Jan 01 1979After three decades of being unwelcome in China, the Foundation re-enters the country by responding to a request from Chinese officials to assist in establishing an Institute of Developmental and Reproductive Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
Jan 01 1978The Foundation sponsors a commission to assess the condition of the humanities in America and make recommendations. Issued five years later, its report—The Humanities in American Life—identifies a crisis in the quality of American public education.
Jan 01 1977The Foundation approves the first of a series of appropriations over the course of a decade to create an international network of biomedical research groups to study the “great neglected diseases” of the developing world. Diseases include sleeping sickness, leprosy, malaria, schistosomiasis, hookworm, river blindness and childhood diarrhea. By the program’s end, 360 trained scientists have collaborated in 26 countries.
Jan 01 1974The Foundation supports modern dance and ballet companies led by Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, Laura Dean, Martha Graham and Robert Joffrey to create new works.
Jan 01 1974To commemorate the bicentennial of the United States, the Foundation supports the Recorded Anthology of American Music, which creates a comprehensive set of recordings of American music for distribution to selected libraries, music schools and other nonprofit institutions in the U.S. and abroad. A total of 7,000 sets are distributed, the Foundation’s “bicentennial gift to the American people.”
Jan 01 1974The Foundation funds the International Agricultural Development Service (IADS), designed to provide technical assistance in agricultural and rural development to developing countries. Over the next decade, the Foundation contributes nearly $8 million toward operational costs. In 1985, IADS merges with the Agricultural Development Council and Winrock International Livestock Research and Training Center to form Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development.
Jan 01 1973Women’s studies are supported with grants to Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library, the Berkshire Conference on Women’s History, an interdisciplinary graduate program in women’s studies at Sarah Lawrence, and a program on women and religion at Harvard Divinity School
Jan 01 1973A new program focuses on supporting social history projects, including the history of women, family history, and the use of oral history and film to document American cultural heritage.
