The Rockefeller Foundation

by

Ricardo dos Santos Batista

• LAST MODIFIED: 17 April 2025
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780197768723-0025

Introduction

The Rockefeller Foundation (RF) is an international philanthropic agency established in 1913. Over the course of the twentieth century, it became one of the most important sources of private funding on a global scale for the development of health and science, as well as fields such as the humanities and the arts. The institution was founded by industrialist John D. Rockefeller, with capital derived from the extraction, refining, and transportation of oil through the operations of the Standard Oil Company. The tycoon approached his advisor, Frederick Gates, and together with the involvement of his son, John D. Rockefeller Jr., signed an agreement to establish the RF by merging other family institutions. The newly established organization was tasked with promoting the welfare of the people of the United States and other nations, as well as contributing to the advancement of civilization. Moreover, one of its founding principles was that the benefits it offered could not be distributed directly to individuals but rather to governmental institutions. The RF operated primarily through its specialized divisions, which encompassed a range of disciplines, such as international health, medical sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, including the International Health Division (formerly the International Health Commission and the International Health Board) and the China Medical Board. After funding was approved, local institutions were required to assist in developing the international agency’s projects and commit to implementing the actions and replicating the model in other areas of their territories. Ultimately, this model of action was instrumental in disseminating American styles of thought and scientific culture on a global scale.

General Overviews

The initial studies on the RF were conducted by former employees to celebrate the humanitarianism and universality of its philanthropic activities. An illustrative example is Fosdick 1989, an institutional autobiography first published in 1952 by Harry Emerson Fosdick, who served as president of the philanthropic agency between 1936 and 1948. As Cueto 1994 and Cueto 2015 observe, a critical perspective characterized research into the RF in the 1970s, especially from 1975, with the opening of the RF archives at the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York. This perspective viewed Rockefeller’s philanthropy as a tool of US foreign policy imperialism and, in a subtler manner, as a means of extending cultural hegemony. These ideas were shaped by two distinct theoretical frameworks: dependency theory, which posited that metropolitan centers hindered the growth of peripheral regions, and Marxism, which was evident in the early studies’ connections between science and imperialism. This perspective is exemplified in Brown 1979, which argued that scientific medicine and technology were not the determining forces in the development of modern healthcare. Instead, they were tools developed by members of the medical community to serve the needs of corporate capitalism. In the 1980s and 1990s, new research refuted the exaggerated emphasis on the donor side of the international philanthropic relationship, challenged the notion that science in the so-called “periphery” was peripheral to universal knowledge, and dismantled the authoritarian assumptions of the donor agency. Bullock 1980, an investigation of the Peking Union Medical College in pre-communist China, is among the many works that reflect the adaptation of models exported by the RF. Notwithstanding the criticism leveled at the center-periphery binarism, studies on the RF continued to prioritize the institutional dimension, thereby overlooking the role of local agents and the strategies they deploy in their interactions with the agency. In recent years, new interpretations of the RF’s work have offered a more nuanced view of the relationship between foreign philanthropy and science. Faria 2007, which analyzes political articulations, professional alliances, and the accession of the state of São Paulo to a foreign partnership, represents one of the efforts to increase the visibility of local protagonists. Similarly, works such as Batista and Porto 2021 employ the concept of the circulation of knowledge to elucidate the conflicts and resistance inherent to the construction of science with RF funding. Further information on historiographical perspectives, the adaptation of models, and the work of Rockefeller philanthropy in general can be found in Birn and Fee 2013, Faria and da Costa 2006, Korndörfer and Brum 2021, and Parmar 2012.

• Batista, Ricardo dos Santos, and Paloma Porto. “Rockefeller Foundation and the Development of Global Health: Local Contours and International Circulations.” História: Debates e Tendências 21.3 (2021): 5–15.

  DOI: 10.5335/hdtv.21n.3.12843

  The presentation of this dossier in this journal, produced during the pandemic (in Portuguese), offers a historiographical perspective on the Rockefeller Foundation and emphasizes the value of interpreting it through the lens of knowledge circulation.

• Birn, Anne-Emanuelle, and Elizabeth Fee. “The Art of Medicine: The Rockefeller Foundation and the International Health Agenda.” The Lancet 381.9878 (2013): 1618–1619.

  DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61013-2

  Provides a concise overview of the history of the RF, from its inception to the present day, and emphasizes the significance of considering the RF when discussing philanthropy in health.

• Brown, Richard E. Rockefeller Medicine Men: Medicine and Capitalism in America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

  Analyzes the role of the Rockefeller Foundation as a driving force behind capitalism and medical corporatism. Also looks at how scientific medicine can be used as a means of preserving capital.

• Bullock, Mary Brown. An American Transplant: The Rockefeller Foundation and Peking Union Medical College. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1980.

  DOI: 10.1525/9780520315532

  Examines the role of the Rockefeller Foundation in the Peking Union Medical College in pre-communist China. Offers a new perspective on this institution by focusing on students’ careers and the adaptation of the “transplanted” teaching model.

• Cueto, Marcos, ed. Missionaries of Science: The Rockefeller Foundation and Latin America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

  A classic collection for anyone wishing to study the work of the RF in Latin America, this book is the result of a seminar held at the Rockefeller Archive Center in Tarrytown, New York. Chapters focus on the recipients of philanthropy—that is, the people and institutions that have been the subject of RF programs.

• Cueto, Marcos. “Prefácio à edição brasileira.” In Gênese da saúde global: A Fundação Rockefeller no Caribe e na América Latina. By Steven Palmer, 9–12. Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz, 2015.

  DOI: 10.7476/9786557081167

  The preface to the Brazilian edition of the book Launching Global Health: The Caribbean Odyssey of the Rockefeller Foundation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010) was written by Marcos Cueto and provides an invaluable historiographical overview of the various perspectives on the philanthropic agency.

• Faria, Lina. Saúde e política: A Fundação Rockefeller e seus parceiros em São Paulo. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fiocruz, 2007.

  The book analyzes the articulation of the RF with the health services of São Paulo, the formation of public health schools, the organization of health services and professional training throughout the first half of the twentieth century.

• Faria, Lina, and Maria Conceição da Costa. “Cooperação científica internacional: Estilos de atuação da Fundação Rockefeller e da Fundação Ford”. DADOS—Revista de Ciências Sociais 49.1 (2006): 159–191.

  DOI: 10.1590/S0011-52582006000100007

  Examines the concept of international collaboration and analyzes the approaches adopted by philanthropic organizations, such as the RF and the Ford Foundation, in diverse fields of knowledge, including public health, social sciences, and population control.

• Fosdick, Raymond. The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1989.

  An institutional autobiography of the RF, written by one of its presidents. Offers a comprehensive overview of the areas in which the international agency has been active and the rationale behind these investments.

• Korndörfer, Ana Paula, and Cristiano Enrique de Brum. “Health Centers in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: From Implementation to Consolidation, 1929–1943.” História, Ciências, Saúde—Manguinhos 28.4 (October–December 2021): 1059–1078.

  DOI: 10.1590/s0104-59702021000400008

  Examines the introduction and consolidation of the public health model, known as the health center, used in the United States in the 1910s with funding from the RF, and then considers the application of this model in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, between the end of the 1920s and the 1930s.

• Parmar, Inderjeet. Foundations of the American Century: The Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller Foundations in the Rise of American Power. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

  DOI: 10.7312/parm14628

  Employs the concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony to examine elite knowledge networks and assess the activities of the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford Foundations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.