rockarch Sign Up Information

Dear RE:source Reader,

Last month, we launched RE:source to share stories from the RAC collections that show how philanthropy has shaped the world we live in today -- episodes from history that matter for the present, stories that invite engagement and connection across fields and institutions. In recent weeks, we have added to our growing body of work focused on race and social justice with a piece on the Rockefeller Foundation’s partnership with civil rights activist Ted Watkins. In case you missed them, other stories analyze philanthropic attempts to tackle school desegregation and inequality.

Some of our stories are more about the inner workings of philanthropy itself, like the piece on investment philanthropy or the one about working amidst civil war and violent conflict. We brought forward stories like the one on John D. Rockefeller’s free gift of life-saving insulin when that drug was first developed, and created a cluster of stories about the long legacy of philanthropic work in public health. You may have noticed that we present stories in a variety of formats, from timelines, like our piece on World War I, to photo-essays, longer-form essays, and “In Brief” snippets, like the one on urban activist Jane Jacobs.

Fifty years ago this month, the Tax Reform Act of 1969 regulated US private foundations to an unprecedented degree. Viewed by some with apprehension, for better or worse, the restrictions and requirements of the Act have been woven into the fabric of foundation activity ever since. This week, in recognition of the Act’s anniversary, we have published a look back at the lead-up to that pivotal moment. It seems fitting to reach out to you, our readers, as we publish a piece focused on what was, at the time, a new demand for transparency from the sector. We hope that RE:source will provide its own kind of transparency for the vast record of activity that the sector continues to amass.

Warm wishes for the upcoming New Year! We look forward to building our relationship with you, our readers, as 2020 unfolds.


Sincerely, 



Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director or Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center

Dear Reader,
 
In January on RE:source, we expanded our coverage of the long legacy of philanthropic support for health and medicine, looking at the little-known story of the funding behind the Kinsey Report. With epidemics and disease control very much in today's headlines, we also delved into amazing images from the Rockefeller Foundation’s work controlling the epidemic of tuberculosis in France during and after World War I. These stories add to other health-related pieces you may have missed: one on the bumpy and sometimes tragic path to a successful yellow fever vaccine, and another little-known story, of how hospice care came to the United States in the 1970s. Mental health is a big part of the health legacy as well, and the origins of the insanity defense may surprise you. It may also surprise you to learn about the efforts of one philanthropist who tried, in his day, to grapple with the affordability of distributing insulin, -- a story that very much echoes the current crisis in prescription drug costs.

In February, we’ll turn our attention to another of our core research areas -- race and social justice. We’re excited about the stories we’re uncovering in the vaults, and we can’t wait to share some great pieces we have in development that will add to our work on equal opportunity and school desegregation. Stay tuned!

Sincerely, 



Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director or Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center

Dear Reader,
 
As we at the Rockefeller Archive Center log another month of working remotely, we identify with others around the country and around the world doing the same. We're grateful for the work of essential workers keeping us all going. And we find ourselves experiencing renewed appreciation for the lessons from history our records reveal, especially in these challenging times. There's a mounting need to school remotely, so we want to point to our educational resources in curriculum units developed with K-12 classroom teachers.
 
With thoughts of today's pandemic in mind, we recently published a piece on the campaign against hookworm disease that was mounted over a century ago. It explains the development of a wider public health system, and complements our previously published photo essay about the fight against hookworm. Each month, we add to our medicine and public health research stream. Other stories you may have missed include one on early insulin distribution, and another on developing a yellow fever vaccine. Our focus is driven in part by the RAC holdings in this area, but also by the questions that today's global health situation raises for all of us.
 
In April we commemorated another challenge, this one from one year ago: the fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. While this event doesn't command headlines as it did then, it remains significant to French heritage as well as Western architecture. Hence, on the anniversary we published a piece about a similar story -- how philanthropy helped Reims Cathedral rise from the ashes. And, as the month drew to a close, we added to the arts and culture research stream with a piece on a little-known episode in the history of American dance that had far-reaching artistic impact.
 
We hope you find the occasion to read these and our other stories.

See you next month! Stay safe. 

Sincerely, 



Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center

Dear Reader,
 

We hope this message finds you safe and healthy. Still doing most of our work from home, the RE:source team is using this challenging and unusual summer to put many new stories into development. We're excited to begin to share these!
 
We're very pleased to announce the launch this week of a new feature, New Research. This monthly series spotlights scholarship drawing on the holdings of the RAC across a variety of fields. Our first installment includes work on foundation funding for Brazil during the Cold War, agrarian reform in Iran, theatre in India, as well as a piece on the rise of 20^th century moderate Republicanism in the US. We hope that this series will bring new scholarship into the public eye, connect scholars with each other's work, and broadly promote the value of philanthropic archives for future research.
 
With the pandemic and vaccines very much on our minds, in June we delved into the story of a debate in the 1990s around searching for an HIV/AIDS vaccine. This resonates with other stories you may have missed in Medicine and Public Health, in particular our stories on the development and distribution of insulin and the yellow fever vaccine.
 
In July, we continued our look at museums, this time exploring through photographs the founding of New York's Museum of Modern Art in the 1930s. MoMA has become one of the world's standard bearers for modernism, and its focus stands in contrast to the medieval focus of The Met Cloisters, another Rockefeller-founded institution that we have looked at through photographs. You may want to explore more of our stories related to Arts and Culture, which include stories about several other museums, such as the Walker Arts Center, and a cross-museum project in West Africa.
 

Until next month,



Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center

Dear Reader,
 
Another month into working remotely, we at the Rockefeller Archive Center remain grateful for the essential workers who keep our lives functioning during this time.
 
The pandemic and the healthcare system remain uppermost in our minds, and in May we published a piece that tells a compelling story about the early days of public health regulations, when data and testing played a prominent role in prompting new policy for food and milk safety. Adding to our research stream on medicine and public health, the story shows the importance of science and of cooperation between government and private business for the public good.
 
This month's anniversary of the founding of New York City's Met Cloisters museum sparked two articles for our arts and culture research stream. The first tells the story of the founding of the museum by two prominent men with very little in common but their love of medieval art. The second uses archival photos to offer a glimpse of little-known views from the development of The Cloisters -- perhaps this will offer you a virtual visit to the site while in-person visiting remains out of reach.
 
We also want to mention another important May anniversary, that of the US Supreme Court's Brown v. Board decision in 1954. Several articles you may have missed on school desegregation take on a new resonance in these times. With so many schools closed right now across the nation, and rising awareness of the high price we all pay for the outcomes of systems of inequity, we hope our stories on the history of race and social justice in education might add to new thinking about the role of schooling and how to close the gap in access to resources.
 
See you next month! Stay safe and be well.

Sincerely, 



Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center

Dear Reader,
 

As Black History Month draws to a close, we look back at the stories we posted on philanthropy's engagement with race in America. First up was a glimpse into writer James Baldwin's quest to finish a pathbreaking novel. His poignant statement featured in our article shows how a grant can make a difference to someone trying to change the world.
 
Speaking of changing the world, our story on foundation support for diverse programming in early public television documents the pioneering shows that enabled communities of color to see themselves represented and hear their issues voiced. And it shows fun vintage images from 1960s TV! Our piece on African American Boy Scouts reveals the little-known story of the philanthropic support behind the Boy Scouts' first steps toward racial inclusiveness in the 1920s.
 
These articles add to our ongoing focus on race and social justice. You may have missed our photo essay on the Ford Foundation's Program Related Investments, which features powerful images of minority-led businesses. Our piece on closing the race gap in college admissions raises questions about how to broaden opportunities for underserved youth. And our profile of a community activist in Watts asks how foundations can best be involved in grassroots social change.
 
Next month, we're eager to recognize Women's History Month in a similar way. We'll dig for those untold stories, like this one on activist Jane Jacobs. And we'll examine not only philanthropy's funding history, but intentions, outcomes, and evolution in equity for women.

Sincerely, 



Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director or Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center

Dear Reader,
 

Greetings! Hope this Autumn finds you well. In October, the Archive Center team had the opportunity to investigate a little-known arts and culture story drawn from the records of the Rockefeller Foundation. The long road to the creation of a Korean dictionary is a fascinating story of cultural resilience and philanthropy's global engagement.

October also saw our fourth installment of New Research, which features work on a wide range of aspects of medicine and public health, from psychiatric nursing to medical education in Fiji during its colonial era, to health care reforms in American prisons. Another RAC Research Report with perhaps surprising relevance to today looks at data-driven modeling in postwar US economics.

Finally, as PBS (the Public Broadcasting System) marked its 50^th anniversary this month, we revisited and expanded our story on the role that philanthropy played in helping public television showcase American diversity, and we published a look at the part foundations played in shaping early educational television, the road to public broadcasting as we now know it. In these challenging days, when so many of us seek to understand issues of race and social justice in new ways, the story of the quest for equitable representation in the mass media seems especially timely.

Until next time,



Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center

Dear Reader,
 

Greetings! As we approach a fall season like none other we have known, we hope this message finds you safe and healthy. The RE:source team continues to work remotely, adjusting to new realities with many challenges, as well as some unexpected upsides.
 
In August, we looked at Black education in the US funded by Rockefeller philanthropy. Our story examines the impact of race-based assumptions, and what happens when foundations choose to work within the constraints of racist systems rather than challenge them. This piece adds to our growing body of work on race and social justice. We hope it may lead you to stories you might have missed on school desegregation as well as other moments of good intentions that failed to change systems, for example in college admissions and equal economic opportunity.
 
Another story we published in August looks at an early episode in oceanography, and adds to our growing collection focused on one of the most enduring issues in philanthropy - how to build a field effectively. Similar stories you might enjoy include those on building the fields of public history, women's studies, and business education.
 
We're pleased to note that we recently published the third issue of New Research, our monthly series spotlighting scholarship drawn from the holdings of the RAC. The Research Reports featured this month cover a wide variety of topics, from Black conservatism to philanthropic work on climate change. A wide range of eras and geographic areas is covered throughout the series -- last month''s issue featured work on Afghanistan to Brazil to China and more. We hope that this feature will continue to bring new scholarship into the public eye and demonstrate the value of philanthropic archives for future research.
 
Until next time,




Barb Shubinski, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Education
Rockefeller Archive Center