Location: United States

1930s 1940s

Toward a More Robust Study of Mental Health: Rockefeller Foundation Funding for Psychiatry

Two decades of funding helped legitimize the study of psychiatry as a medical issue, not a problem of character.

1940s

Rebuilding Asia and Europe: the Rockefeller Foundation’s Role in Post-World-War II Reconstruction

Foundation policy toward reconstruction was shaped by uncertainty over Europe’s — and in particular Germany’s — future

1920s 1930s 1940s

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.

1930s 1940s 1970s 1980s 1990s

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.

Timeline: A Century of American Philanthropy’s Engagement with Race and Racism

Delving into a century of philanthropic engagement with race, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era.

1960s

“Highest Standards”: Elite Philanthropy and Literary Black Voices during the Civil Rights Era

Against a backdrop of white, establishment concepts of literary excellence, one foundation struggled to appreciate Black voices.

1950s 1960s 1970s

Funding a Social Movement: The Ford Foundation and Civil Rights, 1965-1970

A story recounting many accusations, from rigged elections to the meddling of big private money in grassroots organizing.

1950s 1960s

Early Experiments in Public Broadcasting

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

1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s

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

Applying a vast fortune to the American race problem, but with decades of false assumptions and well-intended approaches that fell short.