A Guide to the Louis G. Cowan World War II
Propaganda Collection,
ca. 1942-1946 Cowan, Louis G.- World War II
Propaganda Collection, ca. 1942-1946
11569
Funding:
Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a
grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
Processed by:
Special Collections Department
Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia
Library
Accession number
11569
Title
Louis G. Cowan World War II Propaganda Collection,
ca.
1942-1946
Physical Characteristics
ca. 190 items (1.5
Hollinger boxes and oversize materials)
Language
English
Abstract
These papers consist of the World
War II American propaganda collection of Louis G. Cowan, ca.
1942-1946, including posters, pamphlets, booklets, magazines,
cutouts and miscellany collected by Cowan while associated
with the Overseas Branch of the Office of War Information.
There is Allied propaganda material in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch,
English, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese,
Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish.
Louis G. Cowan (1909-1976), son of Jacob J. and Hetty Smitz
Cowan, began his work with the Overseas Branch of the Office
of War Information as a liaison to the OWI from the army. Then
he became head of the Radio Program Bureau where he stayed
from July 1943 until 1944. Taking charge of the New York
office, Cowan directed operations to Europe, Africa, and the
Middle East.
Cowan was a public relations expert (President of the Louis
G. Cowan Company, 1931-1941) and radio producer (Louis G.
Cowan, Inc., radio and TV productions, 1946-1955) who was
first exposed to the world of propaganda at the University of
Chicago in his college course with sociologist, Harold
Lasswell, a leading expert in the field during the twenties
and thirties. He created radio shows such as "Kay Kyser's
College of Musical Knowledge" and "The Quiz Kids." In 1941, he
joined the Radio Division of the Army Bureau of Public
Relations, moving over to the Foreign Information Service in
April 1942. Cowan married Pauline Spiegel in 1939 and had four
children, Paul, Geoffrey, Holly, and Liza.
After the war, he became vice-president for creative
services for CBS TV network (1955-1958) and then president
(1958-1959); director of Morse Communication Research Center
at Brandeis University (1961-1965); and director of Special
Programs in the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia
University in 1965. He also served at the President and editor
of Chilmark Press, Inc. and chairman of the publication and
advisory board of the
Partisan Review .
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