Queens College Publicity Clippings, 1939-1973

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: SCA-0006

Staff Only

Content Description

Scrapbook-like volumes of newspaper clippings about Queens College, 1939-1973.

Dates

1939-1973

Creator

Queens College (New York, N.Y.). Public Relations (Organization)

Biographical/Historical

This collection of volumes begins in 1939, two years after Queens College was founded and Paul Klapper appointed as its first president. Klapper's office lent its imprimatur to the spine of the first volume: "President's Office." Each annual edition through 1959 bore the same label, linking the administrations of Klapper (who retired in 1948), Margaret Kiely (acting president, 1948-50), John J. Theobald (1950-58), and Harold W. Stoke (1959-64).

For the 1960 and 1961 volumes, the spine label credits Public Relations. According to the annual Queens College Bulletins, the public relations department for those years was a staff of one: Gladys V. Wurtenburg, Associate in Public Relations. The change, however, was short-lived, as the 1962 and 1963 editions reverted back to crediting the President's Office, at that time, held by Harold W. Stoke, who served from 1958 to 1964. "Public Relations" returned to the spines for the 1964 and 1965 editions, still under the auspices of Wurtenburg, whose title changed to Director of Public Relations beginning in the 1964-65 academic year. The following academic year, 1965-66, Wurtenberg became director of a new department, Public Relations and Editorial Services, with a staff of two.

The final change to the spine label occurred for the 1965 edition, which credits College Relations, as it does for the rest of the editions in this collection. Wurtenburg's growing department changed its name to College Relations and Editorial Services beginning in the 1968-69 academic year. That office was disbanded after the 1975-76 academic year. Its positions were dispersed through a reorganized administration and Wurtenburg became Affirmative Action Officer.