Topic: Field-Building

Two white men in suits and ties address a room full of mostly male journalists at the United Nations Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974.
1970s

“A very small number of men control all the money and the ideas”: Women Revolutionize Population Programs in the 1970s

Women and technocratic elites clashed at the 1974 World Population Conference. At stake was women’s control over their own bodies.

1990s

Centering Women’s Rights in the Population Field: The Ford Foundation and Sexual Health in the 1990s

A 1994 meeting moved women’s empowerment front and center for grantmaking in global population.

1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s

Understanding the Business Cycle: Funding Economics Research

In nearly a century of activity in the field of economics, the Foundation initiated new research centers and training programs around the world.

1910s 1920s

Legitimizing the Social Sciences: The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial in the 1920s

What began as a philanthropic fund to honor its namesake became an early force in the social sciences.

1930s 1940s 1950s 1980s 1990s

The Rockefeller Foundation and the Birth of Molecular Biology

A new program in the natural sciences increased funding and attention to the life sciences, and coined a new term along the way.

1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

History of the Social Science Research Council

A new organization played an important part in assisting the Rockefeller Foundation by assembling cooperative studies on the issues of the day.

1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s

Philanthropy and Good Government: The Rockefeller Foundation and Public Administration

Partnering with public agencies to encourage efficient administration in state, county, and local governments.

1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s

Building Global Understanding: Area Studies, Language, and History

Encouraging cross-cultural knowledge in an interconnected postwar world by shaping new interdisciplinary programs and retooling traditional academic fields.

1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s

Early 20th Century Reforms of Medical Education Worldwide

Working to change US medical education was one of the Rockefeller Foundation’s biggest endeavors in the 1910s and 1920s, extending from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore to Beijing, China.

1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s

“A Very Broad Field”: Building the Rockefeller Foundation’s Humanities Program

The Rockefeller Foundation evolved to bring the arts and humanities together, from classical archaeology to contemporary museums.