NIH’s ‘Hometown Newspaper’ Turns 75

The year was 1949. RCA introduced 7-inch vinyl records that came to be known as “45s” and the first Polaroid camera went on sale for about $90. That was 75 years ago and the National Institutes of Health had a media debut of its own: The first NIH Record, a newsletter for staff, rolled off the presses.

Containing items about everything from NIH’s help combatting malaria in Africa to Dr. Margaret Pittman’s election as president of the D.C. Society of American Bacteriologists to the spring opening of the NIH Softball Association season, the four-page publication, produced every two weeks on payday, painted the agency’s portrait with broad strokes. 

Now, sharing its milestone anniversary with the likes of the National Basketball Association, Jolly Ranchers candy and Lego building blocks, the Record—NIH’s hometown news outlet—has grown to 12 pages and is still published in print and online biweekly, continues to tell stories for, by and about the greater NIH biomedical research community, and—we hope—maintains its reputation as the “second best thing about payday.”

Look for us regularly on the Bethesda campus at kiosks in Bldgs. 1, 10 and 31. And check out our archives online at https://nihrecord.nih.gov/past-issues, where you can find every edition since the beginning.