The Carnegie factor : American philanthropic power in New Zealand (1928-1941) : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master's in Arts in History at Massey University, Te Kunenga Ki Pūrehuroa, New Zealand. EMBARGOED until 25th February 2027
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2025
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Massey University
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In 1928, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the philanthropic institution established by the U.S. billionaire industrialist Andrew Carnegie, sent an emissary to New Zealand to explore opportunities to expand his philanthropy in education and learning. The former head of Columbia Teachers College in New York, Dean James E. Russell, reported to Frederick Paul Keppel, the Carnegie president, that New Zealand’s university colleges were under developed, under-supported, and struggled to provide positive learning environments for undergraduate students. Following these discoveries, Carnegie invested almost $5 50,000 (approximately $1 8.3 million in New Zealand dollars today) in educational research, library development, and travel to the United States for promising New Zealand professionals and academics. But the grants were not scholarships or endowments. With insights provided by trusted advisors, Keppel developed his initiatives entirely in New York. To implement them in New Zealand, he worked with university leaders, administrators, librarians, government officials, and other contacts. If New Zealanders agreed to the conditions and mandates that Carnegie imposed, funding likely would be provided. This expression of philanthropic power, carefully controlled by Carnegie, was welcomed in New Zealand: philanthropy of this kind – and on this scale – had not been experienced before, and it arrived unexpectedly at a difficult time in New Zealand’s history, made worse by the Depression. But while officials welcomed Carnegie’s interventions and much-needed funds, they did not do so unconditionally, pointedly resisting conditions they could not accept, or meet. Nonetheless, Carnegie created change that persists in New Zealand today. This study of that history was developed through primary source, archival records in New York and New Zealand, which documented the relationships that Keppel and his colleagues established with New Zealand’s educational, library, and governmental leaders.
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Embargoed until 25th February 2027