Anfinsen and Dr. Daniel Steinberg sought to find out if proteins are created from a template in which all of the amino acids fit together as if in a mold, or if the amino acids first form shorter chains called peptides, which then combine to make proteins. Using radioactively-tagged amino acids developed by Anfinsen in chicken oviduct tissue and paper chromatography, they discovered that the amino acids first combined to make peptides. Their methods and results were reported in the March 5, 1951, NIH Record article (page 2)(PDF).
