Science and the New Foundations

SCIENCE AND THE NEW FOUNDATIONS

A New Kind of Patronage

Modern American science, especially that carried out in major universities and hospitals, has been highly dependent not only on government support but on the aid of large philanthropic organizations known as foundations. Until the first decade of the twentieth century, however, American scientists either worked in universities or in some cases government bureaus, both of which supported research on a modest level. If they conceived of projects that were out of the ordinary, scientists either had to find a private donor or put up the money themselves. In 1902 the Carnegie Institution was founded by Andrew Carnegie; then in 1909 John D. Rockefeller established the Rockefeller Foundation. Both organizations believed that promising scientific ideas and capable scientists ought to be supported substantially, but there were no precedents to guide either the new foundations or the scientists themselves in spending the relatively vast sums now available to them.

The Carnegie Institution

Andrew Carnegie, a steel magnate and follower of Herbert Spencer's doctrine of progress as an immutable law of nature, caused a sensation in late 1901 when he announced that he intended to donate $10 million to promote scientific research. He was disturbed by the undistinguished place held by the United States in the ranks of world science and was aware that few American universities could boast the solid research tradition common to so many European institutions. No one knew exactly what he had in mind or what to make of his statement of his own goals: "To discover the exceptional man, inside or outside of schools, and enable him to make the work for which he seems specially designed his life work." How was one to identify the "exceptional" person with promise in science? The grants were to be funneled through the Carnegie Institution, which, beginning in 1903, distributed about $100,000 annually to individual scientists. The instant availability of money caused an immediate change in the way universities projected their budgets. For the first time, college administrators began to set their budgetary sights on foundations, and the support of the new foundations contributed to a growing infrastructure to sustain research on American campuses.

The Carnegie Institution and Astronomy

Astronomy was one of the first scientific fields that the Carnegie Institution addressed, appointing a commission whose leading lights were George Ellery Hale and William Wallace Campbell. Whether through H ale's influence or some other's, the institution's early goal became the establishment of an astrophysical observatory to study solar radiation, solar spectroscopy, and other problems in stellar research that could be advanced by a large reflecting telescope. The institution was directly responsible for the construction of the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, with Hale as its first director.

Rockefeller

The Rockefeller Foundation really dates to 1901, when millionaire oilman John D. Rockefeller established the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York City. In 1903 he established the General Education Board to promote progress in education, particularly in the southern states. From the GEB emerged the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1909, whose main objective was to eradicate hookworm. In 1905 Frederick Gates, Rockefeller's top aide on charitable gifts, suggested the establishment of a corporate philanthropy that would concern itself with a range of problems. John D. Rockefeller Jr. liked the idea, and the Rockefeller Foundation was chartered in 1909.

Hookworm

Hookworm is a parasitic disease usually acquired by walking barefoot on soil infected by the worm. Zoologist Charles W. Stiles convinced a Rockefeller official that this worm was the cause of endemic disease in the South because of environmental conditions peculiar to the area. The General Education Board then established a commission to study hookworm headed by Dr. Simon Flexner, who concluded that a practical solution could be found, and the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission, headed by Stiles, was founded. The sanitary commission found that 90 percent of children in rural areas of the South were infected by hookworm, the eradication of which required an extensive campaign of public education. In the following years, under the auspices of the foundation's International Health Board (established in 1916), the campaign was carried worldwide.

Administering Science

Foundations, although a kind of philanthropy, were from their inception run like businesses, and scientific decisions were frequently made according to a corporate model. While many of the early foundation officials with responsibility for scientific projects were scientists who had turned to administration, their superiors were men with business experience. The corporate approach to science was later to have an enormous impact on the development of "big science" in the United States. On the other hand, the two foundations also emerged out of a personal style of charity characteristic of the nineteenth century, which also influenced their early managerial styles. Working largely through personal contacts, the Carnegie and Rockefeller scientist-administrators felt confident in identifying worthy projects and the "exceptional" scientists appropriate to carry them out.

Sources:

Robert E. Kohler, Partners in Science: Foundations and Natural Scientists, 1900-1945 (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991);

Nathan and Ida H. Reingold, Science in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).