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Organizations

115 entries

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Government Agencies
20 entries
Federal agencies and independent bodies — the intelligence services, the central bank, and the archives of the state.
International Organizations
9 entries
The alliances and multinational bodies the United States built, funds, or leads.
Military
7 entries
The armed forces and the institutions of American military power.
Business & Labor
25 entries
The companies and unions that shaped the American economy.
Advocacy & Social Organizations
33 entries
The reform groups, civic machines, and movements-turned-institutions that pressed for — and sometimes against — change in American life.
Culture & Knowledge
10 entries
The museums, archives, libraries, and cultural institutions that gather, preserve, and share the nation's art, science, and memory.
Media & Publishing
11 entries
The newspapers, wire services, magazines, and broadcast networks that gathered the news, argued over it, and carried it to the American public.
All Organizations (A–Z) A–Z By date
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Y

A

AARP
The seniors' lobby that became a political heavyweight, founded 1958
The ACLU
The organization that made the Bill of Rights its client, founded 1920
Amazon
The online bookstore that became the everything store, founded 1994
The American Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO)
The federation that has spoken for organized American labor since 1886
The American Museum of Natural History
New York's temple of dinosaurs, dioramas, and science, founded 1869
The American Red Cross
Clara Barton's humanitarian corps for war and disaster, founded 1881
The Anti-Imperialist League
The campaign against an American colonial empire, 1898-1921
The Anti-Saloon League
The single-issue lobby that drove America into Prohibition, 1893
Apple
The company that made the computer personal — and beautiful, founded 1976
The Associated Press
The cooperative wire service, founded 1846

B

The Bell System (AT&T)
The telephone monopoly that wired America, 1877–1984
The Black Panther Party
The armed revolutionary movement for Black liberation, 1966–1982
Boeing
The company that built America's airliners and warplanes, founded 1916
The Brookings Institution
The century-old think tank at the center of American policy, 1916

C

CBS
The Tiffany Network, from Murrow to Cronkite, founded 1927
The CDC
The nation's front line against disease, from malaria to pandemics, 1946
The CIA
The Cold War spy agency created in 1947 for foreign intelligence — and covert action around the world
CNN
The first twenty-four-hour news channel, launched 1980
Coca-Cola
The Atlanta soda that became a global symbol of America, 1886

D

The Department of Homeland Security
The cabinet department built out of September 11, 2002

E

The Environmental Protection Agency
The 1970 agency Nixon created to police the nation's air and water

F

The FBI
The federal police force born in 1908 that hunted gangsters and radicals — and sometimes the Constitution
The Federal Reserve
The central bank created in 1913 to tame the financial panics that had wrecked the economy for a century
The Federal Trade Commission
The Progressive-era regulator created to police unfair competition, 1914
The First Bank of the United States
Hamilton's 1791 experiment in national finance — and the fight it started
The Food and Drug Administration
The agency that guards the nation's food and medicine, 1906
The Ford Foundation
The philanthropy that spread American ideas at home and abroad, 1936
The Ford Motor Company
The company that put America on wheels, founded 1903

G

General Electric
The Edison company that grew into an industrial empire, founded 1892
General Motors
The automaker founded in 1908 that overtook Ford, armed democracy in WWII, and ruled the American road
Google
The search engine that organized the web — and its advertising, founded 1998

H

The Heritage Foundation
The conservative think tank that shaped the Reagan revolution, 1973
Hull House
Jane Addams's settlement house that pioneered American social work, 1889

I

IBM
The company that ran on data, from punch cards to the computer age
The Industrial Workers of the World
The radical "Wobblies" who dreamed of One Big Union, founded 1905

J

The John Birch Society
The far-right anti-communist group that roiled Cold War conservatism, 1958

K

The Knights of Labor
The first mass American labor union, which surged in the 1880s — then collapsed almost overnight
The Ku Klux Klan
The white-supremacist terror movement that rose, fell, and rose again

L

The League of Nations
The world body Woodrow Wilson built — and the U.S. Senate refused to join, 1920
The Liberator
Garrison's abolitionist weekly, 1831-1865
The Library of Congress
The national library that rose from ashes on Jefferson's shelves, 1800
Life Magazine
The picture weekly that showed America to itself, 1936-1972

M

The Mayo Clinic
The Minnesota clinic that pioneered team-based medicine, 1889
McDonald's
The San Bernardino hamburger stand that became a global system
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
America's grandest art museum, founded 1870
Microsoft
The software giant that put a computer on every desk, founded 1975
The Moral Majority
The evangelical movement that fused religion and Republican politics, 1979–1989
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
The grief-driven movement that changed America's drinking laws, 1980
The Museum of Modern Art
The museum that made modern art respectable, founded 1929

N

The NAACP
The civil rights organization that fought segregation in the courts, founded 1909
NASA
The space agency founded in 1958 that won the race to the Moon and became the symbol of American ambition
The National Archives
The keeper of the Declaration, the Constitution, and the nation's records, 1934
The National Audubon Society
The bird-protection movement that became a conservation force, 1905
The National Gallery of Art
The nation's art museum, a gift to the people, 1937
The National Geographic Society
The society that brought the world to America, founded 1888
The National Grange
The farmers' fraternal order that fought the railroads, founded 1867
The National Guard
The citizen-soldiers who trace their line to the colonial militia
The National Organization for Women
The group that drove the fight for women's equality, founded 1966
The National Park Service
The 1916 agency created to protect "America's best idea"
The National Rifle Association
From a marksmanship club to the most powerful gun lobby in America, 1871
The National Weather Service
The federal forecast, from the Army Signal Service to the watch and the warning
NATO
The 1949 alliance that bound America to Europe's defense and deterred the Soviet Union for forty years
NBC
The first permanent broadcast network, founded 1926
The NCAA
The body that governs — and profits from — college sports, 1906
The New York Public Library
The people's library guarded by two stone lions, founded 1895
The New York Times
The paper of record, founded 1851
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, assembled 1970
The NSA
The codebreaking agency founded in secret in 1952 to intercept the world's communications

O

The Organization of American States
The Western Hemisphere body that carried old doctrines into the Cold War, 1948

P

PBS
The public television network of Sesame Street and the news, founded 1969
The Peace Corps
JFK's volunteer corps that sent young Americans to serve abroad, 1961
The Pennsylvania Railroad
The "Standard Railroad of the World" and once America's largest corporation, 1846
Planned Parenthood
The reproductive-health provider at the center of the abortion battle, 1916
The Presidential Libraries
The archive system FDR launched in 1939 to preserve the records of the modern presidency

R

The Rockefeller Foundation
The oil fortune turned to fighting disease and funding science, 1913
The Rural Electrification Administration
The New Deal agency that put wires down the farm road, 1935

S

The Salvation Army
The evangelical charity that fights poverty with a brass band, in America since 1880
Sears, Roebuck and Company
The mail-order catalog that outfitted a nation, 1893
SEATO
The Cold War alliance built to contain communism in Asia, 1954–1977
The Second Bank of the United States
The national bank Andrew Jackson set out to destroy, 1816–1836
The Securities and Exchange Commission
The New Deal watchdog created to police Wall Street, 1934
The SEIU (Service Employees)
The service-sector union that became labor's fastest-growing giant, 1921
The Sierra Club
John Muir's wilderness guardians and the birth of the conservation lobby, 1892
The Smithsonian Institution
The national museum complex born from a mysterious English bequest, 1846
The Sons of Liberty
The secret agitators who lit the fuse of the American Revolution, 1765
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Martin Luther King's engine of the nonviolent civil rights movement, 1957
Standard Oil
Rockefeller's oil empire — the monopoly that remade American business, 1870–1911
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The young radicals who put their bodies on the line for civil rights, 1960

T

Tammany Hall
The New York political machine that ran on patronage and graft, 1789–1960s
The Teamsters
The powerful trucking union dogged by clout and corruption, founded 1903
Time Magazine
The newsmagazine that summarized the week, founded 1923
Tuskegee Institute
Booker T. Washington's school for Black self-reliance, founded 1881

U

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The business lobby that speaks for American enterprise, founded 1912
U.S. Intelligence
The community of spy agencies built across the 20th century to watch the world — and, at times, Americans
U.S. Steel
The 1901 merger that made the world's first billion-dollar corporation
The United Auto Workers
The union that organized Detroit and helped build the American middle class, founded 1935
The United Mine Workers
The coal miners' union at the storm center of American labor, 1890
United Nations
The international body America founded in 1945 — and has funded, led, and defied ever since
The United States Air Force
The youngest branch, born from the rise of air power, 1947
The United States Armed Forces
From the Continental Army of 1775 to the most powerful military the world has ever known
The United States Army
The nation's oldest armed service, born with the Revolution in 1775
The United States Coast Guard
The maritime guardian older than the modern Navy, founded 1790
The United States Marine Corps
The amphibious force that fights from the sea, founded 1775
The United States Navy
The sea service that carried American power around the globe, founded 1775
The United States Postal Service
The mail system older than the nation, founded 1775
The USO
The troops' morale organization, from WWII canteens to today, 1941

V

The Virginia Company
The joint-stock venture that founded Jamestown — and seeded corporate America

W

The Wall Street Journal
The business paper that measured the market, founded 1889
Walmart
The discount retailer that became the world's largest company, founded 1962
The Warsaw Pact
The Soviet military alliance that answered NATO, 1955–1991
The Washington Post
The capital's paper, from bankruptcy auction to Watergate, founded 1877
The World Bank and IMF
The Bretton Woods twins America built to run the global economy, 1944
The World Health Organization
The UN's global health agency — and America's fraught partner in it, 1948
The World Trade Organization
The referee of global trade, from GATT in 1947 to the WTO in 1995

Y

The YMCA
The Christian association that shaped American recreation and reform, since 1851