Henrietta Malkiel Poynter (1901–1968) was an American journalist and

businesswoman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

credited as the co-founder of ''

Congressional Quarterly Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combined ...

'' with her husband,

Nelson Poynter Nelson Poynter (1903–1978) was an American publisher and media proprietor. He was the owner of the Times Publishing Company, and the co-founder of the ''Congressional Quarterly''. He is the namesake of the Poynter Institute. Early life Poynter ...

Early life and education

Henrietta Malkiel was born in New York City in 1901, the only child of political activists Leon and

Theresa Malkiel Theresa Serber Malkiel (1 May 1874 – 17 November 1949) was an American labor activist, Women's suffrage in the United States, suffragist, and educator. She was the first woman to rise from factory work to leadership in the Socialist party. Her 1 ...

. Her parents were Russian Jewish immigrants and founded the '' New York Daily Call'', a Socialist newspaper. Her mother, a women's rights and labor activist, was the author of ''The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker''. She attended Hunter College High School and graduated from the

Columbia Journalism School The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights, Manhattan, Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is ...

in 1922.

Career

After college, Henrietta worked as a features editor for several magazines, including '' Vanity Fair'', ''Musical Digest'', and ''

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''. She served as the foreign editor for ''Vogue'' from 1929 to 1931. She also served as assistant to film director John Houseman. She met her future husband when they were both working on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's reelection campaign in 1940. They collaborated on a number of projects for the

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...

. During World War II she was the assistant program chief for

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, and is credited with naming the program. In 1945, the Poynters co-founded the Congressional Quarterly as a means to have easier and more streamlined access to the major legislation going through Congress. The Poynters resided mainly in

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

, but spent a great deal of time traveling between Florida and Washington, DC. Starting in 1953, she was the associate editor for her husband's newspaper, the ''

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single ...

''. She also served as the Vice President and a trustee of the Poynter Fund. During her career, Poynter was a member of the National Women's Press Club and the National Conference of Editorial Writers and the International Press Institute (she is noted as the first woman to serve on its American Committee).

Personal life and legacy

Henrietta married Nelson Poynter in 1942 in

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. She was active in several causes in Florida, serving as one of the five founding members of the St. Augustine Historical Preservation and Restoration Commission in St. Augustine, Florida. She died on January 25, 1968, after suffering a stroke, and following her death the Florida Legislature honored her with a resolution for her service to the state in 1969.Nelson Poynter Memorial Library. Special Collections and University Archives.; Schnur, James Anthony; and Chance, Jean, "The Jean Chance Research File on Henrietta Poynter" (2004). Special Collections and University Archives Finding Aids: All Items. 50. https://digital.usfsp.edu/scua_finding_aid_all/50

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poynter, Henrietta 1901 births 1968 deaths People from New York City 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American businesspeople People of the United States Office of War Information