Compliance In Focus

Originally named the Hygienic Laboratory, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was founded by Joseph J. Kinyoun of the Marine Hospital Service (MHS) in 1887. From humble beginnings, this one-room laboratory relocated to Washington, D.C. in 1891, and a new building was constructed in 1901. The NIH’s founding legislation was unceremoniously part of an appropriations act approving the $35,000 building for the laboratory to investigate “infectious and contagious diseases and matters pertaining to the public health.” They Hygienic Laboratory was restructured and granted funding in 1902, and remained at the first official building until 1941.