The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Research Center is a government facility that has a long history of groundbreaking research. Art therapy research began at NIH in 1958 with Hanna Kwiatkowska, whose work contributed to the foundation of art therapy with families, and with Harriet Wadeson, who conducted psychodynamic art therapy research. This article describes the early history of art therapy research at NIH, its loss of salience at the institute as government funding priorities shifted, art therapy's reestablishment there as a clinical practice in palliative care, and possible directions for future research. (Contains 1 figure.)