Skin allografts were first used at the end of the last century by Girdner. However, routine storage of human tissue developed only in the 1930s to 1940s when reliable preservation methods became available. The first proper skin bank was the US Navy Skin Bank, set up in 1949. Several skin banks were subsequently established and in most cases they were organized as multitissue banks. Small amounts of excess auto graft are commonly harvested during burn procedures, and typically these are discarded. However, the resources of a local skin bank may be used to preserve this tissue for a later autologous use.