Jan 01 1939Language study and research grants encourage teaching and comprehension of less-common languages: Russian, Turkish and Arabic.
Jan 01 1939A grant to the Library of Congress enables the development of popular education programs using library materials, including 20,000 recordings in the Archives of American Folk Song.
Jan 01 1939Anopheles gambiae, a dangerous malaria-carrying mosquito, carried from Africa to Brazil, is eradicated under the leadership of the Foundation’s Dr. Fred L. Soper. A trained embryologist, Soper had been recruited by the Foundation’s International Health Board in 1918. After two years of public health training, he takes a three-week course in parasitology, focusing on hookworm, malaria and intestinal protozoa, then sets sail with his bride for Brazil to begin his first assignment.
Jan 01 1938Grants to the Authors League of America and a year later to the National Theater Conference enable more than 100 fellowships for writers, including the then-struggling author Tennessee Williams.
Jan 01 1937For more than 15 years, the Foundation supports the joint work of biologist Thomas Hunt Morgan, his successor George W. Beadle, and chemist Linus Pauling, all at the California Institute of Technology. Their collaborative work pioneers the concept of interdisciplinary research. Each later wins the Nobel Prize (Pauling wins two), placing them among the more than 221 men and women assisted by the Foundation who subsequently receive Nobel Prizes.
Jan 01 1936The first of several grants assist Australia’s Dr. H. W. Florey in developing the clinical use of penicillin.
Jan 01 1936The Foundation supports work leading to the development of two pioneering devices for biochemistry research. Grants to the University of Wisconsin leads to the development of America’s first— and the world’s third—ultracentrifuge. The Foundation also supports early work on the mass spectrometer.
Jan 01 1936In the state of Washington, more than 70,000 people attend productions of Shakespeare’s plays, produced by traveling companies supported by the Foundation.
Jan 01 1935A vaccine to prevent yellow fever is developed in the Foundation’s New York City laboratories. Over the next 16 years, the Foundation spends nearly $14 million in its fight against yellow fever, the equivalent of $200 million in current dollars.
