| John
Shaw Billings was born in Allensville, Indiana. He received his A.B. in
1857 from Miami University of Ohio and his M.D. in 1860 from the Medical
College of Ohio. He was a career army medical officer who served on active
duty during the Civil War. Billings was later assigned to the Office of
the Surgeon General, where he began to develop the library which ultimately
became the National Library of Medicine. He designed and oversaw the construction
of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and advised academic planning for the medical
school. Billings was a lecturer in the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins
University and was a faculty member in hygiene. After his work at Johns
Hopkins he became a professor of hygiene at the University of Pennsylvania,
and he served as founding director of the New York Public Library from 1896
until his death in 1913. |