The Boards represented in this series are the most important philanthropies that have been developed from the Rockefeller fortune: the Bureau of Social Hygiene; the China Medical Board of the Rockefeller Foundation and its successor, the China Medical Board, Inc.; the Davison Fund; the General Education Board; the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial; the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; the Rockefeller Foundation; the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now known as Rockefeller University); the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission; the Sealantic Fund; and the Spelman Fund of New York.

The papers in the Rockefeller Boards series document the implementation of Frederick T. Gates's vision of systematic and focused philanthropic activities that became the hallmark of Rockefeller philanthropies. These materials document the earliest history of these philanthropies and the participation of family members and their advisors in the founding and ongoing operations of these organizations.

The Rockefeller Boards material is a crucial addition to several of the collections of organizational records housed at the Rockefeller Archive Center. The collections to which these papers are a particularly important complement are the Rockefeller Foundation Archives, especially Record Group 3 - Administration, Program and Policy, and Record Group 4 - China Medical Board; the General Education Board; the Bureau of Social Hygiene; the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; and the John D. Rockefeller Papers.

For each organization, the materials include the charter and certificate of incorporation; minutes of meetings of the Board of Directors, if a Rockefeller family member was a trustee or director; general correspondence between the administrators of the board and the Rockefeller family office; and subject folders containing correspondence, reports, and other documents on issues and events which were significant to the board. Also found in this series are materials on John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s Advisory Board, which recommended to Mr. Rockefeller the general direction and specific recipients of his personal giving.

The family members who figure most prominently in this series are John D. Rockefeller, Jr., John D. Rockefeller 3rd, and David Rockefeller. John D. Rockefeller, Nelson Rockefeller, Laurance S. Rockefeller, and Winthrop Rockefeller also appear. Of the Rockefeller family advisors who appear, Starr J. Murphy and Thomas M. Debevoise are the most prominent.