Episode 1: a trip to Buribunkdom

Nota Bene: an initial English version of this text was copy-edited, and considerably improved, by Steven Watt from his office in New Foundland. Remaining errors are due to further uncontrolled addition by the author.

In 1918, a short-lived German literary journal published an anonymous piece titled “Die Buribunken.” It was not the author’s first attempt at writing literature, although he is mainly remembered as a jurist, political theorist, and active proponent of National Socialism—not to mention for how he embodies twentieth-century anti-liberal and authoritarian thought. A parody of academic writing, Carl Schmitt’s text purports to be a study of a society called Buribunkdom.

The highest duty and most cherished right of its members involves chronicling every moment of their own existence, using a typewriter provided for the purpose. Each day, these works are collected, published, and distributed to support social activities that revolve around reading and critiquing such diaries. The documents are also cross-referenced in a massive card index organized by subject and name, a resource that authorities use to monitor the population’s psychological development.¹

Whatever the connection between this dystopian satire and Schmitt’s other writings -or its relevance to the present-day social media landscape-, Buribunkdom will sound familiar to anyone acquainted with the modus operandi of the different philanthropic organizations established and endowed by John D. Rockefeller and his son, beginning in 1910.

It could even be argued that Buribunkdom really existed at the very time Schmitt wrote his fictional story, within the walls of these
Rockefeller-endowed organizations. They were all headquartered at the same location in New York City, starting out at 61 Broadway and then moving to 111 West 50th Street in the mid-1930s. In most of these organizations and especially the Rockefeller Foundation, some top executives immediately began using travel diaries to record notes on locations visited and meetings held during trips undertaken for the purpose of identifying potential recipients, implementing funding agreements, or following up on awards already granted (figures 1 and 2).

Figures 1 and 2: Two pages from Wickliffe Rose’s diary for the year 1923, showing interview notes and index of names. The latter was used to feed the different filing systems and card indexes in operation at Rockefeller-endowed organizations. Rose started keeping interview and travel notes in 1909-1910, even before his appointment to the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission in 1910.He remained a leading figure in the Rockefeller galaxy until the late 1920s.

Source: Wickliffe Rose Diary, 1922-1923, General Education Board Records, record group 12 (Diaries), Rockefeller Archive Center, Tarrytown, NY. © Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center. Reproduced with permission.

Source: Wickliffe Rose Diary, 1922-1923, General Education Board Records, record group 12 (Diaries), Rockefeller Archive Center, Tarrytown, NY. © Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center. Reproduced with permission.

From the early 1920s, many of the new “officers” hired by Rockefeller-endowed organizations were being invited to keep such a diary. By the end of the decade, this had become standard practice. Although some officers took a portable typewriter with them on their travels throughout the United States and around the world, most dictated their diaries to a secretary after the fact, based on their recollections and handwritten notes.

The documents were shared with colleagues and superiors, all of whom kept their own diaries. In addition to being read, the content was also variously copied, clipped, indexed, cited, and combined with excerpts from correspondence, reports, memorandums, and minutes. Ultimately, the information assembled in this manner found its way into the various card indexes that formed the backbone of data management efforts at Rockefeller-endowed organizations.

A variety of such card systems were developed and maintained, including some designed to record information on individuals who received mobility awards from the organizations in question (figure 3).

Figure 3: First page of a randomly selected permanent recorder card

Source: Rockefeller Foundation Records, record group 10.2 (Fellowship Recorder Cards), Rockefeller Archive Center. All other cards presented in this essay are from the same source. © Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center.

In most cases, the awards in question required recipients to travel from their home institution (where they were studying, conducting research, working, or undergoing training) to one or more host institutions or other locations (where they would study, conduct research or observations, or undergo training). Accordingly, we refer to them generically as “mobility awards,” although they were assigned various names over the years by different Rockefeller-endowed organizations (see Award Types, below). It was believed that time spent away from home would provide recipients with the resources and skills they needed to assume new responsibilities, carry out more complex tasks, develop novel ideas, found new institutions, or overhaul existing ones. Although most recipients were required to cross at least one international border, several thousand US citizens and a much smaller number of non-Americans remained in their own country for the entire award term. In fact, a few recipients even remained at their home institution for the full term of their award.

When Flora Rhind, a familiar figure in Rockefeller-endowed
organizations, began looking into the creation of an archive center that would be open to the public, she identified four sets of cards
documenting mobility awards and their recipients (figure 4). She called these documents “permanent fellowships records cards.” That was in 1965, when the cards were being kept in drawers or trays at the Rockefeller Foundation offices. In this essay, I refer to the cards from these four sets as “permanent recorder cards,” a term in use at the Rockefeller Foundation as early as 1925 (with variations continuing to be used up to the present day).

Figure 4: Excerpt from Flora Rhind’s report about the establishment of an archive center, showing a reference to the location of “Permanent fellowship records cards.”

Source: Flora Rhind, “Preliminary report on the establishment of a Rockefeller Archives and Research Center,” p. 31, Rockefeller Foundation Records, record group 1.12, series 200, b.2327, Rockefeller Archive Center.
© Rockefeller Archive Center. Reproduced with permission.

The cards in question were eventually transferred to the Rockefeller
Archive Center, which opened in Tarrytown, NY, in 1974. They had
previously (most likely around 1965-1966) been merged into a single
alphabetical series. Archive Centre staff began processing the cards in
2007 and a finding aid was released in 2009, with the title “Fellowship
Recorder Cards. Record Group 10.2.” The documents were divided up among various storage boxes, and re-arranged by organizations and countries concerned.

The information contained in the Rockefeller Fellows database was mostly drawn from scanned versions of these cards. Accordingly, researchers using the database should have a good understanding of how they were created and used. This series seeks to share what our team learned on the subject over the months spent entering data.

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[cite]

1. “Die Buribunken,” Summa 1 (1917–1918). For extensive discussion of the story and of its place in Schmitt’s work, see the special “Buribunks” issue of the Griffith Law Review 28, no. 2 (2019) [↩]

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