John Shaw Billings
John Shaw Billings (1838 – 1913) was an American surgeon, librarian, and building designer.
Life
John Shaw Billings was born on April 12, 1838, in Allensville, IN. He studied at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and graduated in 1857. He then studied at Cincinnati's Medical College of Ohio, later named the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and received his medical degree in 1860 with a thesis on the surgical treatment of epilepsy, and taught there 1860-1861.
Billings was in hospital service as surgeon and medical statistician in the US Army, 1862-1864 and in charge of library of the surgeon-general's office 1865-1883; Curator of Medical Museum and Library 1884-1895. He served on the Hygiene Faculty, University of Pennsylvania, 1891 and Director of the University Hospital 1893-1896. Billings was Director of the New York Public Library, 1896-1913, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Carnegie Institution 1905-1913.
He died on March 11, 1913.
Contributions
While he was in medical school and working on his thesis, Billings realized the need for a great medical library and the need for a comprehensive catalog and index of books, periodicals, journals, etc. He increased the size of the surgeon-general's library from 600 volumes in 1865 to 50,000 in 1873. He began Index Medicus, a monthly guide to current medical literature, with Robert Fletcher in 1880. It included 16 volumes by the time Billings retired from the library in 1895.
In 1873, he drafted plans for organization and construction of Johns Hopkins University Hospital and recommended the pavilion plan for the construction of the hospital. This type of plan was soon used across the country. Billings wrote many reports dealing with hospital administration and the training of hospital personnel. He served as medical adviser to the Hopkins estate trustees in which he played an important role in determining the organization, philosophy, and faculty of the Johns Hopkins Medical School.
Billings supervised the compilation of statistics for the U.S. Censuses of 1880 and 1890. He influenced Hollerith in the development of punched card system using mechanical methods of calculation of vital statistics which were successfully used in the Census of 1890.
Billing's plan was used when constructing the New York Public Library. While the library was being built, Billings headed the reclassification and recataloging of the books from the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations which were consolidated in 1895 to form the New York Public Library. He persuaded Carnegie to give $5 million to help fund the establishment of this library and its branches.
Billings was Vice-chairman of the National Board of Health, 1878 and President of the American Public Health Association, 1879.
Publications
- Selected papers of John Shaw Billings, combined with a life of Billings. Comp. by Frank Bradway Rogers. Medical Library Association, 1965.
Further reading
- "John Shaw Billings." Wikipedia [1]
- John Shaw Billings centennial. National Library of Medicine, 1965. [2]
- Dain, Phyllis. "Billings, John Shaw (1838-1913)." Dictionary of American library biography, ed. by Bohdan S. Wynar. Littleton, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 1978, pp 25-31. Cites further reading in detail.
- Garrison, Fielding H. John Shaw Billings, a memoir. New York: Putnam, 1915. Includes material by and about Billings.
- Brodman, Estelle. The development of medical bibliography. [Washington, DC] : Medical Library Association, 1954, esp. pp 105-127. [3]
- Lydenberg, Harry M. John Shaw Billings. Chicago: American Library Association, 1924.
See also works on the history of the National Library of Medicine and the New York Public Library.
Papers
Numerous sources are listed by SNAC [4]