The Rockefeller Family Philanthropic Timeline

This timeline highlights some of the Rockefeller Family's donations, facilitated through the Rockefeller Foundation.

-1884 – The Spellman College for African American Women opened through a donation by John Rockefeller.

-1900 – John Rockefeller donates $80 million to found the University of Chicago.

-1901 – Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research opens, later changing its name to Rockefeller University.

-1903 – The General Education Board receives a grant to guide and research public education.

-1909 – The Rockefeller Sanitary Commission for the Eradication of Hookworm disease is founded.

-1914 – The China Medical Board is founded to erect a system of modern medicine in China.

-1915 – The Rockefeller Foundation gives a grant to support the eradication of yellow fever.

-1917 – The Rockefeller Foundation establishes The Peking Union Medical College in China.

-1921 – Harvard and the University of Michigan receive grants to establish Schools of Public Health.

-1925 – Rockefeller Foundation gives a grant to John Grierson, leading to the development of documentary films.

-1930 – The Dictionary of American Biography and critical texts on Spenser and Chaucer receive grants for publication.

-1932 – The Foundation funded psychiatry departments in Chicago, Duke, Harvard, McGill, Tulane, Yale, and other Universities.

-1935 – After 16 years of research and $14million, a vaccine for yellow fever is developed in the Rockefeller Foundation lab.

-1936 – Dr. H.W. Florey receives a grant from the Foundation to research the clinical use of penicillin.

-1938 – The Authors League of America, including Tennessee Williams, receives grants from the Rockefellers.

-1940 – The Rockefeller Foundation gives $60,000 to establish the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.

-1944 – Princeton's Office of Population Research receives a $2 million grant to study population and its correlation with developing countries.

-1946 – Massachusetts Institute of Technology receives a grant for the development of Vannevar Bush's mechanical differential analyzer, the precursor to the computer.

-1948 – The Rockefeller Foundation gives grants to Chinese professionals to study China's population problems.

-1952 – A $112,000 grant allows Dorothy Thomas and Simon Kaznets to analyze U.S. population changes.

-1954 – The American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut receives funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.

-1958 – A grant is given to Jane Jacobs and other authors involved in neighborhood and city planning activism.

-1961 – The Southern Regional Center receives a $250,000 grant to study race relations.

-1966 – The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center is founded through the Foundation.

-1971 – The Rockefeller Foundation starts the Consulting Group on International Agriculture Research.

-1973 – Several woman studies programs receive support from grants given by the Rockefeller Foundation, including a study at Harvard Divinity School.

-1980 – The International Clinical Epidemiology Center is founded.

-1983 - Columbia University, University of California - Berkeley, and Stanford University receives a $1million grant for a joint study in Soviet foreign policy and behavior.

-1991 – A program begins with the intention of training future generation to create ecologically sound developments.

-1995 – Funds are given to scientists to clone a gene with resistance to bacterial blight in rice.

-2001 – The project, Living Cities, is created to develop inner city neighborhoods.

-2001 – A $40 million gift founded the Teachers for a New Era program, focusing of the reform of teacher education.

-2006 - the Rockefeller Foundation donates $3.5 million rebuild New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

For a complete list of donations, beginning from the inception of the foundation, go to the Rockefeller Foundation Website.