ROBERT S. MORISON 



tributed a modest share, and more recently industrial labora- 

 tories, especially those of the Bell Telephone Company, have 

 entered the list. Amateurs with independent means, private 

 pensioners, or holders of sinecures are entirely absent. 



Investigation of the role of private philanthropy in the 

 support of basic research during the modern period must there- 

 fore center upon the relations between philanthropy and the 

 university. Furthermore, it will not be a very serious over- 

 simplification if we confine ourselves almost wholly to the 

 United States. Europe has had a long tradition of private 

 giving for public welfare, much of it channeled through re- 

 ligious societies and orders; but the state assumed responsibility 

 both for relief of suffering among the poor and for the conduct 

 of universities much earlier and more extensively than was true 

 in the United States. Private philanthropy abroad thus had less 

 obvious opportunity for action. Differences in tax structure and 

 in more subtle social attitudes combined to keep it from develop- 

 ing the significance it has had in this country. 



Contributions to Universities 



In the United States, private philanthropy has contributed 

 to basic research in universities in two different ways. The first 

 in time and probably the most important in its results has con- 

 sisted of direct contributions to general funds. Until relatively 

 recently all our greatest universities were the direct result of 

 private gifts. Many of them indeed bear the names of individuals 

 who started them off with substantial donations. The large 

 foundations organized early in this century tended to make simi- 

 lar unrestricted gifts to universities, especially during the first two 

 decades of their history. Several medical schools were either 

 started or largely reorganized with foundation funds. Even en- 

 tire universities such as Chicago, Rochester, Duke, Stanford, 

 and Vanderbilt owe their establishment to a combination of 



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