The Museum of PR Showcases the First Hundred Years of PR

 CommPRO Editorial Staff

As part of CommPRO's commitment to advancing education, we'd like to salute today our industry's one and only museum, the Museum of Public Relations.The Museum of PR is a 501(c)3 educational institution, chartered by the New York State Department of Education, serves as the PR field's only repository of our history. Its one-of-a-kind archives include artifacts from Ivy Lee, Edward Bernays, Arthur Page, Ofield Dukes and Harold Burson, among many other PR pioneers. Among its most popular exhibits are collections of antique media "technologies," such as a 1905 manual typewriter, a 1901 stereograph, a 1904 candlestick phone, old film cameras and newspapers from the early 1800s--some 500 individual objects in all. The Museum's holdings also include a library of more than 675 books, many of them more than a century old.The Museum is self-supporting, and depends entirely on tax deductible donations and sponsorship of its events. Partnerships with the University of Georgia and other institutions help provide some of the Museum's costs.  Yet for all its growing popularity, the Museum continues to operate on a shoestring budget and volunteer support and management. 

It was the "father" of PR, Edward Bernays, himself, who came up with the idea for a museum to serve the PR field.  In the early 1990s, he asked PR pros Shelley and Barry Spector -- who had been recording videos of Bernays at his Cambridge, Mass. home since early 1986-- to create such a museum in New York City. When he died in March 1995, Bernays's family donated to the Spectors all the archives and artifacts that did not get moved to the Library of Congress. These materials-- including photos, Silver Anvils, pamphlets and original writings-- became the Museum's first exhibit, and remain on display today.Situated in the former Goldman Sachs building at 85 Broad Street, the Museum hosts visitors from all over the world.  The Museum has hosted students from some 25 universities this year, including Syracuse, the London College of Communications and George Washington University. The Museum has seen a steady increase in the number are out-of-town visitors who just pop in unannounced,  lured by the notification on Google Maps. A growing number of agencies and corporate PR departments send staff to take "field trips" to the Museum to brush up on the field's history through original artifacts, film, photos and writings.For those who can't visit the Museum personally, there is plenty one can experience via social media, including videos of all the Museum's events. The Museum's website is considered one of the world's Number One educational resources for PR, and as with all its social media, attracts thousands of international visitors each month.  Of the nearly 10k followers of its FB page, more than half reside overseas, including areas where the field is first beginning to take off, such as, the UAE, Ghana, Estonia, Cambodia and Uzbekistan.  

The events produced by the Museum, such as its third annual LatinoPRHistory event September 12 and its fifth annual BlackPRHistory event January 30, are considered ground-breaking for bringing to light the previously unrecognized role of diverse professionals in our field's history. Just this past June, the Museum produced the industry's first-ever event to celebrate the contributions and experience of the field's LGBTQ professionals (the next such event is scheduled for June 5, 2020. And the Museum's fourth annual event to celebrate PR Women Who Changed History will be held March 5, 2020.

Click here to learn more about you can support The Museum of Public Relations.