History of the Biblical Recorder

For more than a century and a half, the Biblical Recorder has recorded Baptist life in North Carolina and around the world.

The paper traces its heritage to 1833, when Thomas Meredith founded the state Baptist paper in North Carolina. Meredith, a preacher, writer and denominational statesman, first started printing the paper under the name Baptist Interpreter.

The Baptist State Convention, which was founded only a few years earlier, gave its stamp of approval to the publication in 1832.

Meredith introduced the Biblical Recorder and Journal of Passing Events in January 1834. A year later, the name was shortened to the Biblical Recorder. Meredith edited the paper from New Bern, where he was pastor of First Baptist Church. In 1838, Meredith and the paper moved to Raleigh, where its offices are still located.

Since that time, the paper has been edited in homes, church offices, rented quarters, printing plants and the Baptist Building.

The Recorder was owned by individuals, other companies or a group of people who formed a stock company until the Baptist State Convention purchased it in 1938.

The paper is now one of 12 agencies and institutions affiliated with the Baptist State Convention.

The Recorder is operated through a board of 16 directors who hold in trust the assets of the paper.

Today, the paper has a circulation of more than 50,000.

It goes to all 100 counties in North Carolina, 48 states and 39 foreign countries.