Though Mycobacterium tuberculosis may have been existing for as long as 3 million years, Johann Schonlein coined the term "tuberculosis" in 1834.

Tuberculosis (TB) was known in ancient Greece as "phthisis," in ancient Rome as "tabes," and in ancient Hebrew as "schachepheth." Due to the paleness of the sufferers, tuberculosis was dubbed "the white plague" in the 1700's. Even after Schonlein named it tuberculosis, TB was referred to as "consumption" in the 1800's. TB was also known as the "Captain of all these men of death" during this time.

Firland Sanatorium, Seattle's municipal tuberculosis hospital, opened on the 2nd of May, 1911, to assist in combating the city's main cause of death at the time, tuberculosis. Firland was a 34-acre estate in the Richmond Highlands area, 12 miles north of Seattle's then-border (in 1995 this first Firland site became part of the newly incorporated City of Shoreline). The hospital remained there until 1947, when it was moved to a former Naval hospital (at 15th Avenue NE and 150th Street) and continued to treat tuberculosis patients until 1973. 

The railroad mogul Horace C. Henry, whose son Walter had died of tuberculosis, was a key founder of Firland Sanatorium.

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