We are sharing here the latest edition of our “New Research” series. It provides the public with an opportunity to read the most recently published Rockefeller Archive Center research reports. These reports have been prepared by RAC research stipend recipients who have come to our reading room to study the archival materials that we preserve and make available to users from around the world. The reports showcase the wide range of collections that they have seen, spanning different time periods and disciplines. As the heading above suggests, these reports often highlight philanthropy’s impact. This round of reports reflect researchers’ study of records from the Spelman Fund of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Population Council, the China Medical Board, Inc., and the Office of the Messrs. Rockefeller.
“The Public Administration Clearing House, Private Philanthropic Foundations, and Administrative Internationalism in Mid-20th Century America” by Xi Chen
Xi Chen came to RAC to study records related to the Public Administration Clearing House (PACH). Founded in 1930 with financial support from the Spelman Fund of New York (and later also receiving funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation), PACH aimed to facilitate information exchange and foster collaboration among different types of public administration organizations. He notes that while researchers have used these records in the past to study how PACH assisted US government agencies in improving their services, his research focus was different. His report, “The Public Administration Clearing House, Private Philanthropic Foundations, and Administrative Internationalism in Mid-20th Century America,” brings light to a previously overlooked chapter in PACH history – its international activities. He found that PACH’s leaders believed that administrative methods and practices were transferable across political systems and national borders, viewing PACH as a model for democratic governance worldwide. As such, starting in the 1930s, it fostered centers in Brussels and Havana to promote cooperation and information exchange among regional public administration organizations. Following World War II, it also collaborated with newly established international organizations such as the United Nations and the Organization of American States to export American administrative “best practices” to regions including Latin America and Japan. In Prof. Chen’s view, PACH’s transnational activities, revealed a pronounced and inherent impulse of liberal internationalism within the 20th-century American public administration profession.
Xi Chen is an assistant professor in the School of Humanities at Hangzhou City University. His research interests include the history of the social sciences in the United States. He was a 2025 RAC research stipend recipient.
“Women-led Movements in Brazil: The Case of Organized Domestic Workers (1980-1990)” by Yasmin Getirana
In her report, “Women-led Movements in Brazil: The Case of Organized Domestic Workers (1980-1990),” Yasmin Getirana traces the process by which women domestic workers created professional association and, later, unions in Brazil. She notes that this development first began in the 1930s, spread in the 1960s, but accelerated in the 1980s. An important component of the growth of the movement rests with grant support from the Ford Foundation (FF), starting in the 1980s. The researcher notes that while there has been extensive scholarship about FF’s involvement in Brazil, most of it, till now, has focused on the foundation’s role in supporting academic programs, particularly related to rural development projects and economics. Her research in the FF records at RAC provides an example of how a foundation, with a long-term presence in a country, can evolve and change its grantmaking agenda over time. In this case, the FF became increasingly active in funding projects supporting the activities of marginalized groups in Brazilian society. The grants that it made helped sustain women’s associations with roots in the favelas of cities throughout the country.
Yasmin Getirana is a doctoral candidate in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics. Her main topics of interest are social labor history, especially its relations to gender, race, religion and urban studies. She was a 2024 RAC research stipend recipient.
“‘A Responsible Attitude towards Reproduction Could Be Encouraged’: International Aid, Population Control, and Family Planning in Mexico” by Edrea Mendoza Quintero
Edrea Mendoza Quintero discusses in her research report, “‘A Responsible Attitude towards Reproduction Could Be Encouraged’: International Aid, Population Control, and Family Planning in Mexico,” that during the 1970s and 1980s, Mexico took a series of steps to establish a nationwide population policy. Her visit to RAC provided an opportunity for her to explore how three different organizations, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Population Council, and the Ford Foundation, each impacted that policy-making and policy-implementing process. She observes that, in aggregate, they provided grants for research, encouraged family planning literacy, supported production and supplies of birth control devices, and nurtured connections to NGOs and government entities alike, all while establishing a physical presence in Mexico and conducting their own analysis of the country’s needs and programs. The researcher concludes that this commitment to fostering Mexico’s new policies was impactful, as it resonated on local, state and federal levels.
Edrea Mendoza Quintero is a doctoral student in the Department of History of the University of New Mexico. Her research interests include 20th-century Latin American history, with a focus on Mexico and family planning policies. She was a 2024 RAC research stipend recipient.
“American Medical Humanitarianism to Wartime China, 1937-1945: Networks, Challenges, and Political Tensions” by Michael Shiyung Liu
Michael Shiyung Liu’s research time at RAC presented him with an opportunity to see the far-reaching impact of the Second Sino-Japanese War on Chinese medicine. He was specifically interested in the work of the China Medical Board (CMB), which had to evacuate its flagship Peking Union Medical College, but nevertheless continued its philanthropic activities in China. As he noted in “American Medical Humanitarianism to Wartime China, 1937-1945: Networks, Challenges, and Political Tensions,” CMB recalibrated its presence– and it continued to engage with the Chinese government in a complex set of wartime relief activities, military medicine support, and emergency collaboration. The era was characterized by an unusual (and at times contradictory) combination of dislocation, disruption, innovation, and taken opportunities. In the researcher’s view, CMB’s activities, in the context of the work of other US medical philanthropies in China, can be viewed as part of a larger policy of “American medical humanitarianism” in wartime.
Michael Shiyung Liu is a professor of history at the School of Humanities at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as at the Asian History Center of the University of Pittsburgh. He was a 2025 RAC research stipend recipient.
