When the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics was formed in October 1917, the highest, most immediate priority of the founding members was building a membership of trained professionals to help the United States military with food conservation and public health in a time of war. Today, in the near-century since its naissance, the Academy has evolved to encompass more than 75,000 diverse members whose food and nutrition expertise is integral in improving the health and wellness of the nation.

Though the extent of the dietetics profession today may be unrecognizable to its forebears, the impact and value of its roots have not been forgotten. When Jo Anne Cassell, MS, RD, penned her seminal book detailing the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' 70-year history from its founding to the late 1980s, she selected the title Carry the Flame because of an ancient proverb — ""From the fires of the past, carry the flame, not the ashes"" — with the message that appreciating the present and conscientiously planning for the future must be informed by the past.

The First Fifty: A Pictorial History of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 1917–1967 represents the first time that the Academy’s flame has been documented in photographs. This book documents six eras in the Academy's history — from the early years to the 1960s — in black-and-white and color photographs that wordlessly deliver a profound narrative of the origins of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the profession it represents.