Bibliography: NIH History

Titles are linked to online versions where available. Manuscripts in the ONHM Archives are available upon request to history@nih.gov.

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Alkon, Daniel L. Memory's Voice: Deciphering the Mind-Brain Code. New York: Harper Collins; 1992.

Allen, Ernest M. Early Years of NIH Research Grants. NIH Alumni Association Update. 1980 Apr; 6-8.

Anfinsen, Christian B. History of the Research Associate Program. Manuscript. Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, November 3, 1961.

Baker, Carl G. An Administrative History of the National Cancer Institute's Viruses and Cancer Programs, 1950-1972. Manuscript. Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 2004.

Beeman, Edward A. Charles Armstrong, M.D.: A Biography. Manuscript. Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 2007.

Beeman, Edward A. Robert J. Huebner, M.D.: A Virologist’s Odyssey. Manuscript. Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, 2007.

Blodi, Frederick C. The History of the National Eye Institute. American Journal of Ophthalmology. 1993; 115:420-25.

Blumberg, Baruch S. Hepatitis B: The Hunt for a Killer Virus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Academic Press; 2003.

Boyle, Eric W. The Politics of Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Federal History Online. 2011; 16-32.

Brown, Bertram S. The Federal Mental Health Program: Past, Present, and Future. Hospital and Community Psychiatry. 1976; 27(7):512-514

Cantelon, Philip L. NINR: Bringing Science to Life. National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH); 2010.

Cantor, David. Between Prevention and Therapy: Gio Batta Gori and the National Cancer Institute’s Diet, Nutrition and Cancer Programme, 1974-1978. Medical History. 2012 October; 56(4):531-561.

Cantor, David. Cancer, Research, and Educational Film at Midcentury: The Making of the Movie “Challenge: Science Against Cancer." University of Rochester Press; 2022. Click here to view the film.

Cantor, David. Finding Historical Records at the National Institutes of Health. Social History of Medicine. 2015 August; 28(3):617-637.

Cantor, David. Le National Cancer Institute: Problème d’une Intervention Fédérale Contre Le Cancer Dans L’Amérique Du Début Du XXe Siècle. In: Didier Foucault, Editor. Lutter Contre Le Cancer (1740-1960). Toulouse: Éditions Privat; 2012; pp. 329-358.

Cantor, David. The National Institutes of Health: Courting Congress, Creating a Research Infrastructure. In: M. Halliwell and S. A. Jones, Editors. The Edinburgh Companion to the Politics of American Health. Edinburgh University Press; 2022; pp. 338-356.

Cantor, David. Radium and the Origins of the National Cancer Institute. In: Caroline Hannaway, Editor. Biomedicine in the Twentieth Century: Practices, Policies, and Politics. Amsterdam: Ios Press; 2008; pp. 95-146.

Casey, Brian P. The Surgical Elimination of Violence? Conflicting Attitudes Towards Technology and Science During the Psychosurgery Controversy of the 1970s. Science in Context. 2015 March; 28(1):99-129.

Cook-Deegan, Robert M. The Gene Wars: Science, Politics, and the Human Genome. New York: W.W. Norton; 1994.

Covert, Norman M. And Public Affairs Office, U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick, Maryland. Cutting Edge: A History of Fort Detrick, Maryland. Frederick, Md: U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Detrick; 1993.

Davis, Alison F. Always There: The Remarkable Life of Ruth Lillian Kirschstein, M.D. National Institutes of Health; 2011.

Devita, Vincent D., Jr.; Devita-Raeburn, Elizabeth. The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable – and How We Can Get There. New York: Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2015.

Drew, Elizabeth B. The Health Syndicate: Washington's Noble Conspirators. Atlantic Monthly. 1967; 220:75-82.

Dyer, R. E. Medical Research in the United States Public Health Service. Bulletin of the Society of Medical History of Chicago. 1948; 6:58-68.

Endicott, Kenneth M.; Allen, Ernest M. The Growth of Medical Research 1941-1953, and the Role of Public Health Service Research Grants. Science. 1953; 118:337-43.

Erdey, Nancy C. Armor of Patience: The National Cancer Institute and the Development of Medical Research Policy in the United States, 1937-1971 [dissertation]. Department of History, Case Western Reserve University; 1995.

Farreras, Ingrid G.; Hannaway, Caroline; Harden, Victoria A., editors. Mind, Brain, Body, and Behavior: Foundations of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research at the National Institutes of Health. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 2004.

Fauci, Anthony S. On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service. Viking; 2024.

Fox, Daniel M. The Politics of the NIH Extramural Program, 1937-1950. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 1987; 42:447-66.

Fredrickson, Donald S. Biomedical Science and the Culture Warp. In: Kelley, William N.; Osterweis, Marian; Rubin, Elaine R., editors. Emerging Policies for Biomedical Research, Health Policy Annual III. Washington, D.C.: Association of Academic Health Centers; 1993. pp. 1-42.

Fredrickson, Donald S. The National Institutes of Health: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Public Health Reports. 1978; 93:642-47.

Fredrickson, Donald S. The Recombinant DNA Controversy, A Memoir: Science, Politics, and Public Interest, 1974-1981. Washington, D.C.: American Society of Microbiology; 2001.

Furman, Bess. A Profile of the United States Public Health Service, 1798-1948. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 73-369.

Gallo, Robert. Virus Hunting: AIDS, Cancer, and the Human Retrovirus: A Story of Scientific Discovery. New York: Basic Books; 1991.

Greenwald, Harriet R.; Harden, Victoria A., editors. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Intramural Contributions, 1887-1987. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; 1987.

Grob, Gerald N. Creation of the National Institute of Mental Health. Public Health Reports. 1996; 111:378-81.

Grob, Gerald N. From Asylum to Community: Mental Health Policy in Modern America. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1991.

Haley, Shirley. Angel in Mink, Mary Lasker: The Story of Mary Lasker's Crusade for Medical Research and the National Institutes of Health. Washington, D.C.: ACT for NIH; 2022.

Hamer, Dean; Copeland, Peter. Living with Our Genes: Why They Matter More Than You Think. New York: Doubleday; 1998.

Hannaway, Caroline, editor. Biomedicine in the Twentieth Century: Practices, Policies, and Politics. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 2008.

Hannaway, Caroline; Harden, Victoria; Parascandola, John, editors. AIDS and the Public Debate: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Amsterdam and Washington, D.C.: IOS Press; 1995.

Harden, Victoria A. AIDS at 30: A History. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc.; 2012.

Harden, Victoria A. Inventing the NIH: Federal Biomedical Research Policy, 1887-1937. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1986.

Harden, Victoria A. The National Institutes of Health. In: The Historical Guide to the U.S. Government. New York: Oxford University Press; 1998; pp. 409-414.

Harden, Victoria A. National Institutes of Health: Celebrating 100 Years of Medical Progress. In: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1989 Medical and Health Annual. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.; 1988; pp. 158-75.

Harden, Victoria A. Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: History of a Twentieth-Century Disease. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1990.

Harden, Victoria A.; Risse, Gunther, editors. AIDS and the Historian: Proceedings of a conference at the National Institutes of Health, 20-21 March 1989. Bethesda, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health; 1991.

Harris, Ruth Roy. Dental Science in a New Age: A History of the National Institute of Dental Research. Rockville, MD: Montrose Press; 1989.

Heller, JR. The National Cancer Institute: A Twenty-Year Retrospect. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, special twentieth anniversary issue. 1957; 19:141-190.

Van Heyningen, W. E.; Seal, John R. Cholera: The American Scientific Experience, 1947-1980. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 1983.

Houts, Joseph K. Jr. Joseph James Kinyoun: Discoverer of Bubonic Plague in America and Father of the National Institutes of Health. McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers; 2021.

Humphreys, Betsy L.; Logan, Robert A.; Miller, Randolph A.; Siegel, Elliot R. Transforming Biomedical Informatics and Health Information Access: Don Lindberg and the U.S. National Library of Medicine. In: Studies in Health Technology and Informatics [series]. 2022; p.288.

Hurd, Suzanne S.; Lenfant, Claude. NHLBI: Fifty Years of Achievement in Pulmonary Biology and Medicine. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 1998; 157: s168-s171.

Ingrassia, Lawrence. A Fatal Inheritance – How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery. New York: Henry Holt and Company; 2024.

Jones, Marian M. Creating a Science of Homelessness During the Reagan Era. Millbank Quarterly. 2015; 93:n139-178.

Judd, Lewis L. Historical Highlights of the National Institute of Mental Health from 1946 to the Present. American Journal of Psychiatry. 1998; 155 Suppl:3-8.

Kanigel, Robert. Apprentice to Genius: The Making of a Scientific Dynasty. New York: Macmillan; 1986.

Kastor, John A. National Institutes of Health, 1991-2008. Oxford University Press; 2010.

Keating, Peter; Cambrosio, Alberto. Cancer on Trial: Oncology as a New Style of Practice. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; 2012.

Khot, Sandeep; Park, Buhm Soon; Longstreth, W. T., Jr. The Vietnam War and Medical Research: Untold Legacy of the U.S. Doctor Draft and the NIH 'Yellow Berets.’ Academic Medicine. 2011; 86:502-508.

Kirk, K. L.; Jacobson, K. A. History of Chemistry in the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Bulletin of the History of Chemistry. 2014 Jan 1; 39(2):150-165.

Klein, Melissa K. The Legacy of the 'Yellow Berets': The Vietnam War, the Doctor Draft, and the NIH Associate Training Program. Manuscript, Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum; 1998.

Kornberg, Arthur. For the Love of Enzymes: The Odyssey of a Biochemist. Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 1989.

Kramer, Victor H. National Institute of Health: A Study of Public Administration. New Haven, CT: V.H. Kramer; 1937. Printed by Quinnipiack Press.

Krause, Richard. The Restless Tide: The Persistent Challenge of the Microbial World. Washington, D.C.: The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; 1981.

Kraut, Alan M. Goldberger's War: The Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader. Boston: Hill & Wang; 2003.

Kupfer, Carl; McManus, Edward; with Berlage, Nancy. History of the National Eye Institute, 1968-2000. Manuscript, Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum, NIH. 2009.

Lanahan, Ernestine T. A Salute to the Past: A History of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Based on Personal Recollections. Bethesda, MD: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; 1987.

Lee, Thomas H. Eugene Braunwald and the Rise of Modern Medicine. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013.

Luckett, Don. Shining Lady in the Sky: How the Rocket Boys of Buffalo Were Launched by a Government Administrator and Committee at the National Institutes of Health. Manuscript, Center for Scientific Review, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. 2005.

Lyons, Michele. Seventy Acres of Science: The NIH Moves to Bethesda. NIH Publication; 2006.

Mandel, Richard. Beacon of Hope, 1953-1993: The Clinical Center Through Forty Years of Growth and Change in Biomedicine. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health; 1993.

Mandel, Richard. A Half Century of Peer Review, 1946-1996. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health, Division of Research Grants; 1996.

Masur, Jack; Thompson, N. P. A National Clinical Center for Chronic Disease Research. Hospitals. 1949 Nov:1-12.

May, Clarence W. A Brief History of the Growth of the National Institutes of Health of the United States Public Health Service. January 15, 1947. (Internal Report)

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Metlay, Grischa. Federalizing Medical Campaigns against Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. Milbank Quarterly. 2013; 91:123-162.

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Miles, Wyndham D. A History of the National Library of Medicine, The Nation's Treasury of Medical Knowledge. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, NIH Publication No. 82-1904; 1982.

Morens, David M.; Harden, Victoria A.; Houts, Joseph K., Jr., Fauci, Anthony S. The Indispensable Forgotten Man: Joseph James Kinyoun and the Founding of the National Institutes of Health. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; August 2012.

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National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Forty Years of Achievement in Heart, Lung, and Blood Research: A Collection of Essays in Selected Areas of Biomedical Research Accomplishment. Bethesda, MD: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; 1987.

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National Institutes of Health. NIH Data Book. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 1961-1994.

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Olszewski, Todd M. Lost in Translation: Linking Biomedical Research and Clinical Practice at the National Institutes of Health, 1977 to 2013. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2018; 168:431–435.

Olszewski, Todd M. Between Bench and Bedside: Building Clinical Consensus at the NIH, 1977–2013. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 2018; 73:464-500.

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Last Updated: January 2026