Fielding Hudson Garrison

Fielding Hudson Garrison (1870-1935) was an American librarian and historian of medicine.

Fielding Hudson Garrison

Life

Fielding Hudson Garrison was born on 5 November 1870 in Washington, DC. He received an A.B. degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1890 and a M.D. degree from Georgetown University in 1893.

Garrison worked at the Army Medical Library (which became the National Library of Medicine in 1956) as: Clerk 1891-1899; Assistant Librarian 1899-1912; Principal Assistant Librarian 1912-1917. He was assigned to index medical literature and worked closely with John Shaw Billings on this project.

He served in the Officers Reserve Corps as Major 1917-1918; Lieutenant Colonel 1918-1920; and Colonel, Medical Corps 1920-1930. Garrison became Librarian of the William H. Welch Medical Library, John Hopkins University, 1930-1935.

From 1925 to 1930 he was appointed consulting librarian to the New York Academy of Medicine. He also served as Director of the Institute of Medical History as well as resident lecturer in the history of medicine. Garrison died in Baltimore on 18 April 1935.

Contributions

In addition to his work as a librarian, Garrison:

• Served for many years as Associate Editor (1903-1912), then Editor (1912-1927), and Associate Editor (1927-1929) of the Index Medicus.
• Wrote the first comprehensive treatise on the history of medicine.
• Prepared plans and collected material for the history of the U.S. Medical Department in World War I.

Publications

• Eponymic expressions in medical literature. Boston : D. C. Heath, 1909. Repr. from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 161, no. 18 (Oct. 28, 1909): 618-622. [1]
• "The history of bloodletting." New York Medical Journal (March 1 and 8, 1913). Repr. [2]
• An Introduction to the History of Medicine, with medical chronology, bibliographic data and test questions. Philadelphia, W. B. Saunders Company, 1913. [3] 2nd ed, 1917; 3rd ed., 1924.
• John Shaw Billings, a memoir. New York: Putnam, 1915. Includes material by and about Billings. [4]
• "Notes on the history of military medicine." Military surgeon (1921-22). Reprint: Washington, DC: Association of Military Surgeons, 1922.[5]
• ⁨History of pediatrics".⁩ In: Pediatrics, by various authors. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, [1923], pp 1-170. [6]
• The principles of anatomic illustration before Vesalius: an inquiry into the rationale of artistic anatomy. New York : Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., [1926]. [7]
• A Medical Bibliography. Revised by Leslie Thomas Morton. Deutsch, 1970.

Offices

• American Association for the History of Medicine, President.
• Medical Library Association, President.
• American Association for the History of Medicine, President.
• Medical Library Association, President.

Awards

• Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Further reading

• Kagan, Solomon R. Fielding H. Garrison: a Biography. Boston: Medico-Historical Press, 1948. [8]
• "Fielding Hudson Garrison." Wikipedia [9]
• "Fielding Hudson Garrison" [Obituary] (1935), JAMA, 104:1540.
• Arnold, Jr., H.L. (1943), Fielding H. Garrison, the Caduceus and the United States Army Medical Department, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 13 (1943): 627-30.

Papers

• National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. Fielding Hudson Garrison Papers. MS C 166. 1910-1957. [10]