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Rockefeller familyOne of the most influential American families
Country:
 USA |
Content:
- The Rockefeller Family: A Biography
- Influence and Contributions
- Philanthropic Endeavors
- David Rockefeller Sr.
- The Rockefeller Archive Center
The Rockefeller Family: A Biography
The Rockefeller family is one of the most influential American families, consisting of industrialists, bankers, and politicians. It traces its origins back to the oil magnates and billionaires John Davison Rockefeller (1839-1937) and his younger brother William Avery Rockefeller Jr. (1841-1922), who founded the Standard Oil Company. The Rockefeller family owned one of the largest private fortunes in the oil business in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, primarily due to the success of the Standard Oil Company.
Influence and Contributions
The Rockefellers are known for their long-standing partnership with the Chase Manhattan Bank, now known as JP Morgan Chase, in which they had a financial interest. They are considered one of the most influential families in the history of the United States. Throughout the 20th century, the family actively participated in construction projects, resulting in the creation of numerous buildings associated with their name in the United States.
The most famous of these is the Rockefeller Center, a massive Art Deco office complex built in the early years of the Great Depression using the family's funds. Other notable buildings include the New York Museum of Modern Art, the grand neo-gothic Riverside Church, The Cloisters (a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), and the skyscrapers One Chase Manhattan Plaza and Empire State Plaza. The family also played a significant role in the creation of the renowned Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the World Trade Center towers, which tragically were destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Philanthropic Endeavors
The Rockefellers made substantial donations to the establishment of the University of Chicago in 1889, where the first American Nobel laureate in physics, Albert Abraham Michelson, conducted his research. From generation to generation, the family has financially supported Ivy League universities and other prestigious colleges, totaling 75 institutions, including Harvard University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Princeton University, Stanford University, Yale University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
They have also provided financial assistance to international universities, including the London School of Economics, University College London, and many others. The family's elder and younger generations were instrumental in the creation of Rockefeller University in 1901, the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1910, the Bureau of Social Hygiene and the International Health Board in 1913, and the Rockefeller Museum in Israel from 1925-1930.
Additionally, the Rockefeller Foundation established various awards, grants, and scholarships aimed at supporting scientific progress. The Rockefellers have shown a longstanding interest in environmental conservation, leading to the creation of more than twenty national parks and protected areas throughout the United States.
David Rockefeller Sr.
Currently, David Rockefeller Sr., born on June 12, 1915, serves as the family's patriarch. He is a banker, statesman, and the grandson of John Davison Rockefeller, the world's first billionaire as a result of his Standard Oil ventures.
The Rockefeller Archive Center
The Rockefeller Archive Center, formerly a division of Rockefeller University until 2008, houses a three-story underground bunker beneath the family's estate in Pocantico. This vast repository contains personal and official documents, correspondence, and numerous historical documents. It houses over 70 million pages of documents and collections from 42 scientific, cultural, educational, and charitable organizations. Currently, only censored documents of deceased family members are accessible to researchers, while records relating to living Rockefellers remain unavailable.
The family's wealth, including their collective assets and investments, as well as individual fortunes, has never been precisely known, as it is considered proprietary information. Furthermore, the family's wealth has always been under the complete control of male members of the dynasty.
