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NJHA Library & Links
The Past as Prologue
65 years ago
Interpreting the Hospital to the Public
June 1, 1936In a play of many years ago entitled "It Pays to Advertise," it was explained that hens' eggs are so much more in demand than ducks' eggs, for the reason that, while a duck lays a much bigger egg, she just gets up and walks off, whereas the hen, after laying a smaller egg, cackles and tells the world about it! We should not conclude from this, however, that the cackling is wholly responsible. The first principle of advertising is that we must have something to advertise. If the hen only cackled without laying the egg she would be ridiculed, but having produced something of which she is justly proud, calling attention to it is not out of place. Be Prepared to Keep Your Promises
Before attempting to interpret ourselves to the public we should be sure that we fully understand our own situations and are prepared to present them correctly and modestly. …But having assured ourselves that our service fully meets the needs of our public and that we are prepared to maintain these standards, it becomes a duty to make our work better known. ...The latest addition to our literature is a picture post card showing an air view of the Hospital. These are presented to new patients on admission and are to be used freely as a means of visualizing our plant to friends of patients or others who care to send them through the mails. ... Through every waking moment we are all exposed to skillful and often subtle propaganda, inspired by the desire to pecuniary profit or personal advantage. Is it not equally right, proper and necessary that the public, who may at any moment have the utmost need for the services which we unselfishly maintain for their benefit, should be kept fully aware of our existence, well informed as to our current needs, and keenly conscious of our desire to justify the confidence which they in a any sudden emergency may be forced to repose in us? In what better cause can the intelligent uses of propaganda be enlisted? Source: Quarterly Bulletin of The New Jersey Hospital Association, Vol. II, No. 4, June 1936, pp. 2-3. Presented by Stanley Howe, Director, Orange Memorial Hospital, Orange, NJ at the Spring Conference of the NJ Hospital Association, Beth Israel Hospital, Newark, NJ, April 1, 1936.For further reading about historic N.J. hospital postcards: Densky-Wolff, Lois R. "Part I: Hospital Postcards: The New Jersey View," New Jersey Medicine, February 1994, 91(2):85-89. Densky-Wolff, Lois R. "Part II: Hospital Postcards: The New Jersey View," New Jersey Medicine, March 1994, 91(3):160-165.SUMMARY: Both articles provide a pictorial history of selected New Jersey hospitals from a postcard collection at UMDNJ-University Libraries Special Collections Department. [Newark, N.J.] The two articles are organized by four types of New Jersey hospital postcards. They are: Picture postcards, tuberculosis hospitals, government hospitals and town & city hospitals.
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