General Education Board

The General Education Board (GEB) "was established in 1903 by John D. Rockefeller Sr. to aid education in the U.S. "without distinction of race, sex or creed." The program included grants for endowment and general budgetary support of colleges and universities, support for special programs, fellowship and scholarship assistance to state school systems at all levels, and development of social and economic resources as a route to improved educational systems. Major colleges and universities across the U.S., as well as many small institutions in every state, received aid from the Board. The emphasis, however, was on the South and the education of Blacks. Offices were established in Richmond, Virginia and Baton Rouge, Louisiana to give GEB agents closer contact with southern communities. The Board was especially active in promoting the public school movement in the early part of the 20th century. After 1940, programs other than those for southern education were brought to a close; funds were nearly exhausted by the 1950s, and the last appropriation was made in 1964."

Initial officers and members of the General Education Fund as listed in The General Education Board: An Account of its Activities, 1902-1914, were as follows: Secretary – Wallace Buttrick (1902-); Assistant Secretaries – William H. Heck (1903-5), Ebden Charles Gage (1905-), Abraham Flexner (1913-); Treasurer – George Foster Peabody (1902-9), Louis G. Myers (1910-); Assistant Treasurer – L. M. Dashell (1914-); Members – William H. Baldwin (1902-5), J.L.M. Curry (1902-3), Frederick T. Gates (1902-), Daniel C. Gilman (1902-8), Morris K. Jesup (1902-8), Robert C. Ogden (1902-13), Walter H. Page (1902-), George Foster Peabody (1902-12), John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1902-), Albert Shaw (1902-), Wallace Buttrick (1902-), Starr J. Murphy (1904-), William R. Harper (1905-6), Hugh H. Hanna (1905-12), E. Benjamin Andrews (1905-12), Edwin A. Alderman (1906-), Hollis B. Frissell (1906-), Harry Pratt Judson (1906-), Charles W. Eliot (1908-), Andrew Carnegie (1908-), Edgar L. Marston (1909-), Wickliffe Rose (1910-), Jerome D. Greene (1912-), Anson Phelps Stokes (1912-), Abraham Flexner (1914-), George E. Vincent (1914-).

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