This collection includes clippings; correspondence; reports; black-and-white photographs; texts of speeches and other writings; and other printed materials that document Boyle's career in public relations at the Protestant National Episcopal Council and at J. Walter Thompson, as well as materials Boyle used in teaching public relations courses at the School of General Studies, Columbia University. Entities represented in the collection also include Brinks Express Company, Kansas State Normal School, Public Relations Society of America, Sun-Maid Raisin Growers Association, Topeka High School, the United States Foreign Agriculture Service, and the University of Kansas.
Founded in 1864, the J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT) is one of the oldest and largest enduring advertising agencies in the United States. It is headquartered in New York. In 2018 JWT merged with Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson. Joseph Essex Boyle (1899–1976) was a Vice President and Public Relations Director at J. Walter Thompson from 1948 to 1965.
Born on June 19, 1899, in Bennington, Kansas, Boyle attended Kansas State College in 1917 before transferring to University of Kansas in 1918. He graduated in 1921 with an A.B. in Liberal Arts and Journalism. While in college, he edited the daily college newspaper, The Daily Kansan, and completed a journalistic apprenticeship at the Emporia (Kansas) Gazette under newsman William Allen White.
From 1921 to 1926 he worked at various offices of the Associated Press, first as a reporter (Kansas City), and then as a bureau manager (Jefferson City, Missouri; Topeka, Kansas; Dallas and Austin, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; Chicago, Illinois). In 1927 or 1932 (accounts vary), he briefly opened his own publicity business in Chicago, the Joseph E. Boyle Company. From 1938 through 1943, he was Director of Promotion of the National Council of the Episcopal Church, during which time he also served as editor of the official national magazine of the Episcopal Church. After leaving this position, he would continue to head publicity and promotional campaigns for his local Episcopal Church in New York City.
Boyle began working for J. Walter Thompson Company in New York City in 1943. In 1944, he became head of what was then called the Press Bureau. He was elected Vice President and Director of Public Relations–Publicity Department in 1948, a position he held until his retirement in 1965–66. His successor in this position was Loy J. Baxter.
While at J. Walter Thompson, Boyle worked with a variety of accounts, including Eastman Kodak Company, Institute of Life Insurance, American Bankers Association, Institute of Banking, New York World's Fair, Oxford University Press, Singer Company, Warner-Lambert Company, Chesebrough-Pond's, and Standard Brands, Inc.
Boyle's other professional activities included serving as Chairman of the Educational Committee and Public Service Committee of the Public Relations Society of America and participating as a panelist in public relations seminars sponsored by the Public Relations Society of America. He held professional memberships with the Public Relations Society of America and the Advertising Club of New York.
Concurrently with other work, starting in 1941–42, Boyle taught public relations at the School of General Studies, Columbia University. Over the course of his career at Columbia, he taught an estimated 2,000 students before retiring from Columbia in 1969.
After his retirement from J. Walter Thompson, Boyle worked as a consultant with the US Government's Foreign Agriculture Service from 1966–70.
Boyle's civic and educational activities included active membership in the National Council of the Churches of Christ and the Alumni Council of the School of General Studies at Columbia. In 1962, he established the Joseph E. Boyle Scholarships in Public Relations at Columbia.
Throughout his life, Boyle was a prolific writer in a number of genres: journalism, non-fiction essays, pamphlets, poetry, short stories, and novels. This collection includes a variety of unpublished literary manuscripts. Boyle wrote under a number of pen names including Jon Barton, Essex Boyle, Exxex Boyle, James Brent, Justus Essex, Will O. Lane, J. O'Boyle, Paul de Tarsus, and Jene Tremaine.
Boyle was married to Nell Boyle (née Hughes), who died in June 1974. The couple had two daughters, Dorothy Jane Boyle (later Huyck, married to Earl E. Huyck, Bethesda, MD) and Betty-Jo Boyle (later Rule, married to Lloyd W. Rule, Denver, CO). At the time of his death on in Bronxville, New York, September 16, 1976, at age 77, he was survived by his daughters, four sisters (Naomi Cole [Kansas City], Zenobia Kissinger [Bennington, Kansas], Nellie Partridge [Bennington, Kansas], Chris Dewey [Minneapolis, Kansas]), and twin brothers (Benson Boyle [Hastings, Nebraska] and Bentley Boyle [Bennington, KS]).
Boyle maintained a friendship with Angus S. Hibbard, a Chicago inventor, executive of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, poet and composer. This collection contains some of Hibbard's musical work, fiction, and autobiographical writings.
