Genesis: The Birth of the FDA in the Patent Office

Abstract

The FDA did not take its current form until 1938. Prior to that it had gone through a period in which its power and purpose evolved as the needs and desires of the American public changed. In this paper, I seek to trace the origin of the FDA, from 1837, when Henry Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, decided that the federal government should undertake to further the public's knowledge of agriculture, through 1862, when the United States Department of Agriculture was created by Congress. Due to the voluminous nature of the annual Reports of the Commissioner of Patents and the dearth of secondary sources, I have decided to focus my analysis on the powerful words of the Commissioners themselves as they were presented to Congress in the yearly reports.