بازآفرینی موسسات روابط عمومی اولیه ایالات متحده: تجزیه و تحلیل دفتر تبلیغات و اطلاعات 1818-1991  Reconsidering early U.S. public relations institutions: An analysis of publicity and information bureaux 1891– 1918

1. Introduction The professionalization of public relations is important for both PR theory and practice. Recognizing PR as a stand-alone profession lends legitimacy to the field and also provides scholars the ability to identify, categorize, and critique industry practices. However, the current history of U.S. public relations provides an inaccurate and under-inclusive narrative of the history of PR professionalization. One major area of American PR professionalization that is largely unexamined is the publicity and informationbureaux ofthe latenineteenthand early twentiethcenturies. Publicity and informationbureaux are an important part of U.S. public relations history and identity because they represent an early example of departmentalization of PR within organizations. Despite their importance, relatively little is known about these bureaux. One of the few mentions of publicity bureaux is found in Cutlip’s (1994) history of twentieth century public relations in which he identified the first PR firm named the Publicity Bureau founded in Boston in 1900. However, Cutlip (1994) did not explore publicity bureaux outside of the context ofthis large Bostonfirm.In his history of PR, Edward Bernays (1952)ignored the publicity bureau altogether and equated early PRdevelopmentto GeorgeCreel’sCommittee for Public Informationthat operatedduringWorldWar I(anorganization where Bernays worked). Other influential PR scholars, such as Grunig and Hunt (1984), do not address publicity and information bureaux at all, and locate professionalized PR practice with tactics instead of professional institutionalization. Even business historians such as Chandler (1977), Tedlow (1979), and Marchand (2001) did not explore the emergence of publicity and information bureau specifically. Instead their work on the growth of professional communication center on technological innovation, strategy, and corporate structure. Despite the lack of historical inquiry into publicity and information bureaux,they are an important historical phenomenon that was essentialto the emergence of professional PR practice. The emergence of stand-alone bureaux in the late nineteenth century suggests that PR was moving forward to be a more serious, recognized, and professionalized practice. Perhaps the most important characteristic of these bureaux is that they emerged simultaneously in a cross section of organizations that included politics, grassroots movements, businesses, and civic clubs. They also provide insight into how organizations worked to influence the media to craft favorable representations of organizations. Examining publicity and information bureaux goes beyond merely examining a historical era in PR history. They show how modern public relations practice developed in the United States.