A History of the Rockefeller Institute 1901-1953: Origins and Growth

Abstract

The present overwhelming importance of medical science makes us tend to forget the rather sad state of medicine at the end of the 19th century. In the development of 20th-century medicine the crucial part played by the Johns Hopkins University has, in several recent publications, become better known. And now the Rockefeller Institute emerges into proper perspective. The actual founding of the Rockefeller Institute owes a great deal to the Rev. Frederick T. Gates, a man of great business talent and efficiency, who served as adviser to Rockefeller and became his chief almoner. The creation of a medical research institute required careful preparation. The actual events leading up to the founding, the search for personnel to direct the new institute and to staff it, the description of physically setting up the institute and the solution of various problems, all read like a fascinating novel. Many of the great men of