Getting and Giving The first family of American patronage of the
arts. Dec 13, 2010, Vol. 16, No. 13 • By MARTIN MORSE WOOSTER
Photo Credit: Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images The
Rockefellers and Their Astonishing Cultural Legacy Study the
histories of the creators of great fortunes and you’ll find a
familiar pattern. The heroic capitalists whose innovative ideas
resulted in great wealth tend to be libertarians or
conservatives who strongly support the free enterprise system
that made their fortunes possible. Their children, naturally
rebelling against their parents, are usually far more liberal
than their parents. Their grandchildren, comfortably ensconced
with trust funds that obviate the need to work, sometimes become
political radicals who use their inheritances to advance a
socialist agenda. So it is with the Rockefellers. John D.
Rockefeller was, of course, among the most rugged and ruthless
of the wealth creators who flourished more than a century ago.
His son, John D. Rockefeller Jr. (commonly refer