campus

Celebrating the NIH Campus's 80th Birthday

Photos Show Evolution of Pre-Eminent Research Institution

In just one lifetime, the NIH's main campus in Bethesda, Maryland, went from country estate to one of the premiere biomedical research campuses in the world. October 31, 2020, marked the 80th anniversary of the dedication of the NIH campus by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said, “Today the need for the conservation of health and physical fitness is greater than at any time in the Nation's history. In dedicating this institute, I dedicate it to the underlying philosophy of public health, to the conservation of life, to the wise use of the vital resources of our Nation. I voice for America, and for the stricken world, our hopes, our prayers, our faith, in the power of man's humanity to man.”

In honor of that historic milestone, I have gathered a collection of old photos and fun facts to provide a taste of how NIH's Bethesda campus has changed over the past 80 years. Who knows how this cutting-edge biomedical research institution might change over the next eight decades?

President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicating the NIH campus in 1940

Let's Have Some Fun with NIH History

I've spent the last couple months scouring the NIH archives for the most interesting trivia tidbits I could find. Now you can entertain your colleagues and friends with these 10 fun facts about NIH!

1) Native Americans camped along the stream on the east side of campus beginning about 3,000 years ago. They left choppers, arrow heads, and other material evidence behind.

Native American stone artifact (left) and the stream on the NIH main campus where it was found (right)

New in NIH History

We haven’t shared recent additions to the NIH Stetten Museum collection in a long time, so you’re in for a treat this month!

balance and Gene Hughes

Science Days at Research Triangle Park

Emmi Rotgers and Anton Jetten

Of NIH’s campuses around the country, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina is the largest outside of main campus. NIEHS Science Days, now in its 15th year, celebrates the institute’s research achievements during a two-day event held every November.

Summer Outside at the NIH

Children's Inn

It’s the middle of summer and you should get outside! This month I'm sharing some landscape photos of the National Institutes of Health main campus from our History Office collection to inspire you to get outside to play, like this one of the playground at the Children’s Inn.

NIH Graduate Partnerships Equal Two-Times the Science

Simona

For many young researchers, spring is the time to make a decision of how to continue with their education and perhaps whether partnering with a lab in the NIH IRP for their dissertation research might be the right path for them. What is it like to be a graduate student at two institutions?

Presidential NIH Visits: Lyndon Johnson, 1967

"The cheers of the crowd rose above the roar of the rotors and followed him into the CC. And all the while he was in there, touring the laboratories and addressing the medical community, the crowd waited," reported The NIH Record in 1967.

Lyndon Johnson exits helicopter at NIH, 1967