NIH History

New NIH Museum Acquisitions: Benjamin to Buttons

NIH Utility Network (NUnet)

It’s hard to imagine that just 26 years ago, getting email capability was a big achievement, because connectivity and computers go hand in hand. In 1990, the National Institutes of Health Utility Network (NUnet) connected all 36 NIH buildings on and off campus.

New NIH Museum Acquisitions: Computer Boards to Coloring Books

NeuroPET Scanner Board

Have you ever had a PET scan? (That’s short for positron emission tomography.) This computer board, called a discriminator, was one of 64 in the Neuro-PET scanner designed and built at the NIH under the direction of Dr. Giovanni De Chiro.

Early Women Scientists of NIH, Part 2

Margaret Kelly, NCI NIH

Like many in the second wave of women scientists at the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Margaret Kelly began as a technician and got her PhD while she was working. Kelly focused on what caused cancer and what drugs could be used to fight it.

Early Women Scientists of NIH, Part 1

A Elizabeth Verder

This month we’ll be looking at lesser-known early women scientists at the National Institutes of Health. They did solid work and were leaders in their field, but for some reason, they aren’t well-known.

See NIH through Branson Brothers' Lenses: Ernie

Patient Brooke and therapy dog Juno at Childrens Inn

Ernie Branson began working with his brother Bill as a trans-NIH photographer in 1987, after being at the NIH's National Eye Institute (NEI) for a few years. As a teen, Ernie was a stay-in-school intern at NIH, cleaning cages and working with animals. There he learned about photography from technician Cecil Lee.

See NIH through Branson Brothers' Lenses: Bill

Bill Branson has been a photographer at the National Institutes of Health since 1984, when he left the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Walter Reed. There, he had photographed the necropsy of the first chimpanzee in space, “Ham,” named for Hollomon Aero MED Air Base.

Da Vinci surgery robot used by Peter Pinto at NIH NCI

Behind the Scenes with NIH Photographer Jerry Hecht

NIH Blood Bank nurse Peggy Wirtzek guides Clinical Center engineers carrying supplies from an emergency blood cart up 10 floors to the operating room during a power outage in March 1960.

NIH Clinical Center Blood Bank delivery during power failure, 1960

Historical NIH Photos, From Lab to Clinic

NIH photographer Roy Perry had been a public relations photographer in New York City—a training experience that no doubt helped him when staging science photos.

Young patient at NIH

NIH Photography Age Begins in 1942 with Roy Perry

"There is no chance for stagnation or leveling off, feeling a sense of complete accomplishment, in the field of public health photography," Perry said. "A photographer must strive to keep pace with the march of new inventions and discoveries."

Roy Perry, NIH photographer