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Barbara Shubinski

Director of Research and Engagement, Rockefeller Archive Center

Barbara Shubinski is the Director of Research and Engagement at the RAC where she leads a team of historians, educators, archivists, and designers in communicating the role philanthropy has played in shaping U.S. and global life. She holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa, master’s degrees in Historic Preservation from the University of Vermont and in Anthropology from Stanford University, and a BA from the University of Virginia. Her research interests include the history of science, public health and agriculture.

Related Articles

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The Rockefeller Foundation’s Agriculture Program in India

India was not the first country to take up the new seeds and methods developed by the Rockefeller Foundation, but the story of India’s adoption of them in the 1960s is dramatic.

A grayscale photograph showing 25-kilogram sacks of corn seeds lined up in neat rows. Partial view of stacked sacks of corn and Chevrolet trucks from the '60s visible in the background.
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The Rockefeller Foundation’s Mexican Agriculture Program, 1943-1965

The Rockefeller Foundation’s first intensive agriculture endeavor is now credited with launching the global transformation known as the “Green Revolution.”

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The Rockefeller Foundation’s Role in Creating the Atomic Bomb

In the aftermath, Foundation staff struggled to rectify their organization’s involvement with this weapon of mass destruction.

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Preserving Scholarship During World War II: the Rockefeller Foundation, Libraries, and Microphotography

Using new technology to save threatened world resources and keep free inquiry alive under threat of fascist destruction.

Photo Essay: The Rockefellers, National Parks, and Public Lands

The nation’s parks, perhaps our most remarkable public resource, have a history of development through private giving.

Black-and-white image of an American Red Cross sanitation vehicle

Timeline: American Foundations and the History of Public Health

Key points in the history of American foundations’ engagement with public health.

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Early Experiments in Public Broadcasting

The American public broadcast system as it exists today came out of years of work by organized philanthropy.

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Black Education and Rockefeller Philanthropy from the Jim Crow South to the Civil Rights Era

Devoting a vast fortune to the American race problem fell short because of decades of false assumptions and well-intended approaches that failed.

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Public Health: How the Fight Against Hookworm Helped Build a System

A hundred years ago, hookworm disease was an epidemic across the US South. Northern philanthropy tried to help.

Cover Your Mouth: Controlling an Epidemic Through Hygiene

Century-old tips to prevent infection still make sense today.