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Creator
Sulzberger, Iphigene Ochs
Call number
MssCol 17786
Physical description
3.5 linear feet (9 boxes)
Preferred Citation

The New York Times Company Records. Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger (1892-1990) helped shape the history of the New York Times throughout a long and active life. Sulzberger nurtured and bridged the generations of the family that controlled The Times since 1896, when her father, Adolph S. Ochs, acquired it. She played important roles in selecting the succeeding publishers: her husband, Arthur Hays Sulzberger; her son-in-law, Orvil E. Dryfoos, and her son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger. Iphigene also served the newspaper as director and trustee for the stock left to her by her father. This collection consists of correspondence, personal papers, photographs, scrapbooks and ephemera.

Biographical/historical information

Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger (1892-1990) helped shape the history of the New York Times throughout a long and active life. Sulzberger nurtured and bridged the generations of the family that controlled The Times since 1896, when her father, Adolph S. Ochs, acquired it. She played important roles in selecting the succeeding publishers: her husband, Arthur Hays Sulzberger; her son-in-law, Orvil E. Dryfoos, and her son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 19, 1892, Iphigene Bertha Ochs grew up as the only child of Adolph S. and Iphigenia Wise Ochs. Her father was then proprietor of The Chattanooga Times, a growing Tennessee newspaper. Her mother was the daughter of Isaac Mayer Wise, rabbi of the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati and founder of American Reform Judaism.

On August 13, 1896, when Iphigene was nearly 4 years old, Adolph Ochs bought the faltering New York Times, and moved the family from Chattanooga to New York City. From that day forward her life was closely intertwined with The New York Times.

Iphigene was educated at home until she was 8, when she began attending Dr. Sachs's School for Girls, which was followed by four years at the Benjamin-Dean School. In 1910 she entered Barnard College.

She met Arthur Hays Sulzberger while attending Barnard. Sulzberger asked her to marry him twice, before she agreed. They were married on November 17, 1917 while he was on a 10-day leave from the Army. After World War I ended, the couple settled in New York, where Mr. Sulzberger joined the staff of The Times.

Iphigene began making a home and raising her children: Marian, born in 1918; Ruth, in 1921; Judith, in 1923, and Arthur Ochs, who was born in 1926.

In 1935, after the death of her father, Mrs. Sulzberger became a trustee of The New York Times Company under his will, along with her husband and cousin Julius Ochs Adler. Arthur Hays Sulzberger was elected president and publisher of The Times. As the publisher's wife, Mrs. Sulzberger shared her husband's concerns and problems but remained steadfastly an offstage figure in the operation of the paper.

Mrs. Sulzberger was a director of the Times Company from 1917 until 1973, when she became a director emeritus. She was among those who voted to alter the company structure fundamentally, granting limited voting rights to the Class A stock and listing it on the American Stock Exchange. At her death she was a trustee of the stock trust established by her father that exercised effective control of the enterprise.

On February 27, 1990, Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger, died of respiratory failure at her home in Stamford, Conn. She was 97 years old.

Scope and arrangement

The papers deal with personal matters and are of biographical, rather than journalistic or corporate history interest. This collection consists of social correspondence, letters concerning charitable donations, memorabilia from her college days at Barnard, travel photographs from India and the Caribbean, awards and tributes received, her memoirs, copies of her obituary from The Times and other publications, and ephemera.

Correspondence can be found throughout the papers, but the majority is in other New York Times Company records collections: Arthur Hays Sulzberger Papers, Julius Ochs Adler Papers, Orvil Dryfoos Papers, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Papers, and the papers of managing editors and other associates at The Times. Most extant materials from her childhood are included in the Adolph Ochs Papers.

The New York Times Company records. Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger papers are arranged in three series:

  • I. Chronological correspondence

    The letters are from family and friends. Some of the correspondents are well-known individuals in the political world and in the New York City region.

  • II. People

    This series consists chiefly of correspondence arranged by personal name. However, much of Mrs. Sulzberger's correspondence with her husband, other members of her family ,and members of The Times staff will be found in the Arthur Hays Sulzberger Papers, Julius Ochs Adler Papers, Orvil Dryfoos Papers, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Papers, and the papers of managing editors and other associates at The Times. Also see the scrapbooks for originals and copies of correspondence

  • III. Subjects

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by The New York Times Company, June 2007

Processing information

Processed by Leslie Reyman.

Related Material

Arthur Hays Sulzberger Papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, MssCol 17782. Adolph S. Ochs Papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library, MssCol 17781.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Access restrictions

Some materials closed until 2033. Sound recordings unavailable until duplicated.