PUBLIC RELATIONS 



In today's complex world, with demands coming from all directions 

 for the public's attention, an institution, no matter how great, must 

 constantly remind people of its existence and of its program, if it is 

 to function to its maximum. To achieve this objective the Division 

 of Public Relations unceasingly harasses the Director and the mem- 

 bers of the scientific staff for news. The Museum is filled with ma- 

 terial for stories of unusual interest, so that it is possible to keep a 

 steady flow of releases and photographs moving into the editorial 

 offices of newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations. 

 The cumulative result is that the public is aware that the Museum 

 exists for the benefit of the public, that it is one of the really worth- 

 while places to visit, that it is contributing to the advance of science, 

 and that it is one of Chicago's important educational facilities. 



As in preceding years, the Museum enjoyed gratifying co-opera- 

 tion from the press and from radio-television. Grateful acknowl- 

 edgment is made not only to the great metropolitan dailies of Chicago 

 and the large network-connected radio and television stations but 

 also to hundreds of community newspapers and to some nineteen 

 independent radio stations important in local areas. 



Acknowledgment for courtesies is also made to the giant wire- 

 services and the radio-television networks that give coast-to-coast 

 and even world-wide distribution to the more important news origi- 

 nating in the Museum. In addition, the Museum has been the recip- 

 ient of courtesies from many other types of organizations. For 

 example, the Chicago Transit Authority, Illinois Central System, 

 and Chicago and North Western Railway have continued their cus- 

 tom of many years of advertising, without cost, the Museum's 

 Edward E. Ayer lectures for adults and the Raymond Foundation 

 programs for children. 



A publicity innovation of the year, which will be continued, is 

 photographing groups of out-of-town visitors and sending the pic- 

 tures with captions as special releases to home-town newspapers. 

 The editors have welcomed these releases in the way that counts — 

 publication, with a mention of the Museum. The Museum gained a 

 great amount of additional notice locally and nationally as one of the 

 hosts to several hundred scholars attending the important fifty-sixth 

 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (see 

 page 83) . The Museum was publicity headquarters for the associa- 

 tion, and a member of the Museum's publicity staff assisted the 

 association's publicity committee in processing and distributing ab- 

 stracts of papers presented at the meeting. 



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