Everything about John Shaw Billings totally explained
John Shaw Billings,
MD (
April 12 1838 –
March 11 1913) was a
librarian and
surgeon best known as the modernizer of the
Library of the Surgeon General's Office of the Army and as the creator of the
New York Public Library.
Biography
Born in
Allensville, Switzerland County, Indiana, Billings graduated from
Miami University in
1857, and from the
Medical College of Ohio in
1860. He was medical inspector of the
Army of the Potomac during the
American Civil War, then became head of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office in
Washington D.C.
The
Surgeon General's library that he developed later became the core of the
National Library of Medicine. During his time as Director of the Library of the SGO, 1865-1895, he was responsible for the creation of both the
Index Medicus (1879) and the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon General's Office (1880).
He was also for some years professor of hygiene in the
University of Pennsylvania. He is also credited with designing the original buildings of
Johns Hopkins Hospital, which opened in
1889. The building with the hospital's trademark dome was subsequently named for Billings.
Dr. Billings received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (
(External Link
)) in
1892.
After he left the Surgeon General's Office he united the libraries of New York to form the
New York Public Library and it was Billings who inspired
Andrew Carnegie to provide funds for the construction of sixty-five branch libraries throughout New York and 2509 libraries in cities and towns across North America and Britain.
Dr. Billings was the senior editor of books reporting the work of the
Committee of Fifty to Investigate the Liquor Problem in the early 1900s. The Committee researched the activities and publications of the
Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction of the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).
He acted as supervisor for the
U.S. Census 1880 and 1890. He often collaborated with
Herman Hollerith
Billings died in
New York City in 1913, aged 74.
Works
Lydenberg (1924, see below) lists 22 publications by Billings, among them:
- Principles of Ventilation and Heating (1884)
- Mortality and Vital Statistics of the United States (1885)
- National Medical Dictionary (Two volumes, 1889)
- Description of the Johns Hopkins Hospital (1890)
- Social Statistics of Cities (Six volumes, for the Eleventh Census)
- Some Library Problems of Tomorrow (1902)
- Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem (1903)
Further Information
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