OFFICE OF HISTORY
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

The Office of History, National Institutes of Health exists to advance historical understanding of biomedical research within the NIH and the world. Through preserving records of significant NIH achievements, innovative exhibits, educational programs, and training researchers from multiple disciplines, the Office of History explores the past to enhance present understanding of the health sciences and the NIH.

NEWS

 

MUSEUM
The NIH Stetten Museum loaned an early HIV test kit and a 1983 notice to blood donors about AIDS to the New York Historical Society’s new exhibit “AIDS in New York: The First Five Years.”  The exhibit explores the impact of the AIDS epidemic on personal lives, public health and medical practices, culture, and politics in the first years (1981-1985) of recognition of the mysterious and fatal disease.  The exhibit will be open June 7, 2013 through September 15, 2013.  Find out more about it at http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/aids-new-york-first-five-years

 

ARCHIVES
The National Institutes of Health Alumni Association newsletters have been scanned and can be searched at http://history.nih.gov/research/alumni.html.

The NIHAA Update was the newsletter of the NIH Alumni Association (NIHAA), which was established in 1989 after the NIH Centennial celebration.  Forty issues were published from summer 1989 until spring 2007 when NIHAA officially dissolved. The Update served as a link among NIH alumni all over the world and served as an informal record of changes in NIH’s physical and administrative structure over the years. In addition, it tracked alumni activities and reported appointments, honors, publications, personal developments, and obituaries. The NIHAA, with over 2,300 members during its existence, was a private, nonprofit organization – it received no financial aid from the federal government.   Support for the NIHAA Update came from members’ dues, grants, contributions from various friends, groups, foundations and companies.

ORAL HISTORIES

Hertz, Roy
Interview date: February 2, 1998

Shimkin, Michael
Interview date: March 17, 1982

IMAGES
Visit the NIH Library's Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihlibrary/collections/72157626011426522/ and view a sample of the images from the Office of History photograph collections.

NEW RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Eric Boyle, Quack Medicine: A History of Combating Health Fraud in Twentieth-Century America. Praeger, 2013.

Joseph November, Biomedical Computing : Digitizing Life in the United States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.

Victoria A. Harden, AIDS at 30: A History. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, Inc., 2012.

Laura Stark, Behind Closed Doors: IRBs and the Making of Ethical Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.

EVENTS

Conferences and Symposia

seminars

STAFF PUBLICATIONS

Fellowships and grants

 

Requests for images

The Office of History holds several photograph collections. Many can be found within Search Our Collections but many are uncataloged. To request images for use in presentations or publications please contact the Office of History.