Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Check and Letter, 1925

Open Access

Abstract

A check made out to the International Young Men's Christian Association College (now Springfield College) from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial fund in the amount of $355,215.27 as well as a letter written from John D. Rockefeller Jr. to Springfield College President, Laurence Doggett, congratulating him on the success of his funding campaign. In the 1920's Springfield College revived the Expansion Fund effort to raise funds for a dormitory building, a science building, the current debt and an Endowment Fund. The Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller, Sr. in October 1918 in memory of his wife, agreed to donate $500,000 to the effort upon the condition that two-million dollars be secured from other sources and pledged by July 1, 1925. During its early years the Memorial fund gave support to the YMCA, YWCA, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. Under the guidance of Memorial Director Beardsley Rumi, the fund shifted its focus towards achieving concrete improvement in the conditions of life and contributing realistically to public welfare. The fund moved further into the social sciences, and the fields of economics, sociology, political science, psychology, anthropology, and history however it did not abandon its previously supported activities in leisure, public health, and emergency relief. In 1929 the Fund consolidated with the Rockefeller Foundation. According to Laurence Doggett's book, A Man and a School, Mr. Rockefeller Jr., upon hearing of the difficulties the College was having raising funds despite its valiant effort, made a personal pledge of $350,000, two-hundred thousand of which was announced as an anonymous gift. This check would appear to be the $350,000 pledged by Rockefeller however it is unclear as to why the check is coming from the Memorial fund. The letter below the check may be in response to a letter written by Doggett regarding the funds raised by the July 1, 1925 deadline set by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. The two items appeared on the same page of a scrapbook (the page exists separately now, and it is unknown what scrapbook it may have come from) however it is unclear as to whether or not they are directly related.