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Pure Food and Drugs

The Food and Drug Administration dates from 1862 when President Lincoln appointed Charles Wetherill as chemist of the new Department of Agriculture. Studies of food adulteration, begun by Wetherill's successors, were greatly expanded when Dr. Harvey W. Wiley became Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry in 1883. One of the Bureau's early laboratories is shown here. After the passage of the Food and Drugs Act in 1906, which forbade adulteration and misbranding of foods, drinks, and drugs in interstate commerce, the Bureau of Chemistry was given the task of investigating violations and preparing cases for the courts. In 1927 a separate law enforcement agency, the Food and Drug Administration, was formed. In 1940 the Food and Drug Administration was transferred to the Federal Security Agency, which in 1953 became the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Another reorganization in 1968 placed the Food and Drug Administration in the Public Health Service.

c. 1910

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