United States. Food and Drug Administration

The mission of the FDA History Office is to increase knowledge of the history, mission, and activities of the FDA and its predecessor, the Bureau of Chemistry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The office provides perspective on current policy objectives and increases public understanding of FDA's purpose and function. In general, office activities concern research, documentation, consultation, and information. In 1968, James Harvey Young received a grant from the National Library of Medicine to begin conducting oral histories with former FDA officials and others who were pertinent to his work in progress on the history of the FDA. Those tapes and transcripts were deposited in the History of Medicine Division of the NLM and mark the beginnings of a more formal oral history program that emerged in the 1980s.

From the guide to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration oral history collection, 1976-2012, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)