While under the auspices of the Cooper Union, the Museum had no staff or offices devoted exclusively to publicity, and it relied upon the Public Relations Office of the parent organization to issue press releases about its exhibitions and activities. In 1943 responsibility for publicity was included in the duties of D. Graeme Keith, Assistant to the Curator in charge of Services. He was replaced in 1944 by Allison Delarue. Mary A. Noon assumed responsibility for maintaining records on the Museum's history and publicity when she became Recorder in 1946. When the Museum was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1968, Noon continued in this function as Museum Specialist.

An independent Public Relations Office was not established until 1977, one year after the Cooper-Hewitt Museum reopened to the public in the Carnegie Mansion. Isabelle Silverman was the Museum's first Public Relations Officer, and in 1979 she became Public Relations Manager. She was named Public Information Manager in 1983.

Many of these records predate Silverman's arrival at the Museum, and consist of subject files that were apparently assembled by Mary Noon and others to document the history and activities of the Museum under the Cooper Union. They contain curatorial correspondence; press releases; fact sheets; information leaflets; news clippings; and photographs of activities at the Museum. Also included are information files about important figures in the Museum's history.

These records also describe the work of the Public Information Office on the Museum's first exhibitions under Smithsonian auspices. The exhibitions Immovable Objects/Lower Manhattan from Battery Park to the Brooklyn Bridge, 1975, and MAN transFORMS/Aspects of Design, 1976, are documented through press releases, news clippings, and files on the opening receptions.

Box 1 of 2

• "Cooper Union Museum to Cooper-Hewitt Museum: Draft of a History of the Continuation of 'The Making of a Modern Museum'," Alice B. Beer, March 1977
• Planning for the National Museum of Design
• Alice Beer Memorial Fund, 1979 (2 folders)
• Contributors - Major ("Committee to Save"), 1977
• Cooper-Hewitt/Cooper Union Museum Transmission Archives Material (assembled by C. Rohlfing for Dan Leary and others), 1966-69
• Brochures - Cooper-Hewitt Collections, 1976
• National Museum of Design, 1976
• Collections - Cooper-Hewitt, 1975-76 (4 folders)
• Cooper Hewitt Museum History - Judy Margles student paper, 1981
• Old Cooper Union and Peter Cooper History
• Decorative Arts, 1958 (correspondence of Hedy Backlin, Keeper of Decorative Arts, Feb.-Apr. 1958)
• National Museum of Design - Work Papers (press clippings)
• Background Information and Press Releases, 1961-64
• Carnegie Mansion Background
• Fact Sheets and Information Leaflets, all curatorial departments prior to 1972
• Committee to Save Cooper Union Museum (2 folders)
• Cooper-Hewitt Museum background, 1955-69
• Ringwood and Early Hewitts, 1974-84
• Carnegie Mansion
• TV Program, 1965
• Furniture Labels
• Exhibition: Creative Craft in Denmark Today, 1962
• Museum: Grade School Children in Museum, 1961
• High School Students in Museum, c. 1955
• Cooper Union Museum, c. 1955
• Cooper-Hewitt Museum background, c. 1976
• Interiors magazine, January 1963
• Alice Beer's History of Cooper-Hewitt
• World of the Hewitts by Alice Beer, 1954-81
• Loose Photographs, 1949-
• Annual Spring Gathering - Friends of the Museum, March 17, 1958
• "The Committee to Save the Cooper Union Museum," 1963

Box 2 of 2

• Early Press Clippings on Hewitt and Carnegie (originals and copies), 1890-98
• Isabel McIntyre Nelson, Cooper Family Seamstress, 1978
• Miller House History, 1984
• Cooper Union Correspondence 1943-44
• Draft of Alice Beer's History
• Carnegie Mansion History and Description, July 1977 and Renovation
• Carnegie Biography and Mansion History, 1980-82
• Carnegie photographs
• Lifestyles TV Program featuring Carnegie, 1980 (2 folders)

Exhibition Files

MAN transFORMS, 1976-77

• Press Opening Show
• Objects from Cooper-Hewitt Collections in the Opening Show, Oct. 1976
• Space Design magazine (Japanese), 1976
• Opening Invitations
• MAN transFORMS Extended
• Press Wrap-Up
• Carl Byoir
• "The Opening Exhibition" philosophy piece and lists of satellite shows
• Press Kit and Catalogue Requests
• Window Display Project
• Satellite Release

Immovable Objects, 1975

• Press Release - "Date Changes for Outdoor Exhibition"
• Press Release and Press Clippings
• Press Release Worksheets
• Scrapbook Addenda, 1975-77 (3 folders)