Travel Grants Connect People Across the Globe

Carnegie Corporation President Frederick Keppel believed in connecting people around the world and instituted what would become a travel grants program that endured for 40 years and enabled teachers, librarians, museum curators, university and school administrators, artists, government officials, and scholars from the British Dominions and Colonies to travel to the United States and Canada and, if warranted, to the United Kingdom and Europe. A limited number of travel grants supported visits by Americans who would have something to contribute, particularly in Africa; for example, noted educator John Dewey (pictured) had a travel grant in 1934 to meet with educators in Africa and to study education issues in different settings. Travel grant recipients didn’t have to produce a book or an article; instead, they needed to make the case that a trip funded under the program would help their work at home. Both men and women were supported. The trips lasted anywhere from about six weeks up to six months. They refreshed and enlarged the horizons for both visitors and hosts.