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“Making the Peaks Higher”: Foundations of Stanford University’s Growth, 1910–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2024

Stephen B. Adams
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Abstract

This article breaks new ground in its portrayal of the process through which a private research university obtained foundation funding. Stanford University’s growth spurts after World War I and World War II were significantly enabled by financial support from the foundations of Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford. The process leading to Stanford’s receiving major grants primarily involved interactions among a small group of individuals and reflected the confidence of foundation presidents and other top administrators in the capacity of the university’s presidents and other leaders. The significance of such high-level interaction persisted even while major foundations professionalized, shifting responsibilities from trustees to staff. In the rendezvous between Stanford University and philanthropic foundations, these relationships mattered so much that at crucial junctures, funding to the university preceded expertise in the relevant field of study.

Keywords

US 20thHigher EducationFoundations
Type
Article
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , March 2025 , pp. 218 - 248
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Business History Conference

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References

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Anheier, Helmut K., and Hammack, David C.. American Foundations: Roles and Contributions, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Curti, Merle, and Nash, Roderick. Philanthropy in the Shaping of American Higher Education, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1965.Google Scholar
Domhoff, G. William. The Bohemian Grove and Other Retreats: A Study in Ruling-Class Cohesiveness, New York: Harper & Row, 1974.Google Scholar
Elliott, Orren Leslie. Stanford University: The First Twenty-Five Years, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1938.Google Scholar
Flexner, Abraham. Medical Education in the United States and Canada: A Report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, New York: Carnegie Foundation, 1910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flexner, Abraham. Henry S. Pritchett: A Biography, New York: Columbia University Press, 1943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foundation, Ford. Report of the Study for the Ford Foundation on Policy and Program, Detroit, MI: Ford Foundation, 1949.Google Scholar
Fosdick, Raymond B. Adventure in Giving: The Story of the General Education Board, A Foundation Established by John D. Rockefeller, New York: Harper & Row, 1962.Google Scholar
Fosdick, Raymond B. The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952.Google Scholar
Geiger, Roger L. Knowledge and Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geiger, Roger L. Research and Relevant Knowledge: American Research Universities Since World War II, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Geiger, Roger L. To Advance Knowledge: The Growth of American Research Universities, 1900–1940, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Gillmor, C. Stewart. Fred Terman at Stanford: Building a Discipline, a University, and Silicon Valley, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammack, David C., and Anheier, Helmut K.. A Versatile American Institution: The Changing Ideals and Realities of Philanthropic Foundations, Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Jordan, David S. The Days of a Man: Being Memories of a Naturalist, Teacher and Minor Prophet of Democracy, vols. 1 and 2, Yonkers, NY: World Book Company, 1922.Google Scholar
Keppel, Frederick P. The Foundation: Its Place in American Life, New York: Macmillan, 1930.Google Scholar
Lagemann, Ellen C. The Politics of Knowledge: The Carnegie Corporation, Philanthropy, and Public Policy, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Lagemann, Ellen C. Private Power for the Public Good: A History of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Lowen, Rebecca S. Creating the Cold War University: The Transformation of Stanford, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Macdonald, Dwight. The Ford Foundation: The Men and the Millions, New York: Reynal & Company, 1956.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J. Pearce. Stanford University, 1916–1941 , Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1958.Google Scholar
Nash, George. Herbert Hoover and Stanford University, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Nilan, Roxanne L., and Kirk, Cassius L. Jr. Stanford’s Wallace Sterling: A Portrait of a Presidency, Stanford, CA: Stanford Historical Society/Stanford University Press, 2023.Google Scholar
Ris, Ethan. Other People’s Colleges: The Origins of American Higher Education Reform, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weaver, Warren. U.S. Philanthropic Foundations: Their History, Structure, Management, and Record, New York: Harper & Row, 1967.Google Scholar
Wheatley, Steven C. The Politics of Philanthropy, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Wilbur, Ray Lyman. Memoirs, ed. Robinson, Edgar Eugene and Edwards, Paul Carroll, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1960.Google Scholar
Zunz, Olivier. Philanthropy in America: A History, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Adams, Stephen B. “Follow the Money: Engineering at Stanford and UC Berkeley during the Rise of Silicon Valley,” Minerva 47, no. 4 (December 2009): 367–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, Stephen B. “Stanford and Silicon Valley: Lessons on Becoming a High-Tech Region,” California Management Review 48, no. 1 (Fall 2005): 29–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frumkin, Peter, and Kaplan, Gabriel, “Foundations and Higher Education,” in American Foundations: Roles and Contributions, ed. Anheier, Helmut K. and Hammack, David C., Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010, 98–118.Google Scholar
Karl, Barry D., and Katz, Stanley N.. “The American Private Foundation and the Public Sphere, 1800–1930,” Minerva 19, no. 2 (June 1981): 236–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sealander, Judith. “‘Curing Evils at Their Source’: The Arrival of Scientific Giving,” in Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History, ed. Friedman, Laurence and McGarvie, Mark, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 217–40.Google Scholar
Stanford University. Annual Reports of the President, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1929, 1933.Google Scholar
Sutton, Francis X. “The Ford Foundation: The Early Years,” Daedalus 116, no. 1 (1987): 41–91.Google Scholar
Wheatley, Steven C. “The Partnerships of Foundations and Research Universities,” in American Foundations: Roles and Contributions, ed. Anheier, Helmut K. and Hammack, David C., Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2010, 73–97.Google Scholar
Library of Congress, Washington, DCGoogle Scholar
Daniel Guggenheim Papers (DG)Google Scholar
Henry Pritchett Papers (HP)Google Scholar
Rockefeller Foundation Archives, Sleepy Hollow, NYGoogle Scholar
Ford Foundation Papers (FF)Google Scholar
General Education Board Papers (GEB)Google Scholar
Stanford University Archives, Stanford, CAGoogle Scholar
Presidential Papers of Ray Lyman Wilbur (RLWa)Google Scholar
Personal Papers of Ray Lyman Wilbur (RLWb)Google Scholar
Presidential Papers of J. E. Wallace Sterling (JWS), Series 1Google Scholar