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Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Editorial Records

Call Number

MS 3009-RG 34

Date

1969-1988, inclusive

Creator

Time, inc.

Extent

10 Linear feet in 11 record cartons

Language of Materials

The material in the collection are in English.

Abstract

Sports Illustrated launched in August 1954. The Editorial Records are primarily correspondence from senior editorial staff to place articles or excerpts from outside writers. There is a small amount of administrative records.

Historical Note

Sports Illustrated (SI) launched on August 16, 1954 as a weekly magazine with Managing Editor Sidney James and Publisher Harry Phillips.

According to an unsigned capsule history in the General Files of the publishing and business records (MS 3009-RG 35), Time Inc. cofounder and president Henry R. Luce asked Executive Vice President Howard Black to come up with new publishing venture ideas. Black's May 21, 1953 letter to Luce contained a paragraph reading: "A Sports Weekly -- everything in sports -- hunting, fishing, boating. this would be a picture magazine -- 10 cents a copy." By June 1953, Time Inc. set up a department to develop this magazine.

The "Editorial Notes" in the RG 35 General Files state that SI was the first Time Inc. magazine to include bylines. It started with well-known sports writers. Later it incorporated articles from famous authors such as "[William] Faulkner and Catherine Drinker Bowen on the Derby," and "Robert Frost on the All-Star Game." Great sports writers also started their careers as early SI staff writers including Robert Creamer and "Tex" Maule.

For the majority of Time Inc.'s existence, the company maintained a strict separation of editorial from the publishing and business side of each magazine, colloquially called the separation of "church" (editorial) and "state" (publishing). Editorial includes the editors, researchers, and art department. The editorial side reported up to the editor-in-chief and the publishing/business side reported up to the corporate business executive which was the president prior to 1960 and the chief executive officer after. Henry Luce structured Time Inc. this way so that the business side could not (in theory) influence the editorial content of the publications. For example, the advertising sales people could not interfere with a magazine's decision to run an article on the dangers of cigarette smoking, even though it might mean losing millions of dollars in tobacco ads.

Citations:

Hooper, Bill. Email to Holly Deakyne, 10 June 2016.

Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Publishing and Business Records, MS 3009-RG 35, New-York Historical Society.

Arrangement

The collection is organized into four series based on the hierarchy of staff:

Series I. Managing Editor Mark Mulvoy Copy of Strategic Plan

Series II. Assistant Managing Editor and Senior Editor Ray Cave Files

Series III. Senior Editor Patricia Ryan Files

Series IV. Associate Editor Joseph Carroll Correspondence

Scope and Contents

The Sports Illustrated Editorial Records are primarily correspondence from senior editorial staff to place articles or excerpts from outside writers. Outside writers include those from other magazines (sometimes other Time Inc. magazines), freelancers, and some amateurs. Files do not always have correspondence from the writer and may only contain internal correspondence regarding their article or excerpt. Topics include story ideas, submissions, the logistics of publishing accepted articles, and payment amounts. There is a small amount of administrative records. The majority of correspondence comes from Senior Editor Patricia "Pat" Ryan. Her records also include the Text Department's financial records. This seems to be the department in charge of reviewing submitted manuscripts.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to qualified researchers with the exception of restricted materials. Restricted materials include contracts and are located in box R65.

Unreformatted audiovisual material in the collection is not accessible.

Materials in this collection are stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Conditions Governing Use

Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.

Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.

Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions

Preferred Citation

This record group should be cited as Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Editorial Records, MS 3009-RG 34, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection are stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Time Inc. in 2015.

Related Materials

This finding aid relates to just one record group of the Time Inc. Records. For information about the other record groups and for overall information about the archives, please see the Guide to the Time Inc. Records (MS 3009). The Henry Luce Papers (MS 3014) were acquired with the Time Inc. Records. The collection of books acquired with the records are cataloged as the Time Inc. Reference Library.

Information about the history of Sports Illustrated and additional records from the editorial offices can be found in the Time Inc. Subject Files (MS 3009-RG 1) and the Time Inc. Annex Files (MS 3009-RG 39). Records from the publishing and business offices is in the Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Publishing and Business Records (MS 3009-RG 35). RG 35 also includes a 1954 editorial staff list in the Divisional History folder.

Collection processed by

Holly Deakyne

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:14 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

The Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Editorial Records were processed by Holly Deakyne in 2021. The original folders were retained when possible, although some documents were transferred to archival containers in instances of overcrowding, if the original folder was in poor condition or undersized, or if no original folder was present.

Deakyne created the series and imposed series arrangement. Arrangement for the correspondence in each series relied on the original order although order was partially imposed to organize Ryan's files.

Deakyne created the inventory and other descriptive notes to produce this finding aid.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024