The Philip Lesly papers are a miscellaneous, incomplete collection consisting of numerous speeches and articles by Lesly, promotional materials for a variety of clients, and general publications of his firm, the Philip Lesly Company.
The general papers include a long run of “Managing the Human Climate” which was produced by Lesly as an independent counselor in order to promote his own services; testimonials; files on the Public Relations Society of America; and interviews including one of Edward Bernays.
The client files consist only of the finished public relations programs, together with occasional background materials, the majority having been discarded before contact was established with the Historical Society. Among the most extensive files are those concerning the American Medical Association, the American Music Conference, Armour Company (Dial Soap), the Association for Modern Banking in Illinois, Canon, Cereal Institute, Dow Chemicals, IBM, and Quaker Oats. Also of note is the copy for Everything and the Kitchen Sink, which was written by Lesly to promote the centennial of the Crane Company.
The photographs consist of images of Lesly alone and with others. Other photographs received with the papers are in the Name File and the Oversize Name File in the Visual Materials Archive.
