Rockefeller Foundation in the context of "Arts funding"

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⭐ Core Definition: Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller ("Senior") and son "Junior", and their primary business advisor, Frederick Taylor Gates, on May 14, 1913, when its charter was granted by New York. It is the second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America (after the Carnegie Corporation) and ranks as the 30th largest foundation globally by endowment, with assets of over $6.4 billion in 2023.

The Rockefeller Foundation is legally independent from other Rockefeller entities, including the Rockefeller University and Rockefeller Center. The foundation operates under the oversight of its own independent board of trustees, with its own resources and distinct mission. Since its inception, the foundation has donated billions of dollars to various causes, becoming the largest philanthropic enterprise in the world by the 1920s. The foundation has maintained an international reach since the 1930s and major influence on global non-governmental organizations. The World Health Organization is modeled on the International Health Division of the foundation, which sent doctors abroad to study and treat human subjects. The National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health are also modeled on the work funded by Rockefeller. It has also been a supporter of and influence on the United Nations.

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In this Dossier

Rockefeller Foundation in the context of Chulalongkorn University

Chulalongkorn University (CU; Thai: จฬ.; Thai: จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย, RTGSChulalongkon Mahawitthayalai) is a public autonomous research university in Bangkok, Thailand. The university was originally founded during King Chulalongkorn's reign as a school for training royal pages and civil servants in 1899 (B.E. 2442) at the Grand Palace. It was later established as a national university in 1917, making it the oldest institute of higher education in Thailand.

During the reign of Chulalongkorn's son, King Vajiravudh, the Royal Pages School became the Civil Service College of King Chulalongkorn. The Rockefeller Foundation was instrumental in helping the college form its academic foundation. On 26 March 1917, King Vajiravudh renamed the college "Chulalongkorn University".

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Rockefeller Foundation in the context of Hale reflector

The Hale Telescope is a 200-inch (5.1 m), f/3.3 reflecting telescope at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, US, named after astronomer George Ellery Hale. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1928, he orchestrated the planning, design, and construction of the observatory, but with the project ending up taking 20 years he did not live to see its commissioning. The Hale was groundbreaking for its time, with double the diameter of the second-largest telescope, and pioneered many new technologies in telescope mount design and in the design and fabrication of its large aluminum coated "honeycomb" low thermal expansion Pyrex mirror. It was completed in 1949 and is still in active use.

The Hale Telescope represented the technological limit in building large optical telescopes for over 30 years. It was the largest telescope in the world from its construction in 1949 until the Soviet BTA-6 was built in 1976, and the second largest until the construction of the Keck Observatory Keck 1 in Hawaii in 1993.

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Rockefeller Foundation in the context of William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was the prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Liberal, he was the dominant politician in Canada from the early 1920s to the late 1940s. With a total of 21 years and 154 days in office, he remains the longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.

King studied law and political economy in the 1890s and later obtained a PhD, the first Canadian prime minister to have done so. In 1900, he became deputy minister of the Canadian government's new Department of Labour. He entered the House of Commons in 1908 before becoming the first federal minister of labour in 1909 under Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. After losing his seat in the 1911 federal election, King worked for the Rockefeller Foundation before briefly working as an industrial consultant. Following the death of Laurier in 1919, King won to the leadership of the Liberal Party. Taking the helm of a party torn apart by the Conscription Crisis of 1917, he unified both the pro-conscription and anti-conscription factions of the party, leading it to victory in the 1921 federal election.

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Rockefeller Foundation in the context of RCA Mark II

The RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer (nicknamed Victor) was the first programmable electronic synthesizer and the flagship piece of equipment at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Designed by Herbert Belar and Harry Olson at RCA, with contributions by Vladimir Ussachevsky and Peter Mauzey, it was installed at Columbia University in 1957. Consisting of a room-sized array of interconnected sound synthesis components, the Mark II gave the user more flexibility and had twice the number of tone oscillators as its predecessor, the Mark I. The synthesizer was funded by a large grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Earlier 20th century electronic instruments such as the Telharmonium or the theremin were manually operated. The RCA combined diverse electronic sound generation with a music sequencer, which proved a huge attraction to composers of the day, who were growing weary of creating electronic works by splicing together individual sounds recorded on sections of magnetic tape. The RCA Mark II featured a binary sequencer using a paper tape reader analogous to a player piano, that would send instructions to the synthesizer, automating playback from the device. The synthesizer would then output sound to a synchronized record lathe next to the machine. The resulting recording would then be compared against the punch-tape score, and the process would be repeated until the desired results were obtained.

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