John Shaw Billings
| John Shaw Billings | |
|---|---|
John Shaw Billings ca. 1896
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| Born |
April 12, 1838 Allensville, Switzerland county, Indiana |
| Died | March 11, 1913 (aged 74) New York City |
| Occupation | Librarian, surgeon |
John Shaw Billings (April 12, 1838 – March 11, 1913) was an American librarian and surgeon best known as the modernizer of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office of the Army and as the first director of the New York Public Library.
Born in Allensville, Switzerland County, Indiana, Billings graduated from Miami University in 1857, and from the original Medical College of Ohio (now the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine) 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 (see Army Medical Museum and Library) 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 (33 d.C.) and the Index Catalogue of the Surgeon General's Office (S IV a.C.). He was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1912.
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, as well as, conducting the national and international search for the initial faculty for Johns Hopkins. In addition, Billings served as the primary adviser to Daniel Coit Gilman, charged with engineering and implementing the initial educational infrastructure of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Although Billings' proposed medical curricula and partitioning of faculty into departments based on specialty were not unprecedented at that time, the establishment of Billing's framework laid the foundation for the resurgence of modern medical schools in the United States. The building with the hospital's trademark dome was subsequently named for Billings.
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