Ivy Ledbetter Lee (July 16, 1877 – November 9, 1934) is considered by some to be the founder of modern public relations, although the title could also be held by Edward Bernays. Events 622 - The beginning of the Islamic calendar. 1054 - Three Roman legates fractured relations between the Western and Year 1877 ( MDCCCLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 694 - Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims sentencing all Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Public relations (PR is the practice of managing the flow of Information between an Organization and its Publics Public relations - often referred Edward Louis Bernays ( November 22, 1891 – March 9, 1995) is considered one of the fathers of the field of Public relations along The term Public Relations is to be found for the first time in the 1897 Yearbook of Railway Literature.
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Early life and career
Ivy Lee was born near Cedartown, Georgia as the son of a Methodist minister, James Wideman Lee, who founded an important Atlanta family. Cedartown is a city in Polk County, Georgia, United States. The population was 9470 at the 2000 census Methodism is a movement within Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations He studied at Emory College and then graduated from Princeton. Emory University is a Private university located in the metropolitan area of the city of Atlanta and in western unincorporated DeKalb County, Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. He worked as a newspaper reporter and stringer. Together with George Parker he established the United States's third public relations firm, Parker and Lee, in late 1904. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Founded in 1904 by Ivy Lee and George F Parker in New York City, Parker and Lee was at one time the third largest Public relations firm in Year 1904 ( MCMIV) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year starting on The new agency boasted of "Accuracy, Authenticity, and Interest. " They made this partnership after working together in the Democratic Party headquarters handling publicity for Judge Alton Parker's unsuccessful presidential race against Theodore Roosevelt. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. Alton Brooks Parker ( May 14, 1852 – May 10, 1926) was an American Lawyer and Judge and a U Theodore Roosevelt (ˈroʊzəvɛlt October 27 1858 January 6 1919 also known as T
The Parker and Lee firm lasted less than four years, but the junior partner — Lee — was to become one of the most influential pioneers in public relations. He evolved his philosophy in 1906 into the Declaration of Principles, the first articulation of the concept that public relations practitioners have a public responsibility that extends beyond obligations to the client. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting In the same year, after an accident with the Pennsylvania Railroad, Lee issued what is often considered to be the very first press release, convincing the company to openly disclose information to journalists, before they could hear information from elsewhere. The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Railroad, founded in 1846 A news release, media release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded Communication directed at members of the News [1]
When Lee was hired full time by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1912, he was considered to be the first public relations person placed in an executive-level position. In fact, his archives reveal that he drafted one of the first job descriptions of a VP-level corporate public relations position.
In 1919 he founded the public relations counselling office Ivy Lee & Associates.
Impact on public relations
Many historians credit Lee with being the originator of modern crisis communications. His principal competitor in the new public relations industry was Edward Bernays.
In 1914 he was to enter public relations on a much larger scale when he was retained by John D. Rockefeller Jr to represent his family and Standard Oil, ("to burnish the family image"), after the coal mining rebellion in Colorado known as the "Ludlow Massacre". John Davison Rockefeller Jr (January 29 1874 &ndash May 11 1960 was a major Philanthropist and a pivotal member of the prominent Rockefeller family. Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing transporting refining and marketing company The Ludlow massacre refers to the violent deaths of 20 people 11 of them children during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a Tent colony of 1200 striking From then on he faithfully served the Rockefellers and their corporate interests, including a strong involvement in Rockefeller Center — he was in fact the first to suggest to Junior (against his reservations) that he give to the complex his family name — even after he moved on to set up his own consulting firm. The Rockefeller family, the renowned Cleveland family of John D Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st streets in New York City.
He taught the first public relations course at New York University in 1912 where he remained an instructor for a decade. New York University ( NYU) is a private, Nonsectarian, Coeducational Research University in New York City. He became an inaugural member of the Council on Foreign Relations in the U. The Council on Foreign Relations ( CFR) is an American Nonpartisan foreign policy membership organization founded in 1921 and based at 58 East 68th Street (at S. when it was established in New York City in 1921. The City of New York Year 1921 ( MCMXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1921 calendar of the Gregorian calendar
His supposed instruction to the son of the Standard Oil fortune was to echo in public relations henceforth: "Tell the truth, because sooner or later the public will find out anyway. And if the public doesn't like what you are doing, change your policies and bring them into line with what people want". The context of the quote was said to be apocryphal, being spread by Lee as self promotion, making it both famous and infamous.
Lee is considered to be the father of the modern public relations campaign when, from 1913-1914, he successfully lobbied for a successful railroad rate increase from a reluctant federal government.
Lee espoused a philosophy consistent with what has sometimes been called the "two-way street" approach to public relations, in which PR consists of helping clients listen as well as communicate messages to their publics. In practice, however, Lee often engaged in one-way propagandizing on behalf of clients despised by the public. Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people Shortly before his death, the US Congress had been investigating his work in Nazi Germany on behalf of the controversial company IG Farben. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. IG Farben (short for Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG, "syndicate of dyestuff corporations" and also called I
Lee also worked for Bethlehem Steel, in which capacity he famously advised managers to list their top priorities and work on tasks in that order, not proceeding until a task was completed. The Bethlehem Steel Corporation (1857–2003 based in Bethlehem Pennsylvania, was once the second-largest Steel producer in the United States, after For this suggestion company head Charles M. Schwab paid him $25,000. For the founder and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation brokerage firm see Charles R Over his career he also was a public relations advisor to the following: George Westinghouse, Charles Lindbergh, John W. Davis, Otto Kahn and Walter Chrysler. George Westinghouse Jr ( 6 October 1846 &ndash 12 March 1914) was an American Entrepreneur and Engineer WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout John William Davis ( April 13 1873 &ndash March 24 1955) was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer Otto Hermann Kahn ( February 21, 1867 – March 29, 1934) was an Investment banker, Collector, Philanthropist Walter Percy Chrysler ( April 2, 1875 – August 18, 1940) was an American Machinist, Railroad man Automotive industry [2]
Through his sister Laura, Lee was an uncle to novelist William S. Burroughs. William Seward Burroughs II ( – ˈbʌroʊz was an American Novelist, Essayist, Social critic, painter and Spoken word
Ivy Ledbetter Lee died in New York in 1934 at the age of 57.
Bibliography
Writings by Ivy Ledbetter Lee:
- Present-day Russia. New York: Macmillan, 1928.
- "James Wideman Lee: biographical sketch. " in, James W. Lee, The geography of genius. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co. , 1920, p. xi-xxiv.
References
- New York Times article of February 13, 2005, "Spinning Frenzy: P. R. 's Bad Press," by Timothy L. O'Brien. Timothy L O'Brien (1961-) is an American Journalist who has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,
- Hiebert, Ray Eldon. Courtier to the crowd : the story of Ivy Lee and the development of public relations. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1966.
External links
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