Where can I donate old Jehovah's Witness magazines from a house clearance?

[Hayles2]

I am clearing a deceased relative’s house. I have Jehovah’s Witness Awake and Watchtower magazines from the 1970’s to 1990’s. There are about 500 magazines.

I don’t want to throw them away as they were kept for many years and someone may want them.

The British Library and Jehovah Witness UK head office don’t want them. I had no response from the Association of British Theological and Philosophical Libraries.

Does anyone have any suggestions please where I can take them? Thanks.

If even the JW don't want them, then you can recycle them with a completely clear conscience.

You've covered the main bases so recycle them

You could try your local JWs? But really, the recycling bin.

Maybe ask at your local Jehovah centre. They may take them. I would imagine you are not the first to offer them to Head Office.

Other than that I probably would just recycle.

You could try Freecycle and ebay.Someone may want them!

No suggestions, other than to say I work in a University department we get similar emails all the time with relatives trying to find a home for a lifetime's collections. No one has room for them sadly.

You can see what's sold on Ebay, even JW magazines going back to the 30s only seem to go for a few quid.

No disrespect to JW but honestly I would just drop them in the recycling. It is almost impossible to get rid of old magazines.

In the bin!

I didn’t ask for your opinion you rude person.

Definitely just recycle. The Jehovah HQ presumably didn’t want them because they already have their own archive so you don’t need to worry about any historic significance being lost.

This was my first thought. You’d be saving potential readers from a terrible fate.

As someone forced to grow up as a JW, I sort of want to suggest toilet paper but I think that’s just furthering the affect of the cult!! So probably just stick them in the recycling.
Nobody wants them, they contradict each other so they’ll just want the newer ones and no doubt create their own collection.

Keep one to remember them by if it’s meaningful to you, but then recycle the rest. I know you’re wanting to preserve them as your relative did, but as you’ve contact a couple of organisations who don’t want them, I think you will find it quite hard to find a home for them, magazines (of any flavour) are increasingly hard to gift to anyone/any organisation.
sorry for your loss.

Agree with everyone else, no-one will want them, put them in the recycling! Why make your house clearance task any harder than it needs to be?!

OP, I know that letting go of carefully assembled collections is difficult, and I mean this kindly, but if the JWs themselves have told you they don’t want the magazines, the reality is that they’re junk & need to go in the recycling bin.

PIL kept collections of stuff like this. No one wanted them. No one wanted most of the stuff they’d hoarded over the years. B.I.N and move on.

The recycling bin is the only place they belong!

They had value to the person who had them.
That person is gone, they no longer hold that value.
Let them go to recycling

If the libraries don't want them, your best bet is probably listing them as a bundle on eBay or Facebook Marketplace for a low price (or just shipping costs). Ex-members, historians, and researchers often look for vintage Watchtower material from those specific decades to document changes in the organization. You'll likely find a taker quickly there

I was also forced to grow up a JW . When my elderly mother dies, I look forward to having a bonfire of all her JW magazines, books and brainwashing material. I suggest you recycle or burn.

Thank you OP for trying to to reuse these. So many people are quick to bin these days. But yes recycle!!

Just take them to the dump!

Ask on Reddit /exjw forum. Some of them might love the magazines from that era. Otherwise recycle them.