On Oct. 13, 1925, the Scripps Institution for Biological Research was renamed Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The history of Scripps begins in 1903, when it was founded as the Marine Biological Association of San Diego. The Institution was founded by William E. Ritter and Fred Baker, a biologist and a physician, aiming to advance marine sciences. With funding from Edward Willis Scripps and his half sister Ellen Browning Scripps, the Association bought property near La Jolla Cove in 1905 and finished construction on their laboratory in 1910.

The Alexander Agassiz research vessel. The vessel was named after the marine biologist and oceanographer who specialized in the study of echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, sea lilies, and their respective families) and pioneered dredging technologies and methodologies. The vessel set sail for the first Scripps expedition in 1907 to study near the Los Coronados islands.

During World War I, the vessel was conscripted as a civilian auxiliary schooner in the American military, and was even captured by another American ship in 1918 after it was suspected of being a German raider vessel. The Alexander Agassiz was used by Scripps for several expeditions and then unfortunately ran aground in the San Francisco Bay in 1920. Eventually, there was a second Alexander Agassiz vessel operated from 1962-1976 by the Marine Life Research program, before being sold as a crab-fishing vessel to a Seattle company.