Barbara Goldsmith - Philanthropy

Philanthropy

The President of the Carnegie Corporation, Vartan Gregorian, named Barbara Goldsmith along with David Rockefeller and Brooke Astor on his list of America’s ten most enlightened philanthropists. Gregorian particularly noted the campaign she spearheaded to convert books and documents to permanent paper lasting 300 years instead of disintegrating in thirty and her securing of $20 million from the federal government for this crucial work.

Her major philanthropic efforts include the donation of two preservation and conservation laboratories at The New York Public Library and at New York University, where she also funds a series of business lectures in honor of her father, Joseph I. Lubin, and a lecture series on preservation and conservation. In 2010 the New York Public Library Services Center, a 126-square-foot (11.7 m2) building with 220 workers, now contains the state-of-the-art Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Divisions. She also funded a state-of-the-art rare book library at the American Academy in Rome and a preservation and conservation treatment facility at Wellesley College. She served on the Presidential Commission on Preservation and Access during the William Jefferson Clinton Administration and received the American Archival Association’s top award.

Among her early major philanthropic efforts was the 1968 founding of the Center for Learning Disabilities at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1974, she succeeded with Adele Auchincloss (the late Mrs. Louis Auchincloss) to have the city, state and parks department install safety surf, a cushioning material, under swings and slides in every park and playground in the five boroughs of New York City. Goldsmith has initiated many other anonymous grants.

She founded and funds the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in order to spotlight writers of conscience in 113 countries who have disappeared, were tortured, or in prison at the time of the awards. In the 22 years since 1987 she has provided this award, 34 out of 37 imprisoned writers have been released, often within months of the award. She helped establish the Core Freedoms Program which confines itself to free expression work in the United States. Larry Siems, Director of PEN Freedom to Write, declared of Goldsmith, “Her innovative idea and persistence and skill brought all this to fruition.” The PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award was instrumental in starting the campaign that led to the Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo winning the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.