This project traces the first 58 years of Andrew Carnegie's central philanthropic organization. Officers, staff members, and grant recipients discuss its work in adult education, area studies, art education, cognitive research, education testing, library science, music education, national security, social science research, teacher education, and other areas. The Corporation's relations with other Carnegie institutions over the years are delineated in many memoirs. Others detail the Corporation's own administrative history, as well as its relations with other major foundations and the federal government. Others trace the work of independent agencies which originally received all or part of their funds from the foundation. In general the design of the project was to provide comprehensive and candid information about the foundation, its work, and those who have served "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and under- standing."

The material is rich in personal recollections of grantees and members of the Corporation's board and staff. Prominent among them are James R. Angell, James Bertram, Nicholas Murray Butler, Oliver C. Carmichael, Robert Franks, Walter Jessup, Nicholas Kelley, Frederick Paul Keppel, Clyde Kluckhohn, Thomas W. Lamont, William S. Learned, Russell C. Leffingwell, Arthur Page, Henry Pritchett, Elihu Root and Elihu Root, Jr., Beardsley Ruml, James E. Russell, William F. Russell, Whitney H. Shepardson, Irvin Stewart, and Samuel A. Stouffer.