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1942: Rockefeller Foudation

The Rockefeller Foundation was chartered in 1913 with the permanent idea of 'promoting the well-being of mankind throughout the world.' The present program is concerned with certain definite problems in the medical, natural, and social sciences, the humanities, and public health. For work in these fields the Foundation appropriated in 1942 approximately $8,175,000. A statement of representative grants follows.

Medical Sciences.

In the medical sciences the Foundation's interest centers mainly on research and teaching in the field of nervous and mental diseases and on the improvement of medical services. Its appropriations in 1942 for work along these lines included $300,000 to Yale University for the support of the Department of Psychiatry of its School of Medicine; $48,000 to the Harvard Medical School, $45,000 to the University of Tennessee, and $36,650 to the Johns Hopkins University for research and teaching in psychiatry; $114,000 to the Harvard Medical School for research in epilepsy; $20,760 to the University of Edinburgh for research in psychiatry, neurology, and neurosurgery; $10,000 to the University of Colorado for the development of a liaison service between the Department of Psychiatry and other clinical departments of the Medical School; $150,000 to Dalhousie University to provide hospital teaching facilities for its medical students; $32,000 to Group Health Cooperative, Inc., New York City, toward the operation and development of medical insurance programs; $22,000 to the Medical Administration Service, Inc., New York City, a voluntary association established to study and promote methods and plans for more economical and effective medical prevention and care; $200,000 for scholarships to enable British medical students to complete their training in the United States.

Natural Sciences.

The program in the natural sciences is concerned mainly with experimental biology. Among the appropriations in this field in 1942 were $75,000 to the California Institute of Technology for the development of chemistry in its relation to biological problems; $60,000 to the University of California to enable it to employ three 8-hour shifts of workmen daily to expedite the completion of a giant cyclotron for supplying artificial radioactive elements for medical and biological research; $10,300 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for research on concentrated food formulas; $14,000 to the University of Toronto and $9,600 to the University of Wisconsin for research on vitamins in relation to metabolism; $20,000 to the California Institute of Technology for research on the structure of antibodies and the nature of immunological reactions. In support of fourteen research projects in experimental biology in three institutions in Sweden, one in Switzerland, and six in Great Britain, one-year grants totaling $60,410 were made in 1942. These grants were for work which has received Foundation support in the past and which thus far has not been disadvantageously affected by the war. The University of Uppsala received two of these grants; the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, two; the Stockholm Högskola, one; the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Switzerland, one; University of Oxford, three; the Universities of Cambridge, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Edinburgh, and the Rothamsted Experimental Station, one each.

Social Sciences.

In the social sciences the emphasis is on projects contributing to the understanding of important social problems and also to the development of personnel and methods. Appropriations in 1942 included $260,000 to the Social Science Research Council for conferences and planning, the work of its Public Administration Committee, the expenses of a personnel office in Washington, and fellowships; $255,000 to the National Bureau of Economic Research for support of its general program and of its special programs of research in finance and in fiscal policy; $150,000 to Brookings Institution for its research program, which covers the broad fields of economics and government; $107,000 to the Pacific Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations and $30,000 to the American Council of that Institute for their general expenses and for research; $70,700 to the Council on Foreign Relations, New York City, $32,400 to the Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, $20,000 to the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, and $11,250 to the Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, for their research programs or general budgets; $11,175 to the University of Chicago for study of wartime price controls; and $10,000 to Iowa State College for study of governmental policies affecting the production and distribution of food.

Humanities.

The program in humanities is concerned with the means, such as libraries, museums, motion pictures, radio, and drama, by which cultural levels of contemporary society are being influenced, and with the promotion of better international understanding through cultural interchanges. Grants totaling $89,250 were made to the American Library Association for the work of its Board on International Relations, for the expenses of producing a book catalogue of the Library of Congress card indexes for foreign distribution, for the expenses of a summer school for librarians in Bogota, Colombia, and for the use of the Canadian Library Council in establishing microphotographic and general advisory services for Canadian libraries. The Museum of Modern Art received $13,500 for the development of a program with secondary schools; the American Film Center, $50,000 for general expenses; the Rocky Mountain Radio Council, $15,000 for providing radio programs of educational and cultural value suited to the needs and interests of listeners in the region which it serves; Smith College received $14,000 and the University of North Carolina $9,750 for work in drama. For studies of Far Eastern languages and cultures $56,100 was appropriated to the American Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations, $36,000 to the University of California, $10,760 to Yale University, $15,000 to Harvard-Yenching Institute, and $9,900 to the American Council on Education.

Public Health.

The Foundation appropriated $2,200,000 for the work of its International Health Division in 1942. This work included research on a number of selected diseases, among them yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, typhus, rabies, syphilis, and diphtheria; demonstrations in the control of certain of these diseases in their environments; cooperation with governments in the organization or improvement of important services of central or local health departments; and the development of public health education. In addition $500,000 was appropriated for the use of the International Health Division in supporting the activities of The Rockefeller Foundation Health Commission in connection with war emergency problems.

Officers.

The executive officers of the Foundation in 1942 were Walter W. Stewart, chairman of the board of trustees; Raymond B. Fosdick, president; Thomas B. Appleget, vice-president; Alan Gregg, M. D., director for the medical sciences; Warren Weaver, director for the natural sciences; Joseph H. Willits, director for the social sciences; David H. Stevens, director for the humanities; Wilbur A. Sawyer, M. D., director of the International Health Division; Norma S. Thompson, secretary; Edward Robinson, treasurer; George J. Beal, comptroller; Thomas M. Debevoise, counsel; Chauncey Belknap and Vanderbilt Webb, associate counsels. The offices of the Foundation are at 49 West 49th Street, New York City.

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