Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, Inc. records, 1866-2001
Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- Culpeper, Charles E. and Charles E. Culpeper Foundation
- Extent:
- 35.77 Cubic Feet
- Language:
- English .
Background
- Scope and content:
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The Charles E. Culpeper Foundation archives present a complete account of the foundation's activities in the years following the death of Charles E. Culpeper, during which the foundation devised and established its philanthropic mandate. The collection includes the Fiftieth Anniversary Report 1940-1990, a general overview of the foundation's involvement in the areas of health, education, arts and culture, and administration of justice, with a breakdown of funds provided for each field.
- Biographical / historical:
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Charles Emory Culpeper (1874-1940) was born in Rome, Georgia, to a farm family of nine children. Although he never finished high school, he was an industrious young man who worked as a store clerk in the Rome area and later as a traveling salesman. In 1899, Culpeper accepted a job selling Coca-Cola syrup to soda fountains in Philadelphia. In 1904, he was transferred to New York, where he worked as a salesman for the Coca-Cola Bottling Works of Newark and of New York. In 1917, Culpeper bought the two companies for $160,000 and combined them into the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York. The company prospered under his direction, and at the time of his death in 1940, his stock in it comprised the bulk of his substantial fortune.
Culpeper was highly involved in the welfare of children. Throughout his lifetime, he was instrumental in assisting boys' clubs in the New York area. In his will, Culpeper directed that a foundation be established to acquire the bulk of his fortune and conserve it for the benefit of future generations. On December 18, 1940, the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation was established.
By the late 1980s, the foundation focused its awards in medical science on three areas within the health care system: research, medical education, and clinical services. In 1990, Culpeper Foundation assets totaled approximately $118 million, and it reported disbursements of $6 million in grants that year. In 1999, the Culpeper Foundation merged with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. A significant portion of the grants the foundation awarded were made during the period 1977-1992. The program also addressed the impact of advances in medical technology and the evolving field of managed care in a changing health care environment, as well as its effect upon individualized patient care. In 1992, support for new information technologies extended program development at secondary schools and offered technical training support for school faculty to develop foreign language curricula.
From 1993 onward, grants were issued in four broad categories: administration of justice; arts and culture; education; and health. At the college level, the foundation continued to fund computer literacy programs it had supported since the 1980s, and it extended its support to applied technologies in the humanities and social sciences as well. In 1999, the Charles E. Culpeper Foundation closed its offices in Stamford, Connecticut, and transferred its remaining operations to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in New York City. The Brothers Fund has continued to administer remaining grant contracts and has also awarded additional grants under the terms of the merger agreement. By the end of 2007, all scheduled grants were to be satisfied; the Medical Scholars program continued until around 2010.
- Arrangement:
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This collection is arranged into 3 record groups:
Record Group 1 - Accession 1
Record Group 2 - Accession 2
Series 1065 - Photographs
Access and use
- Restrictions:
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Open for research with select materials restricted are noted. Brittle or damaged items are available at the discretion of RAC.
- Terms of access:
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The Rockefeller Archive Center has title, copyright, and literary rights in the collection, in so far as it holds them, and has authority to grant permission to cite and publish archival material from the collection.
- Location of this collection:
- Contact: