Our History

Lab interior

Transformative Investment

Andrew Carnegie founded our institution to secure American leadership in scientific research in 1902.

Discovery Science

Carnegie President Vannevar Bush enshrined basic research in our national character in 1945.

A Legacy of Excellence

For more than a century, Carnegie Science has empowered visionary investigators to demonstrate intellectual courage, challenge conventional ideas, and transform the world.

Our organization was established by industrialist and pioneering philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to devote significant resources to exceptional individuals, enabling them to explore the most intriguing scientific questions of the day in an atmosphere of complete freedom and fostering the application of this knowledge to the improvement of humankind.

This pursuit of answers—fueled by our scientists' curiosity, intellect, and creativity—has resulted in substantial breakthroughs over the last hundred years, including Edwin Hubble’s discovery that the universe is expanding, Charles Richter’s development of a seismic scale to measure earthquakes, and Vera Rubin’s confirmation of dark matter, among many others.

Our approach has also fostered new fields of research led to unexpected benefits to society, including the development of hybrid corn, radar, the technology that led to Pyrex ® glass, and novel drugs that deploy RNA interference technology.

Division Histories

Carnegie plant chemist Herman Spoehr working with his albino plants in the laboratory.
Night photographs of the transmitter used in searchlight experiment. December 18, 1939
60–inch reflecting telescope, Mount Wilson Observatory.
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History Features

Edwin Hubble - VAR! Plate 100th Anniversary

There's a New Call Box in Town

The wind behind the sails of evolution | Nina Fedoroff on Barbara McClintock

Nina Fedoroff: How Barbara McClintock inspired me

A History of Carnegie's Broad Branch Road Campus

Pluto before Pluto

DTM global eclipse expeditions

DTM global eclipse expeditions, May 29, 1919, showing the path of totality (solid line) and regions where a partial eclipse could be observed (shadowed region). The Department had eclipse stations along the path of the 1919 eclipse in (from left) Sobral, Brazil; Puerto Deseado, Argentina; Campo, Cameroon; and Cape Palmas, Liberia. Image by Roberto Molar Candanosa/Shaun Hardy, Carnegie DTM.
100 Years Ago DTM Chased the Eclipse That Made Einstein Famous
Louis Bauer, DTM’s founding Director, was an eclipse veteran. In May 1900, four years before the Department was established, Bauer organized the first systematic observations aimed at detecting geomagnetic effects of a solar eclipse.
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Two ears of corn studied by Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock: A Visionary Ahead of Her Time
When Barbara McClintock joined Carnegie Science it was a perfect match: a scientist who craved independence found an institution dedicated to supporting unfettered research. McClintock's groundbreaking discovery of "jumping genes" revolutionized our understanding of heredity and earned her a Nobel Prize.
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Vera Rubin at Lowell Observatory with Kent Ford in white helmet.
Who was Vera Rubin?
Vera Rubin provided the first observational evidence that supported of the existence of dark matter—the invisible material that makes up more than 80 percent of the mass of the universe.
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Online Exhibitions
Hand-tinted lantern slide of Galilee
J.P. Ault and the Carnegie research vessel
Three scientists at work

Documentary Heritage

Archival materials

The Carnegie Science Archives

We maintain extensive physical and digital collections that document our institutional history. Learn about our archival resources, conduct research with our documentary heritage, or arrange a visit to one of our historic campuses.

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Books at the Broad Branch Road campus library

Publications

Since our founding, Carnegie Science has published an annual Year Book highlighting research from across the institution. The Carnegie Monograph series, composed of more than 600 volumes, was published until 1994. 

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