National Institute of Social Sciences

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The National Institute of Social Sciences
Formation1913; 112 years ago (1913)
TypeHonorary society
HeadquartersNew York City
Websitewww.socialsciencesinstitute.org

The National Institute of Social Sciences (NISS) is one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States. The stated mission of NISS is to promote the study of the social sciences, to support social science research and discussion, and to honor individuals who have rendered distinguished service to humanity.

NISS is headquartered in New York City.

Current activities

Since 1913, NISS has presented Gold Medals that celebrate the accomplishments of distinguished Americans and world leaders who have contributed at the highest level to the welfare and improvement of society. Gold Medal honorees, which include four U.S. presidents and 16 Nobel Prize winners, represent outstanding achievement in the social sciences, law, government, education, philanthropy, the arts, medicine, science, and industry.

The organization sponsors speaking engagements on critical issues. It supports graduate students in the final stages of completing their dissertations through a grants program.

Early history

The National Institute of Social Sciences traces its origins to the American Social Science Association, or ASSA, which was established in 1865 in Boston as the American Association for the Promotion of Social Science. The ASSA was chartered by an act of the 56th Congress on January 28, 1899. In 1912, the ASSA established NISS as a distinct department. In 1926, when the ASSA dissolved, an act of Congress transferred its congressional charter to the NISS "for the furtherance of the interests of social science."

Gold Medals

The NISS original constitution states the organization's goal "to promote the study of Social Science and to reward distinguished services rendered to humanity, either by election to the National Institute, or by the bestowal of medals or other insignia.”

In 1913 the NISS bestowed its first Gold Medals in recognition of significant contributions to humanity. The first recipients were William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States, Archer M. Huntington, founder of the Hispanic Society of America, and Samuel L. Parrish, founder of the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY. Each year since 1913, (except for 1922), the organization has presented Gold Medals to distinguished individuals.

The National Institute's Gold Medal was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser, a noted sculptor with a specialty in medals.

Honorees

1913

  • Archer M. Huntington
  • Samuel L. Parrish
  • William Howard Taft

1914

  • Charles W. Eliot
  • George W. Goethals
  • Abraham Jacobi
  • Henry Fairfield Osborn

1915

1916

  • Robert Bacon
  • Helen Hartley Jenkins
  • Adolph Lewisohn

1917

  • George W. Crile
  • William Gorgas
  • John Purroy Mitchel
  • Mihailo Pupin

1918

1919

  • Samuel Gompers
  • William Henry Welch

1920

  • Alexis Carrel
  • Henry Holbrook Curtis
  • Wilfred Grenfell
  • Harry Pratt Judson

1921

  • Charles F. Chandler
  • Calvin Coolidge
  • Marie Curie
  • Cleveland Hoadley Dodge

1923

1924

1925

1926

  • S. Parkes Cadman
  • Clarence Mackay
  • Stephen Mather
  • Mary Schenck Woolman

1927

  • George Pierce Baker
  • Walter Damrosch
  • Harry Emerson Fosdick
  • Adolph Ochs

1928

  • Liberty Hyde Bailey
  • Robert W. DeForest
  • Willis R. Whitney

1929

1930

  • Anna Billings Gallup
  • George R. Minot
  • William Lyon Phelps
  • Marcella Sembrich
  • Nathan Straus

1931

1932

  • Edward F. Allen
  • James Howell Post
  • William C. Redfield
  • Gerard Swope

1933

1934

  • Eleanor Robson Belmont
  • Walter B. Cannon
  • Samuel Seabury

1935

  • Cornelius N. Bliss
  • Harvey Cushing
  • Carter Glass
  • George E. Vincent

1936

  • Nicholas Murray Butler
  • Dorothy Harrison Eustis
  • William Edwin Hall
  • J. Pierpont Morgan

1937

1938

1939

1940

  • Carrie Chapman Catt
  • James E. West
  • Wendell Willkie

1941

1942

  • Anne O'Hare McCormick
  • Donald Nelson
  • Rufus B. von KleinSmid

1943

  • Madame Chiang Kai-shek Soong Mei-ling
  • Edwin Grant Conklin
  • Mildred H. McAfee
  • Juan Terry Trippe

1944

  • Bernard Baruch
  • Kate Trumbee Henry Pomeroy Davison
  • James G. K. McClure

1945

  • Vannevar Bush
  • Emily Vanderbilt Sloane (Mrs. John Henry Hammond)
  • William Mather Lewis

1946

  • Virginia Gildersleeve
  • Robert Moses
  • Edward Stettinius Jr.

1947

1948

1949

  • Lillian Moller Gilbreth
  • George Catlett Marshall
  • Alfred P. Sloan Jr.

1950

  • Sarah Gibson Blanding
  • Henry Bruere
  • Carlos P. Romulo

1951

1952

  • Helen Keller
  • Robert Abercrombie Lovett
  • John J. McCloy
  • Harold Raymond Medina

1953

1954

1955

  • Samuel D. Leidesdorf
  • Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
  • Elisabeth Luce Moore

1956

  • Henry Townley Heald
  • Mary Pillsbury Lord
  • Clarence G. Michalis

1957

  • Billy Graham Jr.
  • Alfred M. Gruenther
  • Clare Booth Luce

1958

1959

1960

1961

  • Marie Graves Bullock
  • Karl Menninger
  • William C. Menninger
  • Edward Durell Stone

1962

1963

  • Arthur Dean
  • Katharine Elizabeth McBride
  • Nathan Pusey
  • Frank Stanton

1964

1965

1966

  • G. Keith Funston
  • Lady Bird Johnson
  • Danny Kaye
  • David Sarnoff
  • Eric Sevareid
  • Francis Spellman

1967

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

  • John Young (astronaut)
  • Anne Armstrong
  • Milton Friedman
  • Edwin Leather
  • Dina Merrill
  • Cliff Robertson
  • William Rockefeller
  • William B. Walsh

1978

  • Henrik Beer
  • Arthur F. Burns
  • Julia Child
  • James R. Dumpson
  • Lila Acheson Wallace

1979

1980

  • Omar Bradley
  • Alexander M. Haig
  • Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr.
  • William McChesney Martin Jr.
  • William J. McGill
  • Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger

1981

  • Brooke Astor
  • Walter P. Chrysler Jr.
  • Jean MacArthur
  • Drew Middleton
  • John W. Young

1982

1983

1984

1985

1986

  • I. I. Rabi
  • Juanita Kidd Stout
  • Eudora Welty

1987

  • John Carter Brown
  • Rudy Giuliani
  • Vernon A. Walters
  • Susan H. Whitmore (Mrs. Harold P. Whitmore)

1988

1989

  • Robert MacCrate
  • Philippe de Montebello
  • Paul Nitze
  • Alice Tully

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

  • Donna de Varona
  • Bernard Gersten
  • Richard Meier
  • Ted Turner

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

  • Kenneth T. Jackson
  • Robert MacNeil
  • Robert M. Morgenthau

2009

  • Doris Kearns Goodwin
  • Thomas L. Haskell
  • Eric Kandel

2010

2011

2012

  • Robert Caro
  • Paul Goldberger
  • William M. Manger

2013

  • John H. Adams
  • Wallace Smith Broecker
  • Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.

2014

  • Eric Foner
  • Philippe Petit
  • E.O. Wilson

2015

2016

2017

2018

  • Daniel Kahneman
  • Geraldine Kunstadter
  • Elizabeth Barlow Rogers

2019

  • Paul Farmer
  • Peter Gelb

2020

2021

2022

Research support

In its first two decades, the National Institute published an annual Journal of the National Institute of Social Sciences, which included articles by members and scholars. The 1920 journal, for example, included articles by the noted economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen and academic Virginia Gildersleeve.

In the 1970s, the National Institute supported a national project on experiential education. The project was begun in 1974 by Frank Pace Jr., the NISS president, to strengthen field experiential education and support the NISS's "original mission and function."

Grants and scholarships

In 2011 the Institute began awarding Dissertation Grants (originally called Seed Grants) to graduate students completing dissertations in social science fields. In 2016, it was announced that Hirokazu Shirado, then a graduate student at Yale University, would receive the fourth Seed Grant through this program. The 2020 recipients were Gabriel Raeburn, a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies and History at the University of Pennsylvania, and Francisco Lara-García, a doctoral candidate and Paul Lazarsfeld Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University in the City of New York. The 2021 recipient was Emma Gilheany, a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. The 2022 recipients are Betsy Priem, Nicolas Rodrigo, Jessica Schirmer, Cameron McAllister, Brooke McKenna.

Advisory Council

In 2022, NISS President Fred Larsen and the Board of Governors established the first Advisory Council, composed of former Gold Medal Honorees, leading scholars in the social sciences and cognate fields, leaders of educational and not-for-profit institutions focused on the social sciences, and distinguished artists, journalists, and performers whose work affects and is concerned with the advancement of knowledge and the betterment of society. The Inaugural Council consists of

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