Introduction

The first great philanthropic foundations were the Carnegie Institution, the Russell Sage Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. All three were established in the United States between 1902 and 1913. Early in their development, each of these foundations looked for opportunities to support social science. A crucial question began to be asked: could philanthropists legitimately support social scientists whose research findings may favour the personal views of the philanthropists? These first foundations – along with numerous smaller organizations during the same period – developed approaches to assessing problems that could arise from supporting social scientists.

The Carnegie Institution and the Russell Sage Foundation

In 1902, Andrew Carnegie established the Carnegie Institution (CI) of Washington. Two years later he and his advisors established, within the CI, a department of economics and sociology. The focus for the department was labour issues. Leadership at the CI appointed industrial economist Carroll D. Wright to direct the division, and Wright's official responsibility was ‘to encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research, and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind’. Wright received support for a team of some fifteen researchers, who comprehensively assessed the social and economic consequences of state-level labour legislation. The project – ultimately an effort to produce a detailed labour history – required seven years to be brought near to completion in 1909, the year of Wright's untimely death.