Consumer Reports. Wray Smith papers, 1954-1979
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Summary
- Creator:
- Consumer Reports (Firm)
- Abstract:
- Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936 as Consumers Union. Wray Smith (1924-2000) was an engineer and statistician who served as Executive Director of Consumers Union from 1963-1965. Collection includes clippings, conference programs, correspondence, grant materials, reports and other printed materials. Topics include low-income consumers, management structure, and the establishment of the Dorothy Steele Loan Fund at Fisk University. There is also a newsletter from the Highlander Center celebrating its renaming (originally the Highlander Folk School) and its civil rights activities. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
- Extent:
- 0.4 Linear Feet
- Language:
- Materials in English.
- Collection ID:
- RL.12036
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Collection includes clippings, conference programs, correspondence, grant materials, reports and other printed materials. Topics include low-income consumers, management structure, and the establishment of the Dorothy Steele Loan Fund at Fisk University. There is also a newsletter from the Highlander Center celebrating its renaming (originally the Highlander Folk School) and its civil rights activities.
- Biographical / historical:
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Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936 as Consumers Union. Wray Smith (1924-2000) was an engineer and statistician who served as Executive Director of Consumers Union from 1963-1965.
Wray Jackson Smith was born in 1924 in California. He attended George Washington University (BS, mathematics and physics, 1948; PhD operations research and statistics, 1980). Smith worked at the Peace Corps (Associate Director 1961-1963), Office of Economic Opportunity (1964-on, a Director, instrumental in the launch of the Job Corps); Health, Education and Welfare (Technical Director 1973-1980) and the Department of Energy (Director of Energy Projects, 1980-1983). He retired in 1983 and died in 2000 in Maryland.
Source: https://magazine.amstat.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/smithwray.pdf Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2000/06/04/wray-smith/c73fe537-f936-4101-a513-28ffe0f5e3d7/
- Acquisition information:
- The Consumer Reports. Wray Smith papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift from Consumer Reports in 2019.
- Processing information:
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Processed by Richard Collier, Aug. 2022; Accessions described in this collection guide: 2019-0130.
- Arrangement:
-
Arranged alphabetically.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Subjects
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Contents
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Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
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- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Consumer Reports. Wray Smith papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
- Permalink:
- https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1673p