1. Letter from Walt Kuhn to Walter Pach, December 12, 1912, in Kuhn Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., roll d72, frames 347–50. In the same letter, he characterized AAPS lawyer John Quinn as “strong on publicity.” In a letter to Rudie Dirks (March 3, 1913), Kuhn stated that the success of exhibit greatly exceeded his expectations

You hav'nt [sic] any idea how this confounded thing has developed; every afternoon Lexington afternoon [sic] and the side streets are jammed with private automobiles, old fashioned horse equipages, taxicabs and what not. To give you an idea of what a hit the show has made, I might merely state that the receipts for admissions and catalogues last Saturday amounted to $2000 (two thousand dollars) that's going some isn't it? The newspapers have treated the thing royally and over ninety works have been sold since the opening [on February 15, a little over two weeks]. (Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 1001).

2. Letter from Walt Kuhn to Ed Goewey, of the Kansas City Post, dated January 21, 1913, in Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 774.

3. As Eric Goldman points out, the communications revolution that precipitated the muckraker journalists of the decade also spurred the development of public relations as a field to defend corporate interests and image (see “Public Relations and the Progressive Surge: 1898—1917,” Public Relations Review 4 [Summer 1978]: 52–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar). I was referring earlier in the paragraph to Courbet's “Pavilion of Realism,” in which he exhibited his work separately from the annual salon, and to Church's showmanship with single-painting, paid-admissions exhibitions.

4. Cutlip, Scott M., “The Nation's First Public Relations Firm,” Journalism Quarterly 43 (Summer 1966): 269–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5. Goldman, , “Public Relations,” 59Google Scholar.

6. Hiebert, Ray Eldon, Courtier to the Crowd, The Story of Ivy Lee and the Development of Public Relations (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1966) 35Google Scholar.

7. For example, the New York Public Library acknowledged the receipt of “typewritten copies of your statement given out December 31” (Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 793). Articles with partially identical wording were published in the New York Evening Post and the New York Herald that very evening, and similar articles appeared in the New York Times, the New York Tribune, and the New York Sun on January 5. See scrapbooks of press clippings among Kuhn Papers, roll D73, frames 295–911.

8. See Dudley, Pendleton, “Current beginnings of PR,” Public Relations Journal 8: (04 1952): 8–14Google Scholar.

9. Letter from Walt Kuhn to his wife, Vera Kuhn, dated December 12, 1911, in Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 297.

10. This statement appeared in a number of places. It can be found in the exhibition catalogue International Exhibition of Modern Art (New York: Association of American Painters and Sculptors, 1913), 11Google Scholar. This may be found in volume one of a three-volume set in which has been reprinted a number of documents published by Arno Press (New York) in 1972, The Armory Show: International Exhibition of Modern Art 1913, vol. 1: Catalogues.

11. DeWeese, Truman, The Principles of Practical Publicity (Philadelphia: G. W Jacobs, 1906)Google Scholar. This book, first published in Philadelphia in 1906 was reprinted in several editions throughout the following two decades as volume seven of the Business Man's Library, one of the first comprehensive guides to modern business practice. Other books of this type include Pierce, Carl Horton, Scientific Salesmanship (New York: Holden and Motley, 1906)Google Scholar, Scott, Walter D., Influencing Men in Business (New York: Ronald, 1911)Google Scholar, and Theory of Advertising (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1903); Spiers, Ernest A., The Art of Publicity and its Application to Business (London, 1910)Google Scholar; and Bridgewater, Howard, Advertising or the Art of Making Known (New York: Pitman and Sons, 1910)Google Scholar.

12. DeWeese, , Principles of Practical Publicity, 14Google Scholar. Publicity is here differentiated from advertising, which is seen as but one form of publicity.

13. These ideas are expanded upon in a fascinating book that was published in January 1913, just one month before the Armory Show opened: Hollingworth, Harry Levi, Advertising and Selling: Principles of Appeal and Response (New York: D. Appleton, 1913)Google Scholar. (The principle arguments in this essay are constructed from other sources because of the lateness of this publication in terms of the planning of the exhibit. I bring it in only as an interesting example of truly contemporaneous work in the field and will use it in a strictly auxiliary manner henceforth.)

Hollingworth, a Professor of Psychology at Columbia University used experimental methods to test his hypotheses about the effectiveness of various types of marketing. The book became a watershed in these kinds of treatments, leading to later publications such as Scott, Walter D.'s The Psychology of Advertising (Boston: Small, Maynard, 1917)Google Scholar and Berneys, Edward's Crystallizing Public Opinion (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1923)Google Scholar, a classic in its field.

14. DeWeese, , Principles of Practical Publicity, 43–45Google Scholar. In Hollingworth's book, the author expands upon these observations and talks about repetition and publicity as “a public reminder, intended to reinforce informative appeals already known or excite curiosity concerning a commodity about to be announced” (Advertising and Selling, 35)Google Scholar. In Bridgewater's book of 1910, cited in note 11, he goes so far as to state, “The psychological effect of repetition is shown in one of its strongest forms in the fact that a man may repeat a lie so often as to believe it eventually to be true” (Advertising, 17)Google Scholar.

15. From letters from Walt Kuhn to his wife, Vera Kuhn, December 14, 1912, in Kuhn Papers, roll d240, frame 470; and December 12, 1911, Kuhn Papers, roll 240, frame 297.

16. Arts and Decoration 3, no. 5 (March 1913), reprinted in its entirety in Arno publication The Armory Show: International Exhibition of Modern Art 1913, vol. 3: Contemporary and Retrospective Documents. See also Bois, Guy Pene Du, Artists Say the Silliest Things (New York, 1940), 173Google Scholar.

17. Letter from Walt Kuhn to Ashwell, Thomas A., publisher of Arts and Decoration, 12 19, 1912Google Scholar, in Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 754; and the reply from Kuhn to Ashwell, December 23, 1912 (frame 752).

18. Letter from Thomas A. Ashwell to Walt Kuhn, February 13, 1913, in Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 753.

19. Letter from Gutzom Borgland to the AAPS (February 1, 1913), in which the artist threatens to quit the association because of the officers breaking the constitution. Copies of his subsequent resignation, dated February 6, were sent by Borglum to the papers (Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 47).

20. The reply, signed by Walt Kuhn and Arthur B. Davies and addressed to Gutzom Borgland, was also released to the press on February 6, 1913 (the very same day) (Kuhn Papers, roll d72, frame 48).

21. From a letter from Walt Kuhn to his wife, Vera Kuhn, December 14, 1912, in Kuhn Papers, roll d240, frame 473. Hollingworth talks about the distribution of novelties such as buttons and pencils in terms of the “goodwill” created by a gift, “We instinctively feel approval of the man who gives us something and the psychology of good will [sic] in the novelty could be developed at great length” (Advertising and Selling, 43, original emphasis).

22. From the same letter from Kuhn to his wife, cited in note 21.

23. Ibid.

24. Kuhn, , The Story of the Armory Show (New York: Society of American Painters and Sculptors, 1938)Google Scholar.

25. Ibid., 15. For a good description of the breakdown of confidence within the membership, read Milton Brown's description of the May 18 meeting of the AAPS (The Story of the Armory Show [New York: New York Graphic Society, 1963Google Scholar; updated and revised, New York: Abbeville, 1988], 228–30).

26. Pach, Walter, Queer Thing, Painting (New York: Harper, 1938), 192Google Scholar.

27. Scott, Walter Dill, Influencing Men in Business: The Psychology of Argument and Suggestion (New York: Roland, 1911)Google Scholar.

28. Ibid., 76–77.

29. Pach, Walter, “Hindsight and Foresight,” in For and Against (New York: Association of American Painters and Sculptors, 1913), 27Google Scholar. Frederick Gregg, the other paid consultant, edited the pamphlet.

30. Pach, Walter, “The Cubist Room,” in For and Against, 52Google Scholar.

31. Ibid., 63.

32. Scott, , Influencing Men in Business, 150Google Scholar; see also 87–89.

33. Ibid., 93–94.