Adolf Tevan was born on 9 October, 1854 as the eldest son of a Jewish family in Békéscsaba. At the beginning of his career he opened a grocery shop, then he became the owner of the Tevan-Reisz firm, later he worked on the plan of the public lighting of the town of Békéscsaba. He was not in charge of the implementation, the electric power station was still built at the site proposed by him. In 1903 he purchased the book and stationary store of Lajos Lepage, together with a printing house, and established the Tevan Press and Publishing Company. At the beginning they printed ephemera, and published books and newspapers for order. Adolf’s son, Andor was deeply interested in printing and publishing. Following a two-year scholarship at the school of Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna, in 1909 he took over the management of the printing and publishing house of his father. Tevan Press and Publishing House soon became one of the best and most famous in the country. The Tevan Library was started with the works of the best authors of the period, such as Endre Ady, Gyula Krúdy, Frigyes Karinthy, Dezső Kosztolányi or Anatole France. From the 1920s they dealt with the production of packaging, working for different pharmaceutical firms. When Hungary was occupied by German nazi troops in March 19, 1944, the ghetto was set up in Békéscsaba, the 3000 Jewish citizens were soon deported. Adolf Tevan, his wife and family were killed as the victims of the Holocaust. The Tevan Press and Publishing House was closed in August, 1944, Andor Tevan was subjected to forced labor. He returned in May, 1945 and continued the production of packaging materials. Publishing activity restarted by the Christmas of 1947. One of the publications was the album of Tibor Jankay’s drawings with the title „Martyrs”. Jankay was carried from the ghetto of Nagyvárad to a German concentration camp in 1944, but he could escape miracuously. The novel of Anatole France „The Merrie Tales of Jacques Tournebroche” was published for the Christmas of 1948 by the Tevan Publishing House, and it was the end of its activity. With its nationalization in 1949 the Tevan-age was finished, Andor Tevan was not allowed to work in his own press and publishing house, he moved to Budapest and died there in 1955.
The daughter of Adolf Tevan, Margit Tevan (1911-1978) finished her studies in the School of Applied Arts, then she worked in the goldsmith workshop of Árpád Vértes. She had an important role in the 1930s in creating modern goldsmith art. His son, István Engel Tevan was a graphic artist.