By Ashley Walter, Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania State University

Ohio University professor, Marilyn Greenwald, began her journalism career in the late 1970s working as an entertainment editor and copy editor in Painesville, Ohio. She went on to report business and news for the Columbus Dispatch before starting an academic career. Her research examines media history, arts criticism, biographical writing, non-fiction book publishing, and women in journalism. She has written several books and academic articles, including A Woman of the Times: Journalism, Feminism, and the Career of Charlotte Curtis.

Q: How did you become interested in journalism?

A: Well that goes way back! It’s something I was always interested in, even when I was little—like six or seven. I was interested in writing whenever I started school. Then as I got a little bit older, I worked on the junior high newspaper, and then for the high school paper, and then eventually for Ohio State’s newspaper. It’s really been my whole life. Then I was lucky to work and get my master’s in the evenings at Ohio State.

Q: How did you come to your area of scholarship?

A: I came to my area of scholarship almost by accident. I was working on a Ph.D in Rhetoric at Ohio State University—it was an area that focused on persuasion and political communication. My other two degrees were in journalism, and this was the closest the department offered to journalism.

I was finishing classwork but still had no dissertation topic. I did have a good relationship with my adviser, who had a great interest in journalism, and I happened to mention that one of the first women top editors at the New York Times, Charlotte Curtis, had just died at a relatively young age (58) and the Times had just run a long obituary. Curtis was raised in Columbus and worked at one of the Columbus newspapers early in her career, so I knew who she was. She had become a pioneering editor at the Times and is credited with changing the focus of frothy “women’s” pages to sections that carried information about serious topics such as abortion, the women’s movement, and the like.

My adviser was intrigued, and immediately asked if Curtis left behind any personal papers. If she had, he said, she could be the topic of a biographical dissertation. As it turns out, when I contacted her husband, I learned Curtis had left behind a dozen or more boxes of memos, photos, letters, original stories, and other documents from her years at the Times. He also was anxious to talk about Curtis and her career. So, I got a lot of good information and wrote a rhetorical biography of Curtis for my dissertation. I later turned it into a biography of her, which was pretty well received. It got a review in the New York Times and was named a Notable Book of the Times in 1999.

That experience got me addicted, so to speak, to writing journalism history and biography, and I have written three others and have a manuscript out for a fifth.

Q: What is the most recent historical research project you have worked on?

A: As part of a larger project about attorney and civil rights activist Eunice Carter, I recently began studying news coverage of the mob trials of 1930s in New York City that convicted Lucky Luciano and others. I worked with a graduate student (who now works at CNBC) and found that then-prosecutor Thomas Dewey was able to manipulate editors and publishers of the era to cover the investigation the way he wanted it covered. We discovered this though primary sources in Dewey’s papers at the University of Rochester.

Q: What was the key moment or turning point when you decided on this approach to historical research?

A: My work with Charlotte Curtis’ papers was the first time I worked with primary sources; although I had taken one graduate course in historical research, my work with papers and archives was very limited. Discovering information through primary sources and working in an archive was exciting to me, even though it’s time-consuming and painstaking, and I love doing it because I feel I am always uncovering previously unknown information.

Q: What advice do you have for someone new to archival work?

A: The first thing: there is so much more online now. It’s amazing what’s organized, like the Pauline Frederick Papers at Smith College. It’s not just that there is information available, but it is organized well online. A good archive should tell a story.

Another thing, going to an archive can be time-consuming and expensive. You get so excited and time passes so quickly.

Also, I only recently learned that there are archivists who will really help you out a lot if you ask for help. I’m amazed sometimes what the archivists will do for you if you ask them well-prepared questions. They want their stuff out there and your research helps them. But never expect them to do your work for you.

Q: How does/did your research inform your teaching?

A: My work affects my teaching directly when I teach a graduate Biographical Writing class; but even when I don’t teach that class, my work is reflected in my teaching. For instance, I occasionally teach an undergraduate Non-Fiction Book Publishing class, where we talk about copyright law, trends in publishing, the business of publishing and other issues I learned about through my experience in publishing. And, as writing journalism history is a form of story telling, my research also informs my teaching of news reporting.

Q: How does your research program add to the diversity goals of the AEJMC History Division?

A: Most but not all of my historical research has focused on women in journalism and how pioneering women journalists thrive in a male environment; how they lead the way for other women, and their current status (their numbers overall and in management positions). My recent work about Eunice Carter has led me to write about the history of the black press in this country.

Q: What advice do you have for junior faculty/scholars?

A: In my career, I have worked on projects by myself and in collaboration with others. I think this is key if someone wants to be an effective and versatile scholar. If you work independently on a project, you can truly call it your own and it becomes an area of expertise. Yet working with one or two others also can make for a fuller and more multi-dimensional project. Collaboration can also prompt you to think of the subject in new and different ways. I did a lot work with a co-worker, and I found the conversations and give-and-take we had not only added to my knowledge and understanding but forced me to think about the subject in new and innovative ways.

Interview conducted by Ashley Walter, a Ph.D. student at the Pennsylvania State University.

Please note: Greenwald discussed her research and insights into writing biographies in a Journalism History podcast. Click here to listen.