The Dana Center

The Dana Foundation, established in 1950 by the industrialist, philanthropist, and legislator Charles A. Dana, is a private philanthropic foundation with principal interests in science, health, and education. The Foundation’s current areas of research emphasis are in neuroscience, immunology, and the effects of arts training on cognitive skills.

Charles A. Dana, a New York State legislator, industrialist, and philanthropist, founded what is today the Dana Corporation. He was president of the Dana Foundation from 1950 to 1966 and actively shaped its programs and principles until his death in 1975.

Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and government official, best known for his association with Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War and his aggressive political advocacy after the war.

The earliest known references to the "Windy City" are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that the term "Windy City" was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

Dana lived at the utopian Brook Farm community for five years in the 1840s before becoming an editor for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, where he actively promoted the antislavery cause. He became a national figure as editor and part owner of the New York Sun (1868 – 97), which under his control was much admired and imitated. With George Ripley, he edited the New American Cyclopaedia (1857 – 63). He also edited a highly successful verse anthology and wrote books such as The Art of Newspaper Making (1895).