Online Exhibits

The Office of NIH History & Stetten Museum maintains numerous exhibits, some physical and others online-only.  Below is a list of our online-only exhibits about NIH people, objects, and scientific themes.  For onsite exhibitions and displays, as well as their online component, refer to our Onsite Exhibits page.

People & Places

Howard Bartner & 40 Years of Medical Illustration

Howard Bartner
Howard Bartner, an NIH medical illustrator, devoted 40 years to portraying human anatomy in his drawings.

Roscoe Brady & Gaucher Disease

Dr Brady with a child in a hospital settingHow medical researchers study diseases, by answering three basic questions. Focuses on Dr. Roscoe Brady's team at NINDS and their work with Gaucher disease.

Human Genetics and Medical Research


Cracking the genetic code allowed us to study diseases at the molecular level, which has increased our knowledge of potential preventions and treatments for diseases. The study of genetics has become central to the science of medicine. This exhibit asks many questions: How do genes cause disease? Can gene therapy work? How do we manipulate genes and should we?

Converging Pathways of Pain Research at NIDCR
The story of how pain research evolved at NIDCR.

Joseph Goldberger & the War on Pellagra
Public Health Service physician Dr. Joseph Goldberger's discovery of the cause of pellagra, a disease, resulting from a diet deficient in vitamin B, that killed many poor Southerners in the early part of the 20th century.

A History of the Pregnancy Test KitA History of the Pregnancy Test Kit
This looks at the history of the home pregnancy test and examines its place in our culture. Research that led to a sensitive, accurate pregnancy test was done by scientists in the Reproductive Research Branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health.

Martin Rodbell: How Cells Respond to Signals
This exhibit explains the work of Martin Rodbell and his colleagues in discovering a mechanism that transformed our understanding of how cells respond to signals. In a series of pioneering experiments conducted at the NIH, Rodbell studied hormones--substances which have specific effects on cells' activity. He could not have predicted the broad impact his findings would have.

Synthetic Opiates and OpioidsSynthetic Opiates and Opioids
The quest for new painkillers and a synthetic source for morphine and codeine.

Human Genetics and Medical Research — Cracking the genetic code allowed us to study diseases at the molecular level, which has increased our knowledge of potential preventions and treatments for diseases. The study of genetics has become central to the science of medicine. This exhibit asks many questions: How do genes cause disease? Can gene therapy work? How do we manipulate genes and should we?


Objects

Equal Arm Analytical BalancesEqual Arm Analytical Balances
Instruments, designed on a “seesaw” principle, to measure mass precisely by placing a sample in one pan and known weight in an opposing pan until an equilibrium was established.

The Laboratory Instrument Computer
The story of one of the first supercomputers from its conception in MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, through its use in biomedical research laboratories.

Medical PostersMedical Posters
A collection of 24 medical posters drawn by artists at the NIH, representing topics from arthritis to women's health..

The National Cancer Institute Real-Time Picture Processor — The Real Time Picture Processor (RTPP) was one of the first special-purpose hardware computers developed for grayscale image processing and was designed to aid in biological image analysis.