1910 in Eire County, aged 6, due to complications from measles.

At some point it appears that both Jeffrey and Emma became Bible Students. Jeffrey died on July 24, 1916, and is buried in the Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, San Bernardino. The Find a Grave site shows his gravestone and the tell-tale letters I.B.S.A. are engraved on it after his name.

A brief notice of his death appeared in The San Bernardino County Sun for July 25, 1916, where his name was misspelled as Marton.

 

The funeral announcement said that the service would be taken by Rev. Russell Pollock. There was a well known Bible Student named Russell Pollock in this area and era, who was to claim draft exemption in June 1918 for reasons given as “religious.” If this is him, he would only have been nineteen years old at the time of the funeral.

Emma became a colporteur and in 1918 was energetically circulating The Finished Mystery. One report says she had followed instructions in cutting out the offending pages, but had then reinserted them back into the copies she sold. BOI agents (Bureau of Investigation – later the FBI) infiltrated a Bible Study meeting pretending to show interest in the Bible Students’ message, and their investigations showed Emma had sold 147 copies in the area. The very precise charge suggested they had spent some considerable time and energy interviewing local people in their efforts to convict her.

Three others from the local Bible Students were also arrested in March 1918 and charged with violating provisions of the Espionage Act. (This was a couple of months before warrants went out for the arrest of J F Rutherford and others of the Watch Tower headquarters staff.)

The case came up for trial in July 1918. Emma, and her co-defendants, Edward Hamm, E J Sonnenberg and E A Stevens were all found guilty.

The San Bernardino County Sun for July 26, 1918, reported on the verdict on Emma.

 

The jury recommended leniency in sentencing. The same newspaper for August 1 reported she was sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary.

Emma and the others immediately appealed and were released on bail of $5000 each, which appears to have been raised by other local Bible Students. The appeals process kept her out of jail until 1920, but ultimately, in May 1920 she surrendered herself to serve her sentence in San Quentin. This was fourteen months after Rutherford et al were released and the same month the government announced that all charges against them had been dropped.

Emma had her photograph taken at San Quentin. Listed on the same records page as burglars and murderers, Emma was a federal prisoner, occupation housewife, convicted of violating Section 3 of the Espionage Age of June 15, 1917.

At the time Emma went to jail there was a concerted Bible Student campaign on her behalf (and her co-defendants) to obtain her release, making a special plea to President Wilson. The Bible Students’ unofficial newspaper The New Era Enterprise accused the government of entrapment. From the New Era Enterprise for July 13, 1920:

 

Later the same article gave details of how the BOI had behaved when they attended the Bible Students’ meeting with Emma.

 

In the climate of the times it was not surprising that Emma's sentence was commuted by President Wilson. In fact this had already happened by the time the above report was published. From the San Bernardino County Sun for June 27, 1920:

Her three co-defendants incarcerated on McNeill’s Island penitentiary were also later pardoned.

Emma’s subsequent history is unknown. She lived until 1949 and died aged 79 in Fresno, California.

With grateful thanks to Gary who sent me on the trail. For those who want to read further about how citizens fared during wartime America, Gary recommends Christopher Capozzola's Uncle Sam Wants You - World War 1 and the Making of the Modern American Citizen.  

A NEW BOOK

This story of Emma Martin is one of many included in the new book Who's Who – in the Bible Student Movement before 1920. In it we find 4000 names, some biographical notes and short biographies. Also included are almost 1100 portrait photos. It can be found on Amazon.