Skip to main content

New School marketing and promotional materials collection

 Collection
Identifier: NS-05-08-01

Summary

Printed publicity materials including but not limited to mailers, viewbooks, pamphlets, and postcards generally advertising The New School, or a particular course or program of study.

Dates

  • 1939 - 2018

Creator

Extent

3.4 Cubic Feet (7 boxes, 4 folders)

Language of Materials

English

Scope and Content of Collection

The bulk of this collection was published under the direction of various admissions offices and designed by the administrative unit known as Marketing and Communications, previously Communications and External Affairs. Prior to the establishment of a university-wide office responsible for design and marketing activities, individual divisions within the university created their own promotional materials. The function of the materials in the collection was to attract potential students to various programs offered at the university.

The collection does not include bound course catalogs, which will be found in NS.05.01.01, nor does it contain posters advertising the New School. When possible, the New School Archives retains three copies of each item published up to 1970, and two copies of each item published after 1970. As of 2016, the collection consists solely of analog printed records, but digital records may be added to the collection in the future.

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.

Use Restrictions

To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives and Special Collections. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.

Historical Note

The New School for Social Research (NSSR) was founded in 1919 as an institution of higher education devoted to adult learning. In 1943, NSSR was divided into two schools, the School of Politics, and the School of Liberal Arts and Philosophy. At this time, in response to the needs of returning veterans wishing to take advantage of the GI Bill, the school began a program called Senior Year at the New School. Geared toward adults who had previously completed some coursework, the program offered undergraduate credits for some courses and awarded bachelors' degrees. However, the majority of students continued to take non-credit courses.

In 1933, the New School for Social Research established the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science. Also known as the "University in Exile," the division was founded in order to host German and other European scholars who left their countries of origin to escape political and racial persecution. The Board of Regents of the State of New York granted a provisional charter in 1934, allowing the Graduate Faculty to confer Master of Social Science and Doctor of Social Science degrees. This was the first time the New School for Social Research offered credit to students in any of its programs. In 2005, the Graduate Faculty changed its name to The New School for Social Research, reclaiming the founding name of the entire institution which had been dropped eight years before.

Although The New School offered some undergraduate credits beginning in the 1940s, the first full-time day program was established in 1972. Called the Freshman Year Program, it initially focused on college-level courses for high school students or recent high school graduates who would then matriculate elsewhere. The program expanded as the Seminar College in 1977 and further grew in 1985 with a large donation and new name, Eugene Lang College.

In 1997, the New School for Social Research was officially renamed New School University. The founding division, still devoted to adult education, was given the general name The New School, now comprising one of seven divisions of New School University. In 2005, the school underwent another series of name changes, which led to the overarching organization being called The New School, while the adult education program was named The New School for General Studies. This name was changed in 2011, when the adult education program was called The New School for Public Engagement and combined with the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, which until that time had been a separate division.

Names with multiple uses:

The New School 1919-1964: a shortened version of the New School for Social Research 1962-2004: a division of the New School for Social Research focused on adult education 2005-present: a multi-part institution of higher education consisting of eight divisions

The New School for Social Research 1919-1998: an institution devoted to adult higher education that grew to encompass many schools and divisions, some of which offered undergraduate and graduate degrees. 2004: a division of The New School offering graduate degrees in social sciences.

Organization and Arrangement

Arranged in 6 series: 1. University-wide, 1995-2018 2. College of Performing Arts, 1939-2017 3. Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, 1985-2018 4. The New School for Social Research, 1972-2018 5. Parsons School of Design, 2012-2018 6. Schools of Public Engagement, 1959-2018

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The staff of the New School Archives and Special Collections assembled this collection from materials periodically transferred to the archives.

Related Materials

The New School Archives maintains a separate collection of marketing and promotional materials produced by and for Parsons School of Design through 2011 (PC.05.03.01). All Parsons School of Design materials published in 2012 or after will be filed in the collection at hand.

Promotional materials dating to approximately the first four decades of the New School's existence will be found in the New School Publicity Office records (NS.03.01.05).

Processing Information

Processed by Cameron Halladay.

Title
Guide to the New School marketing and promotional materials
Status
Completed
Author
New School Archives and Special Collections Staff
Date
November 16, 2016
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Revision Statements

  • May 21, 2019: New School Archives staff updated collection inventory to reflect recent additions.
  • March 23, 2021: Anna Robinson-Sweet updated collection inventory to reflect recent additions.