{"id":28102,"date":"2023-12-21T15:30:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T20:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=28102"},"modified":"2024-06-03T09:14:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T13:14:41","slug":"making-the-greatest-medical-library-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/12\/21\/making-the-greatest-medical-library-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Making the Greatest Medical Library in America"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Erika Mills ~
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Ford\u2019s Theater, where the U.S. Surgeon General\u2019s library was housed from 1866 to 1887, from US National Library of Medicine,<\/em> 2017
National Library of Medicine # 101706419<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a quest to bring together and catalog the world\u2019s medical knowledge, John Shaw Billings<\/a>, an Army surgeon and book collector who oversaw the U.S. Surgeon General\u2019s library (today known as NLM<\/a>), acquired approximately 300 pamphlets from the private collection of the renowned French physiologist Claude Bernard in 1878. Later that year, these scientific pamphlets, which illuminate the professional associations and intellectual interests of one of medicine\u2019s pioneer thinkers, were featured in a display now recognized as the NLM\u2019s first exhibition.<\/p>\n

Making the Greatest Medical Library in America<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>a new online exhibition, showcases items featured in the 1878 display to explore NLM\u2019s long history of collecting, cataloging, and communicating quality medical information to researchers, publishers, librarians, educators, healthcare professionals and members of the public for generations. The exhibition also spotlights the work of contemporary library professionals who cataloged, conserved, and digitized items from the Claude Bernard collection.<\/p>\n

Here are some highlights from Making the Greatest Medical Library in America.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
John Shaw Billings in the 1860s
National Library of Medicine #101408954<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Army surgeon and book collector John Shaw Billings (1838\u20131913) led the Surgeon General\u2019s library from 1865 to 1895. During that time, the holdings of the library grew from a few thousand volumes to 116,847 books and 191,598 pamphlets. Today, the library is known as the National Library of Medicine.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/a>
Claude Bernard, c. 1875
National Library of Medicine #101408535<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

French physiologist and one of the founders of experimental medicine, Claude Bernard (1813\u20131878) was a commanding figure in the medical milieu of 19th-century Paris. Following his death in February 1878, heirs auctioned his library, including a collection of contemporary medical pamphlets.<\/p>\n

\n

This 100-page pamphlet is organized into three sections\u2014menstruation, pregnancy, and observation of animals. The last few pages include color illustrations, or \u201cchromolithographs.\u201d The work was written by the first neurophysiologist in America, Dr. Dalton (1825\u20131889), who studied under Claude Bernard early in his career.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
From On the Corpus Luteum of Menstruation and Pregnancy,<\/em> Jno. C. Dalton, Jr., MD, 1851
National Library of Medicine #67011000R<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

German chemist Lothar Meyer (1830\u20131895) is noted for developing a periodic classification of chemical elements. In this pamphlet, he quantifies the chemical constituents of blood and describes the tools and techniques he used to do so.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Die Gase des Blutes. Inauguraldissertation der hohen Medicinischen Fakult\u00e4t W\u00fcrzburg (The Gases of Blood. Inaugural Dissertation of the High Faculty of Medicine W\u00fcrzburg),<\/em> Lothar Meyer, 1857
National Library of Medicine #101748642<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

To see more of <\/em>Making the Greatest Medical Library in America,visit the exhibition online<\/a> and learn more about NLM\u2019s work collecting and preserving the world\u2019s medical knowledge in this series<\/a>. Explore other NLM exhibitions about topics in the social and cultural history of science and medicine, go to the Exhibition Program website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Erika Mills is an exhibit specialist in the Exhibition Program at the National Library of Medicine.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Erika Mills ~ On a quest to bring together and catalog the world\u2019s medical knowledge, John Shaw Billings, an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57991628,"featured_media":28103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14520,12763,2029,678875970,347145303,2347],"tags":[23993,106484,28354841,15380,385674],"class_list":["post-28102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-collections","category-exhibitions","category-making-the-greatest-medical-library-in-america","category-rare-books-journals","category-series","tag-conservation","tag-digitization","tag-john-shaw-billings","tag-librarians","tag-surgeon-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/MGMLA_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-7jg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57991628"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28102"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28514,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28102\/revisions\/28514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}