This bibliography is designed to serve only as a starting point for research on the history of the National Institutes of Health. Each reference below can lead the reader to many additional sources. However, there are so many other articles, memoirs, and NIH publications that omission from the list below does not reflect upon the quality of a publication.
Titles are linked to online versions where available. Manuscripts in the ONHM Archives are available upon request to [email protected]. Ahrens, Edward H., Jr. The Crisis in Clinical Research: Overcoming Institutional Obstacles . Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1992.Alexander, Jeffrey; Zetina-Beale, Rossana. The Real Returns on NIH’s Intramural Research . Issues in Science and Technology . 2025 Summer; 41(4):36–39.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):512-514Cantelon, Philip L. NINR: Bringing Science to Life 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 .Hannaway, Caroline; Harden, Victoria; Parascandola, John, editors. AIDS and the Public Debate: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives 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 , 1887-1937Harden, 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 .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 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)McNees, Pat. Building Ten at Fifty: 50 Years of Clinical Research at the NIH Clinical Center. Clinical Center Communications. October 2003.Metlay, Grischa. Federalizing Medical Campaigns against Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. Milbank Quarterly. 2013; 91:123-162.Mider, G. Burroughs. The Federal Impact on Biomedical Research. In Bowers, John Z.; Purcell, Elizabeth F., editors. Advances in American Medicine: Essays at the Bicentennial . 2 vols. New York: Josiah Macy, Jr., Foundation; 1976 (2); pp. 806-71.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.Mullan, Fitzhugh. Plagues and Politics: The Story of the United States Public Health Service National Cancer Institute. Journal of the National Cancer Institute , special fortieth anniversary issue. 1977; 59(2) Suppl. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, DHEW Publication No. (NIH) 77-13.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.National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. History and Fact Book . NIH publication; 1963.National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. A History of Progress: NIEHS, The First 20 Years (1966 to 1986). Research Triangle Park, NC: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; 1986.National Institute of Health . Federal Security Agency, Public Health Service, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD; 1948.National Institutes of Health. NIH Almanac , published annually. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Selected sources from the Almanac can be found at: http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/historical/index.htm National Institutes of Health. NIH Data Book National Institutes of Health. NIH Record . 1949-present.[National institutes of Health.] NIH Through the Years: A Century of Science and Health . Published for the National Institutes of Health Centennial; 1987.November, Joseph . Biomedical Computing: Digitizing Life in the United States.O'Hern, Elizabeth M . Profiles of Pioneer Women Scientists. Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books, Ltd.; 1985. One section devoted to NIH scientists. 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.Ouslander, Joseph G., editor. Special Collection: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the National Institute on Aging . Journal of the American Geriatrics Society . 2024 May; 72(5):C1, 1313-1642. Several articles and letters celebrating NIA’s 50th anniversary. Patel, Sejal S. Methods and Management: NIH administrators, federal oversight, and the Framingham Heart Study. Bulletin of the History of Medicine . 2012; 86(1):94-121.Patel, Sejal S. The Benevolent Tyranny of Biostatistics: Public administration and the promotion of biostatistics at the National Institutes of Health, 1946–1970. Bulletin of the History of Medicine . 2013; 87(4):622-647.Patel-Tolksdorf, Sejal. How Bureaucracy and Budgets Shape American Medical Research . Time/Made by History. 2025 July 30.Park, Buhm Soon. The Development of the Intramural Research Program at the National Institutes of Health After World War II. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 2003 Summer; 46(3):383-402.Pearson, Judith L. Crusade to Heal America: The Remarkable Life of Mary Lasker. Rochester, MN: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research; 2023.Pickren, Wade E.; Schneider, Stanley F., eds. Psychology and the National Institute of Mental Health: A Historical Analysis of Science, Practice, and Policy . American Psychological Association; 2004.Raju, Tonse N. K.; Bock, Robert; Alexander, Duane. Renaming of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Honor of Mrs. Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Pediatrics. 2006; 122: e948-49.Rapoport, Judith L. The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder . New York: Dutton; 1989. Reprint edition, Signet paperback; 1991.Rettig, R. A. Cancer Crusade: The Story of the National Cancer Act of 1971. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1977.Rhodes, Richard. Deadly Feasts: Tracking the Secrets of a Terrifying New Plague . New York: Simon & Schuster; 1997.Robinson, Judith. Noble Conspirator: Florence S. Mahoney and the Rise of the National Institutes of Health . London: Francis Academic Press; 2001.Rosenberg, Steven A.; Barry, John M. The Transformed Cell: Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer . New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons; 1992.Rowland, Lewis P. NINDS at 50: An Incomplete History Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. NIH Publication No. 01-4161; 2001 October.Sapir, Philip; Brand, Jeanne. The National Institutes of Health Research Grant Program and the History and Sociocultural Aspects of Medicine. Bulletin of the History of Medicine . 1959; 33:67–74.Scheffler, Robin W. A Contagious Cause: The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine . Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2019.Schneider, Stanley F. National Institute of Mental Health. In: Encyclopedia of Psychology . Vol. 5. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association and Oxford University Press; 2000; pp. 391-394.Schneider, William H. The Origin of the Medical Research Grant in the United States: The Rockefeller Foundation and the NIH Extramural Funding Program. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 2015; 70:279-311.Shannon, James A. The Advancement of Medical Research: A Twenty-Year View of the Role of the National Institutes of Health. Journal of Medical Education. 1967; 42:97-108.Shannon, James A., editor. Science and the Evolution of Public Policy . New York: Rockefeller University Press; 1973.Shimkin, Michael B. As Memory Serves: Six Essays on a Personal Involvement with the National Cancer Institute , 1938 to 1978 . Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health; NIH Publication No. 83-2217; 1983.Shorter, Edward. The Health Century. New York: Doubleday; 1987.Shostak, Sara. Of mice and molecules: Research with genetically modified mouse models. Environmental Health Perspectives. 2005; 113(8-1):90-100.Schmeckebier, Laurence F. The Public Health Service, Its History, Activities, and Organization . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press; 1923.Slater, Leo. Molecularization and Infectious Disease Research: The Case of Synthetic Antimalarial Drugs in the Twentieth Century. In: Hannaway, Caroline, editor. Biomedicine in the Twentieth Century: Practices, Policies, and Politics . Amsterdam: IOS Press; 2008; pp. 287-316.Slavkin, Harold C. Facing the New Century with the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research . Journal of the American Dental Association . 1998; 129:1760-63.Snyder, Lynne P. Passage and Significance of the 1944 Public Health Service Act . Public Health Reports. 1994 Nov-Dec; 109:721-24.Spingarn, Natalie D. Heartbeat: The Politics of Health Research . Washington, D.C.: Robert B. Luce; 1976.Stark, Laura; Campbell, Nancy D. Stowaways in the History of Science: The Case of Simian Virus 40 and Clinical Research on Federal Prisoners at the US National Institutes of Health, 1960. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences . Part B. 2014 December; 48:218-230.Stark, Laura. Behind Closed Doors: IRBs and the Making of Ethical Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2011.Stetten, DeWitt, Jr.; Carrigan, William T., editors. NIH: An Account of Research in Its Laboratories and Clinics .Stetten, DeWitt, Jr. How My Light Is Spent. Manuscript memoir, Office of NIH History and Stetten Museum; 1983.Stimson, Arthur H. A Brief History of Bacteriological Investigations of the U.S. Public Health Service. Suppl. No. 141 to Public Health Reports; 1938.Strickland, Stephen P. Politics, Science, and Dread Disease: A Short History of United States Medical Research Policy . Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 1972.Strickland, Stephen P. The Story of the NIH Grants Program. Lanham, MD: University Press of America; 1989.Swain, Donald C. The Rise of a Research Empire: NIH, 1930-1950, Science. 1962; 138:1233-37.Tabor, Edward. The Origins of NIH Medical Research Grants . Hektoen International (online). 2022 fall; n.p.Thompson, Larry. Correcting the Code: Inventing the Genetic Cure for the Human Body. New York: Simon and Schuster; 1994.Topping, Norman. Recollections, with Gordon Cohn . Los Angeles: University of Southern California; 1990.Topping, Norman. The United States Public Health Service Clinical Center for Medical Research. Journal of the American Medical Association. 1952; 150:542-43.Van Slyke, C. J. New Horizons in Medical Research. Science. 1946; 104:559-67.Varmus, Harold. The Art and Politics of Science. New York: W.W. Norton; 2010.Varmus, Harold; Weinberg, Robert A. Genes and the Biology of Cancer. New York: Scientific American Library; 1993.Wadman, Meredith. Vaccine Race. Doubleday; 2017.Warren, Kenneth R.; Hewett, Brenda G. NIAAA: Advancing Alcohol Research for 40 Years . Alcohol Research and Health. 2010; 33:5-17.Williams, Ralph C. The United States Public Health Service, 1798-1950. Young, James H. The Development of the Office of Alternative Medicine in the National Institutes of Health, 1991-1996. Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 1998; 72:279-98.Zerhouni, Elias; with Kris, Edward. Disease Knows No Politics. Essex, CT: Prometheus; 2025.Zigas, Vincent . Laughing Death: The Untold Story of Kuru. Clifton, N.J.: Humana Press; 1990.Zubrod, Charles G . Stairway of Surprise: A Biography of Kay and Gordon Zubrod. Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc.;1999.Last Updated: January 2026
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