The General Conference Archives serves as “the headquarters depository for documents, records, correspondence, publications, photographs, recordings, films, etc., that have historical and cultural value to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, . . . particularly materials produced or collected by the General Conference as an institution” (General Conference Committee minutes, Nov. 8, 1973). Established July 1, 1973, this office functions under the guidance of the Archives and Statistics Committee, chaired by the General Conference secretary. For about 70 years prior to 1973, the statistical secretary of the General Conference preserved special documents and reports, minutes, and printed items, including many of the church’s publications. As early as the 1940s or 1950s, members of the General Conference Secretariat spoke of having an archives, but it was not until late 1972 and early 1973, when urgings of SDA historians and the proposal to develop overseas Ellen G. White- SDA research centers converged, that action was taken to establish a General Conference Archives. The archivist also functions as records manager of the General Conference, and is a consultant for the archival functions of the world divisions and of General Conference institutions.
Records housed at the GC Archives span the years from the 1830s to the present. Most are the files of the General Conference as the central administrative body of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The vast percentage of the more than 9,000 feet (2,750 meters) of records are available to responsible researchers and church leaders for research use.
At the 1975 General Conference session it was voted to combine Archives with the Statistical Office, henceforth to be known as Archives and Statistics.
F. Donald Yost was archivist from 1973 to 1975. In 1975 he became the director of Archives and Statistics.