Since its creation in the early 20th century, Scripps Oceanography has maintained a public aquarium. Scripps founders felt a deep commitment to communicating scientific findings to the general public and pledged in the institution's founding bylaws to always maintain such a facility.
Scripps was formed in 1903 when UC Berkeley zoologist William E. Ritter joined community leaders such as newspaper tycoon E.W. Scripps, philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, and physician Fred Baker to charter the Marine Biological Association of San Diego, predecessor to today's institution. That summer Ritter conducted a field session in marine biology at a temporary location in the boathouse of the Hotel Del Coronado.
By 1905, the researchers had outgrown the modest laboratory and moved to a small laboratory at La Jolla Cove that cost $992 to build. The Little Green Lab, named for its color, featured the institution's first public aquarium exhibit.
Two years later, the association purchased for $1,000 more than 170 acres of pristine property at La Jolla Shores from the City of San Diego at a public auction. The first permanent building at the site designed by architect Irving Gill housed the aquarium on the first floor and the oceanographic museum in an upstairs lecture hall. Today, this building, the George H. Scripps Memorial Marine Biological Laboratory, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and houses Scripps's graduate education office.
