The papers are arranged as GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, CHRONOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCE, INTERNAL FILES, WRITINGS, and CLIENT FILES.
The bulk of the John W. Hill papers were donated to the Wisconsin Historical
Society in 1964. Because the client files (originally six four-drawer file
cabinets) were closed until 1989 only the general correspondence and Hill's
writings were arranged and described in 1964; the remaining papers were
organized in 1992 after they became available for research. Understanding of the
overall nature of the collection was consequently limited by the inability of
the Archives staff to examine all of the collection at one time in its original
condition.
It is likely that the files at the Historical Society do not represent the
Hill & Knowlton company records, but rather those papers that were housed in Hill's own office. As a result, while the material about high level relations
with staff and clients is excellent and extensive, many of the day-to-day
aspects of the firm's public relations work (including the company's financial
status) are unrepresented. The files also do not represent all H&K clients,
and the absence of this material from the collection is unexplained.
Overall, however, the papers reveal a great deal concerning the mind and
method of a major public relations counselor and the way in which a large firm
such as Hill & Knowlton operated. Because John Hill came to know his clients so well one can find in the collection not only information pertaining to the public relations programs designed by H&K but also a good deal of general
information concerning the internal operations and administration of the client
company or association. With regard to the American Iron and Steel Institute
this documentation is also present for a number of individual companies that
comprised the trade association such as Inland Steel, Republic Steel, and
Bethlehem Steel. Hill shared a conservative political philosophy with many of
his clients, and discussions of state and national politics forms a good part of
the correspondence. (This is particularly evident in the AVCO and the American
Iron and Steel Institute files.)
Hill's early career and the early years of Hill & Knowlton are
incompletely covered here, as the documentation in the collection essentially
begins in 1947 (the year in which Hill & Knowlton was incorporated and Hill
moved from Cleveland to New York City), thirteen years after Hill & Knowlton
was established and began to represent the American Iron and Steel Institute.
The disposition of the papers covering Hill's early career and the early years
in the company's history is unknown.
The Hill papers include correspondence; memoranda; minutes; reports; and
draft and final copies of a variety of public relations products such as
programs, press releases, pamphlets, and advertising.
The Correspondence series in the 1964 arrangement of the collection is now
broken into three series, GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE, INTERNAL FILES, and CHRONOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCE. The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE and the INTERNAL FILES (originally listed as Hill & Knowlton, Inc. in the 1964 register) are both arranged alphabetically by name and/or subject, the CHRONOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCE
is arranged by year.
The GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE consists largely of letters about relations with individuals and organizations that were neither H&K employees nor clients, while the INTERNAL FILES chiefly consist of material about internal
administrative matters. The distinction is not precise, however, and some
correspondence with H&K staff (especially for the period before 1952) may be found in the General Correspondence. In addition, there is some correspondence here with individuals also documented in the CLIENT FILES. The internal files also document relations with H&K's international affiliates.
The CHRONOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCE consists primarily of copies of Hill's outgoing letters, with the period 1947 to 1964 being the best documented.
Although this series appears to duplicate at least part of the Hill correspondence elsewhere in the collection, the file has been retained primarily because of the chronological overview it provides of Hill's activities.
The WRITINGS series consists of material by Hill and a few other employees of the firm such as Bert Goss and Don Knowlton, as well as an internal staff
newsletter and a few other publications of the company. Hill's writing is
documented by a chronological file of speeches, articles, and interviews, and
drafts of two published books and his unfinished history of Hill &
Knowlton.
The CLIENT FILES are arranged alphabetically by company or trade association name or keyword. The files vary greatly in size, some consisting only of a few items, others consisting of many boxes. The most extensive client files
(Aircraft Industries Association, AVCO Manufacturing Corporation, Licensed Beverage
Industries, Manufacturing Chemists Association, National Gas and Oil Resource
Committee, National Retail Dry Goods Associations, and the Tobacco Industry
Research Council) are subdivided alphabetically by topic, name, or document
type, with most client files beginning, as they did in Hill's office, with a
general category. Because of their variety the research questions to which the
client files may be applied also vary. Some files document limited public
relations services such as revision of an executive's speech or introduction of
a particular product. Clients for which H&K provided more comprehensive
services (such as AVCO and AISI) are represented by important documentation not only about the development of the public relations program but also about the
client's internal operations. Information about collective bargaining in the
steel industry, the health effects of cigarette smoking, and the taxation of
oleomargarine are only a few of the interesting and significant topics that are
documented by these records.
