LAFFTHE LAFF SOCIETY Promoting Social and Professional Contacts Among Former Staff Members of the Ford Foundation Winter 2017, No. 85 tion and Rockefeller University had initiated archives programs. JDR, Jr., had passed away but his sons, known as the “Brothers Genera- tion”, became involved with discussions about creating a joint archive for the various Rocke- feller entities, by then including the Rockefel- ler Brothers Fund, their own foundation. While discussions to construct a joint archive continued for many years, a break- through occurred following the passing of Martha Baird Rockefeller in 1971. The deci- sion was made then to convert her country home to a new archival research center, and to construct the archival vaults into the bed- Overseas representatives at a meeting in 1953. There were offices rock below the house. This new entity, now then in New Delhi, Karachi, Beirut, Rangoon and Jakarta. officially the Rockefeller Archive Center, was founded in 1974 and opened its doors to scholarly research the next year. The RAC’s founding institutions recog- Ford’s Records an Integral nized immediately that the decision to open their records to outside access would attract Part of the Rockefeller widespread interest, and that the growing and changing impact of philanthropy on innumerable aspects of modern life would Archive Center be of great interest to scholars studying wide-ranging disciplines. Of course, the By Lee Hiltzik importance of preserving the story of philan- founders realized that some individuals The author is Assistant Director and Head of thropic work and making that documentation would seek to uncover conspiracies and Donor Relations and Collection Development available to a broad research community. rummage through closets for all sorts of at the Rockefeller Archive Center. This article While the records of the Ford Foundation skeletons, but there was an overriding faith was written especially for The LAFF Society and those of its officers and administrators that interest in the collections would provide newsletter. are a relatively recent addition to the RAC, a positive, edifying contribution to knowl- they are a vital component of this history, edge—and they were right. riving up to Hillcrest, once the country including newsletters and correspondence of More than 8,000 people have come to the home of the late Martha Baird Rocke- the LAFF Society. Center to conduct research. They avail them- Dfeller on the grounds of the Rockefeller The official founding of the Rockefeller selves of a current collection of 120 million family estate in New York’s Westchester Archive Center dates to 1974, but its history pages of documents, 18,000 reels of micro- County, is no longer the social call on the begins in the 1950s when advisors to John D. film, 5,000 films, close to 1,000,000 pho- widow of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., that it once Rockefeller, Jr., began conversations about tographs, 15,000 audio-visual items, 6,000 was for many. Rather, it is now a purposeful the importance of preserving the records of architectural drawings, maps, and posters, visit to the Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC), his personal philanthropy and family history. and 45 terabytes of electronic data. a focal point for historical research of the var- Part of this discussion grew out of the historic In addition to the scholars who conduct ious realms of philanthropy. preservation movement that was solidifying their studies in the Center’s reading rooms, Perched atop a hill, with a grand view of the at that time and, partially, was a function of many thousands of others conduct offsite Hudson River (though from its top floor, in the voluminous quantities of materials being research by requesting copies of specific doc- winter only), the house is the physical marker collected at the family office in Room 5600 at uments or otherwise engage with our archi- for the archival vaults that lie in its sub-base- Rockefeller Center. vists. In recent years, on average, our archival ments. The Center embodies a vision of the By the 1960s, both the Rockefeller Founda- Continued on next page Rockefeller Archive Center ents, who are working on National History The absorption of this material into our Continued from page 1 Day projects. Our researchers also include holdings was on a different order of magni- architects, documentary filmmakers, land- tude from past accretions. While the archives staff has handled almost 2,000 research scape architects, genealogists, museum and of other foundations typically added a few requests annually. exhibit curators, and journalists. dozen to a few hundred cubic feet of records The majority of our researchers are con- The Center defines very broadly what (imagine a standard storage carton as one nected with academe: professors, professors constitutes a bona fide researcher. We do not cubic foot), the Ford Foundation Archives emeriti, graduate students and undergradu- require letters of introduction or other offi- involved taking in more than 2,000 cubic feet ates. High school students come to RAC cial documentation. If a person can articulate of paper records, 11,000 reels of grants stored occasionally when they are looking for pri- the parameters of a research project and, on microfilm, and more than 200 cubic feet of mary source materials for their papers, and as part of a conversation with an archivist, audio-visual materials. even grade school students, with their par- explain how the archival documents in our Once the collection was opened in the holdings will benefit his or her work, then the spring of 2012, the number of researchers researcher is welcome to pursue his or her who have come to use this archives has been CORRECTION study in the open records at the Center. extremely impressive. The vast majority are In our previous issue, Fall 2016, we inad- Almost immediately upon opening the not writing about the Ford Foundation per vertently published the wrong picture to archives of the Rockefeller University, the se but studying the impact of Ford’s activities accompany the article “Kalman Silvert in Rockefeller Foundation, the Rockefeller in the context of broader research. Scholars the Ford Foundation”. This is the correct photograph of the late Mr. Silvert. Brothers Fund and the Rockefeller Family, studying tropical agricultural innovation, the Center began collecting a wide variety of rural development and civil society immerse papers of other foundations either created themselves in the records of both the Ford by or significantly funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and other archives here. family. This decision broadened the holdings Our records of Ford’s role supporting of the Center to include the records of such reproductive research and family planning, organizations as the Asia Society, the Pop- academic freedom, transnational programs ulation Council and the Downtown Lower for peace and the fight for human rights do- Manhattan Association. mestically and internationally are all magnets We also began receiving manuscript collec- for researchers to come to the Center. tions, that is, the personal papers of the offi- Many scholars find that while their initial cers and administrators who worked within goal might have been to explore the records these institutions. These actions greatly deep- of one particular collection, such as the So- ened and broadened the content holdings of cial Science Research Council or the Taconic the archives in many far-flung fields, such as Foundation or the Near East Foundation on The LAFF Society scientific research, public health, New York a given subject, they quickly discover that c/o Nellie Toma history and cultural history. the Ford collection proves to be a fountain of PO Box 701107, East Elmhurst, NY 11370 The next step in expanding the archives valuable material for their study as well. E-Mail: [email protected] followed in the mid-1980s, when the Govern- How does one measure the impact of an www.laffsociety.org ing Council of the Center made a strategic archive on knowledge? How can one quantify decision to incorporate archival collections of that and make any evaluation of the impact of Shepard Forman, President non-Rockefeller-related entities. The archives the Rockefeller Archive Center on learning, Betsy Campbell and Suzanne Siskel, Vice Presidents of the Commonwealth Fund and the Russell on scholarship and, in essence, on the right Nellie Toma, Secretary-Treasurer Sage Foundation brought to RAC new col- for access to information? There are very few Dorothy Nixon, Administrative Secretary lections of institutions that had significant metrics to turn to. We do tap into twenty-first Michele Cole, Administrative Secretary programmatic overlap with existing collec- century technology and use Google Analytics EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE tions. This was particularly true for medical to see the number of times we get “hits” on Judy Barsalou Janet Maughan research, medical education, public health our website and, perhaps more important, of Sheila Gordon Michael Seltzer and health care policy in the case of Com- individuals who explore the “online finding John LaHoud monwealth, and in social welfare, economics aids” (the archival term we use for catalogues) and policy planning for Russell Sage. to our collections. For example, last year, for ADVISORY BOARD These additions began a new chapter in the Ford Foundation finding aids alone, there David Arnold Ruth Mayleas the history of the institution, and in essence were more than 15,000 Google-driven search- William Carmichael Mary McClymont placed a different emphasis on what the es, representing users from all six continents. Peter Cleaves Mora McLean name, Rockefeller Archive Center, actually As a more traditional example of the im- Joan Dassin Janice Molnar means. Others that have joined us over the pact of our collections over the past 40 years, Mahnaz Ispahani Sheila Nelson years include the Foundation for Child De- though, more than 6,000 books, dissertations, Lance Lindblom Raymond Offenheiser velopment, the Lucille Markey Charitable academic articles and conference papers Michael Lipsky S.