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John Shaw Billings Article

We want to contribute to the article in terms of including more of his surgical procedures and his global impact. Currently, the Wikipedia page about him only includes his biography and statistics. However, we want to add on his notable achievements and his impact on modern day medicine. We believe that this article is missing a lot of key facts about Billings, especially facts surrounding his medical career and achievements. In addition, we would like to discuss his role in designing the Johns Hopkins Hospital as it is key to how the Hospital is today. Lastly, we want to include his interactions and involvement with other notable people and how that impacted his career and life.

*Worked on this with my partner, Christina

Improvements for Current Article:

-Add a section for "Notable Achievements" and include his achievements and what he has done to improve the medical field

-Add a section for "Impact" and include his specific impacts on medicine and the society in general

-The current article is missing Billings' impact and achievements

-Add a section for "Present-Day Influence"

-Add a section discussing his works with other people -- "Involvement"

-Missing visuals -- include more visuals

-Include more information on his personal life and who he was as a person -- in the current article, there is not a lot of information about who he is as a person

Introduction

John Shaw Billings (April 12, 1838 – March 11, 1913) was an American librarian and surgeon. However, he is 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. In his early years, he was a surgeon and a statistician on medicine in the U.S. Army. Billings oversaw the building of the Surgeon General's Library, the nation's first comprehensive library for medicine. Because of his innovative approaches to improving public health and hospitals, Billings headed the U.S. Census Bureau’s division of Vital Statistics and oversaw statistical compilation of censuses. Along with Robert Fletcher, Billings started Index Medicus, a monthly guide to contemporary medicine that ran for 16 months until his retirement at the Medical Museum and Library. He also served as Johns Hopkins Hospital’s medical advisor and authored reports regarding criteria for medical and nursing curriculum as well as hospital design. In addition to his work at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he was a hygiene faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, the director at University Hospital, and the Chairman at the Carnegie Institution. -- Wendy

Biography

Early Life:

John Shaw Billings was born in April 12, 1838 in Cotton Township, Switzerland County in Indiana. In the century before, his father’s family moved to Syracuse, New York after leaving England in 1654. His father was born in Saratoga, New York and was kin of William Billings. Billings’ mother, Abby Shaw Billings, was born in Raynham, Massachusetts and was a direct blood relative of the Mayflower settlers. In 1843, Billings’ family moved to Rhode Island but returned to Allensville, Indiana in 1848 due to the father’s relocation of career as a postmaster. During his childhood, Billings thus received education in both Providence, Rhode Island and Indiana. He inherited his mother’s love for reading and learned Latin and Greek. Due to his love for learning and education, he agreed to renounce any inheritance if his father allowed him to attend college. In 1852, at the age of fourteen, Billings entered Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, which was approximately 50 miles from Switzerland Country. Through his five years at the university, he spent most of his time reading in the library. In 1857, Billings graduated from Miami University second in his class and was admitted a year later to Cincinnati’s Medical College of Ohio. Billings received his medical degree in 1860. His thesis on “The Surgical Treatment of Epilepsy” drew attention from the faculty as it provided accurate indications of the operations implemented at the time.

Early Career:

Settling in Cincinnati, Billings decided to continue surgical practice after noticing the imperfections in medical teaching. Hoping to improve hospital service on the battlefield, he became the anatomy demonstrator at the Cincinnati’s Medical College. However, in 1861, he declined an offer to become a surgeon assistant because of his sense of duty to his nation. Instead in 1861, Billings went in for an examination for the regular army, becoming first of his class. However, no vacant spots were available in the regular corps, so he was appointed to be an assistant surgeon in Union Hospital in Georgetown. Because of his surgical skill and talent, he carried out most of the surgical work, holding the reputation for his skills in urethral strictures treatment. The year after, on April 16, Billings was commissioned first lieutenant, and then took charge of Cliffburne Hospital’s development in Georgetown as Union Hospital’s operations relocated to Cliffburne. In August of that year, he was transferred to Satterlee General Hospital, a new hospital in West Philadelphia. After serving as the Executive Officer at the hospital for several months, he was directed to the Army of the Potomac in March 1863 and was assigned to Sykes’ Division of Meade’s Corps in the 11th Infantry.

Late Career:

In Billings’ late career, he developed the Surgeon General's Library, which 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.[1]

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.[2] 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. [3]The building with the hospital's trademark dome was subsequently named for Billings.

Billings received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland[4] 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. Billings also recruited a young man named Harry Miller Lydenberg to work as his personal assistant and head of reference. Lydenberg expanded upon the collection practices of Billings, and eventually served as Director of NYPL from 1934-1941.[5]

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).

Impact

(plus involvement with other people like scientists, politicians, etc)

Notable Achievements

(change Statistics section to this one and include more information)

Legacy

Personal Life

John Shaw Billings was married on September 3, 1862 to Kate M. Stevens in St. John’s Church in Georgetown. Their children are Jessie Ingram, Kate Sherman, John Sedgwick, Mary Clure, and Margaret Janeway. His wife passed away on August 19, 1912, which was a tremendous blow to Billings. During the last several years of his life, he developed a cancer of the lip in 1890 and was diagnosed with bilary calculus, causing him to undergo operation for his cancer and for the removal of his gall bladder. On March 11, 1913, Billings died of pneumonia after an operation for urinary calculus at the age of 75 in New York City. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with military honors. At his burial, men of distinction and library officials were brought together to celebrate his life and achievements.