Edward L. Bernays

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by John P. Butler, William Gralka, and Paul D. Ledvina
Revised and expanded by Connie L. Cartledge with the assistance of Patrick Kerwin, Susie H. Moody, and Sherralyn McCoy

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1996

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, 2003

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms003016

Latest revision: 2004-08-12

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupation:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of Edward L. Bernays, public relations counsel, were given to the Library of Congress between 1966 and 1995. Part I of the papers was deposited in two installments in 1966. Numerous additions received between 1968 and 1979 comprise Part II of the papers. Part III consists of material sent by Bernays as a deposit in 1991 and material bequeathed by the Bernays estate in 1995. All other deposits were converted to gifts upon receipt of the final installment of the papers.

The papers of Edward L. Bernays were arranged and described in 1967. Subsequent material received from 1968 to 1979 was processed as Part II in 1979. Part III, consisting of items received between 1991 to 1995, was processed in 1996. A description of the Bernays Papers appears in Library of Congress Acquisitions: Manuscript Division, 1994-1995, pp. 61-66.

Sound recordings have been transferred to the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Most of the photographs received with the collection have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Transferred material in each division is identified as part of the Bernays Papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Edward L. Bernays in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Roman numeral designating the Part followed by a colon and container number, Edward L. Bernays Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Parts I and II

The papers of Edward L. Bernays span the years 1890-1979, with the bulk of the material within the period 1920 to 1975. The papers consist mainly of correspondence, publicity material, and scrapbooks, supplemented by surveys, reports, printed matter, memoranda, research notes, photographs, lists, speeches, articles, drafts of books, and miscellaneous material. Series include Family Correspondence; General Correspondence; Client, Institution, and Organization File; Speech and Article File; Book File; Edward L. Bernays' Foundation File; Doris Fleischman Bernays File; Lists; Miscellany; Scrapbooks; Speeches and Writings File; and Oversize.

Recording the work of more than half a century, the collection documents not only the career of a pioneer in the public relations field, but also the origins, growth, and development of public relations as a profession in the United States from its beginnings before World War I to its present state of influence in American life. The collection further reflects the changing mores of American society from the early 1900s through the 1960s.

A guide to much of the material in the collection can be found in Bernays's Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Bernays. This volume is derived for the most part from material found in the collection. Especially helpful for subjects touched upon in the book are research notes in the Book File series prepared for use in Bernays's memoirs but not completely incorporated into the final version. In most cases these notes present a capsule summary of Bernays's relationship with the particular subject in question.

Bernays's professional career began during the World War I period and is extensively documented in the Client, Institution, and Organization File of Part I; the Client, Institution, and Organization File subseries of the Part I: Scrapbooks series; and the Oversize series of Part I. Some of the earliest material covers Diaghileff's Ballets Russes, containing correspondence and oversized scrapbooks. For the 1920s, there is material on the arts, clients such as Cartier and Seligmann & Company, and the French industrial exposition of 1925. Industrial subjects include George W. Hill and the American Tobacco Company, the soap sculpture contests of Procter & Gamble, George H. Phelps and the automotive industry, Philco and Columbia Broadcasting Company's activities in the burgeoning radio industry, William B. Ward and the bread industry, the Light's Golden Jubilee recreating in 1929 the birth of the electric light by Thomas A. Edison, and many others.

Material on the stock market crash records its effects on the American economy. The Depression is reflected in files about President Herbert Hoover's Committee on Employment, the Committee on the Cost of Medical Care, and the plight of the construction industry, which are located in the Part I: Client, Institution, and Organization File. The corporate activities of such companies as Allied Chemical & Dye Corporation and General Motors and the fight of Amadeo Peter Giannini and the Bank of America against government control are also featured for this period. Files on the United Brewers Industrial Foundation depict the brewing industry's adjustment to the post-prohibition era.

World War II files in the Client, Institution, and Organization File series of Part I often focus on international problems. The America Self-Contained Committee, various war loan campaign movements, government agencies, and papers relating to the United States Sugar Beet Association present the public relations counsel's approach to the problems brought about by the war years and the wartime economy.

In the postwar era, Bernays assisted organizations and companies such as the American Nurses Association, the pharmaceutical industry, Mack Trucks, and the United Fruit Company to adjust their activities to a more industrialized and centralized economy. Files of the United Fruit Company, which cover a twenty-year period, document its fight against communism in central American republics. Papers on the India Information Service concern the efforts of Jawaharlal Nehru and India to regain American goodwill following India's neutrality during the Korean conflict.

The papers also document Bernays's affiliation in the 1950s with the New York City Anniversary Committee, the New York State Psychologists Association, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. His interest in the mass communications media and his efforts to promote public relations as a profession are reflected throughout Parts I and II. He authored a number of works in the public relations field, wrote numerous articles published in a wide range of publications, and gave speeches on a variety of communications topics.

The Client files and the General Correspondence series in Part I relating to Fortune, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, New Republic, McCall's, and Printers' Ink record the growth and development of the magazine industry from the 1920s to the 1950s and the public relations counsel's role in the development of this industry. Other subjects of interest are Vietnam (Part I: General Correspondence, Willoughby S. Chesley file), the United States Information Agency, 1956-1961 (Part I: General Correspondence; Part I: Client, Institution, and Organization File, "National Committee for an Adequate Overseas Information Program" folder; and Part II: Client, Institution, and Organization File), the mayoralty election in New York, 1940, (Part I: Client, Institution, and Organization File, William O'Dwyer folder), and Sigmund Freud, Bernays's uncle (Family Correspondence series in Parts I and II).

A number of surveys in the collection reflect pioneering efforts in the field of public relations research. Research on the downtown area of the city of New York, studies on buying habits, studies done for government officials at the federal, state, and municipal levels, and for the greeting card industry, Merritt-Chapman & Scott, the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, the New York theater industry, the American Nurses Association, and the American Optometric Association indicate the approach taken by Bernays in applying public relations principles to individual as well as corporate needs.

Among the more prominent correspondents in this collection are Paul Bern, Frances Payne Bingham Bolton, Lucius Boomer, Daniel J. Boorstin, Homer E. Capehart, Jacques Cartier, Willoughby S. Chesley, Myron M. Cowen, E. A. Filene, Sigmund Freud, Norman Bel Geddes, James W. Gerard, Amadeo Peter Giannini, Eric Frederick Goldman, George W. Hill, Hubert H. Humphrey, Otto Hermann Kahn, Marc Klaw, Alfred A. Knopf, Ivy L. Lee, Erich Leinsdorf, Clare Boothe Luce, Henry Robinson Luce, Joseph V. McKee, William M. Martin, H. L. Mencken, David Page, William S. Paley, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, George H. Phelps, A. N. Spanel, Lawrence E. Spivak, Albert Payson Terhune, Robert F. Wagner, Henry Agard Wallace, and Edmund S. Whitman.

Part III

Part III of the Edward L. Bernays Papers spans the years 1777-1994, with the majority of the papers concentrated in the period 1923-1990. The papers supplement files in Parts I and II and pertain primarily to Bernays's career in public relations. Part III is organized largely according to the arrangement of Parts I and II and include seven series: Family Papers; General Correspondence; Client, Institution, and Organization File; Subject File; Speeches and Writings File; Miscellany; and Oversize.

The Family Papers, 1831-1993, consist primarily of correspondence between Bernays and family members and the papers of his wife, Doris Fleischman Bernays. The majority of the letters concern family matters and local news. Correspondence between Bernays and his wife provides a glimpse of their business activities as well as their personal relationship. Also included are photocopies of letters from Bernays's uncle, Sigmund Freud, and correspondence with Freud's children, Anna, Ernst, and Martin. Also notable in the series are drafts of writings about Sigmund Freud by Freud's sister, Anna Freud Bernays, and his niece, Lilly Freud-Marlé. The writings of Doris Bernays comprise the bulk of her papers, including a draft of her book, A Wife Is Many Women. Edward Bernays played a prominent role in promoting that book. Doris Bernays's correspondence with Eleanor Roosevelt concerns writing a chapter for Bernays's book, Outline of Careers for Women.

Papers in the General Correspondence series, 1905-1994, chronicle Bernays's varied interests. The letters consist mainly of incoming correspondence relating to personal and professional matters. The majority of the correspondence is concentrated from 1962 through 1994 after Bernays's relocation from New York to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Many of the items in this series, the Subject File, and in the Miscellany series were received by the Library in photograph albums with adhesive pages. Most of these items were detached by Library staff; those that could not be removed were photocopied. Notable correspondents in the series include Sam Black, Daniel J. Boorstin, George Creel, Herbert Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, Clare Booth Luce, Henry Robinson Luce, Gypsy Rose Lee, H. L. Mencken, Sinclair Lewis, Arthur B. Spingarn, Lawrence E. Spivak, Robert F. Wagner, and Henry Agard Wallace.

Comprising almost one-fourth of Part III is the Client, Institution, and Organization File, 1913-1992. The series supplements the voluminous client files of Parts I and II and includes correspondence, reports, surveys, press releases, photographs, and background material. Clients and topics prominently featured in this series are the Book Publishers Research Institute, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the United Fruit Company, the Light's Golden Jubilee, the Bernays Public Relations Counseling Letter, and surveys conducted by Bernays. Two of the more substantive surveys are "What the British Think of Us" and identifying the top ten newspapers in the United States.

The Subject File, 1919-1994, illustrates Bernays's diverse activities and interests. The series chronicles his service and affiliation with various committees, foundations, and organizations such as the Citizens' Emergency Committee to Save Memorial Drive, the Edward L. Bernays' Foundation, and Boston University. Bernays used his public relations influence to assist in the environmental campaign to save Memorial Drive in Cambridge from expansion that could have lessened the park-like atmosphere of the area. The most prolific files in the series relate to the sponsorship of the Anglo-American international relations contest by the Bernays Foundation, a contest Bernays supported to dispel false images and myths Americans and British had of each other. This series also documents Bernays's promotion of the public relations field and his advocacy of licensing public relations practitioners. Also reflected is his interest in social issues such as crime, cigarette smoking, and aging.

The Speeches and Writings File, 1912-1992, includes speeches, articles, books, book reviews, editorials, and newsletters. The bulk of the writings relates to his memoirs, Biography of an Idea. A bound volume includes various articles, pamphlets, and speeches by Bernays.

The Miscellany series in Part III, 1777-1993, consists chiefly of award certificates, financial and legal papers, biographical information, printed matter, sketches, scrapbooks, and manuscripts and pamphlets of others collected by Bernays. The scrapbooks contain both personal and client material. The "Manuscript and Pamphlet Collection" folder includes a colonial broadside of the state of Massachusetts regarding the Continental Army and a commission signed by Adolph Hitler removing individuals from active military service.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in three parts composed of twenty-five series:

• Part I
  • Family Correspondence, 1901-1962
  • General Correspondence, 1913-1963
  • Client, Institution, and Organization File, 1916-1964, n.d.
  • Speech and Article File, 1919-1967, n.d.
  • Book File, 1890-1965, n.d.
  • Edward L. Bernays' Foundation File, 1946-1963
  • Doris Fleischman Bernays File, 1923-1961
  • Lists, 1943-1961, n.d.
  • Miscellany, 1896-1963, n.d.
  • Scrapbooks, 1918-1956, n.d.
  • Oversize, 1915-1945
• Part II
  • Family Correspondence, 1890-1972, n.d.
  • General Correspondence, 1911-1975, n.d.
  • Client, Institution, and Organization File, 1930-1970
  • Speeches and Writings File, 1925-1975, n.d.
  • Edward L. Bernays' Foundation File, 1968-1975
  • Doris Fleischman Bernays File, 1900-1975
  • Miscellany, 1890-1979, n.d.
• Part III
  • Family Papers, 1831-1993, n.d.
  • General Correspondence, 1905-1994, n.d.
  • Client, Institution, and Organization File, 1913-1992, n.d.
  • Subject File, 1919-1994, n.d.
  • Speeches and Writings File, 1912-1992, n.d.
  • Miscellany, 1777-1993, n.d.
  • Oversize, 1916-1966, n.d.

Description of Series

Container List