The Nutrition Society Celebrates Its 75th Anniversary

The world's first scientific society focused on nutrition was founded in 1928 by a group of illustrious biochemists and physiologists in the United States. Each of the founders was a well known scientist whose research was contributing toward the recognition of nutrition as a new specialty within the biological sciences. Each was also actively engaged in teaching and in writing textbooks and reference articles that were helping to define the newly emerging discipline.

Named the American Institute of Nutrition, the society's original purpose was to publish a journal containing research reports in the newly emerging field of nutrition and its first members comprised the editorial board for this journal. As the result of requests from prospective additional members, however, the society was opened to other researchers in 1933 and held its first scientific meeting at the Cornell Medical School in 1934. In 1941 it officially affiliated with the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

Today the society, renamed the American Society for Nutritional Sciences in 1996, is the world's oldest and foremost nutritional science society and its journal, The Journal of Nutrition, is the leader in its category of scientific publications. Nutrition science has, itself, become diversified and the society now encompasses the several specialties that have developed within the science.

The archives for the society are maintained at the Eskind Biomedical Library of the Vanderbilt Medical Center in connection with the library's extensive collection of historical books on topics related to nutrition. In April, at the Experimental Biology 2003 meetings in San Diego, the society marked the 75th anniversary of its founding and the first issue of its journal. As has been the custom for well over a decade, the Special Collections division of the Eskind Biomedical Library collaborated with the society by bringing an exhibit to this meeting. The 2003 exhibit, of which this is the electronic version, features materials related to the founding of the society and its journal, as well as the preservation of the history of the society.

In recognition of the 75th anniversary, in 2003 The Journal of Nutrition published a 4-part history of nutrition science by Kenneth J. Carpenter. It forms a brief history of nutritional science from the end of the 18th century until about 1985. This short history is intended for students and their instructors as an accessible overview of the ideas, and the testing of those ideas through "innovative experimentation." These four articles published in the March, April, October and November issues of volume 133, which may be accessed at www.nutrition.org website. (author search: Carpenter, K)

The Journal of Nutrition also made available Williams' 50-year history of the society as a supplement to the April 2003 issue and an update to the 75th year www.nutrition.org in the March 2003 issue. (author search: Swan, P)

Patricia B. Swan
ASNS Archivist