#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 23 Health: Dr. John Shaw Billings

 My distant cousin, Dr. John Shaw Billings, not only saved lives with his medical skills, but probably saved even more with his skills as a librarian and an advisor to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School. 

John Shaw Billings, the son of James John Billings and Abigail Smith Shaw, was born 12 April 1838 in Cotton Township, Switzerland IN. A voracious reader, he entered Miami University of Ohio at the age of 14 and spent most of his time reading in the library. After graduating in 1857, he was admitted to the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinatti receiving his medical degree in 1860. 

He joined the Union Army in 1861 and served as a surgeon at several hospitals before being assigned to the 11th Infantry Regiment in 1863, where he served during the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.

After the War, Dr. Billings took on the direction of the Army Surgeon General's Library (now the National Library of Medicine) and for the next thirty years, he expanded the collection to over 124,000 volumes making it the largest medical library in the Americas.  He also redesigned the cataloging system and created a periodical index now known as the Index Medicus. 

He also designed a punch-card system for collecting vital statistics, which was a forerunner of modern computer systems. 

After leaving the Army, he helped to create the New York Public Library system and inspired Andrew Carnegie to build more than 65 branch libraries in the city and thousands elsewhere in the country.

In the 1870's, Dr. Billings' experience with inspecting Marine Hospitals led to him becoming involved with Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School in Baltimore. He is credited with the design of the original hospital buildings and with recruiting the initial faculty.  His construction design included electricity for the buildings, which was not common at the time. Hopkins trademark domed building is named for Dr. Billings. 

Billings Building at Johns Hopkins

Dr. Billings also played a role in the design of the curriculum for the medical school. He tightened admission requirements so potential doctors had to have a bachelor's degree before attending medical school and proposed a four-year curriculum in small classes based on medical specialties.  Department heads of these specialties also worked in the hospital so both organizations benefited from their expertise. Billings also pressed for clinical laboratories at the school to support medical research. 

Dr. John Sedgwick Billings

In 1862, Billings married Kate Stevens and had five children with her, including a son, Dr. John Sedgwick Billings, who graduated from the Johns Hopkins Medical School and carried on the medical tradition of his father. He married a Hammond cousin of mine, Katherine Fitzsimmons Hammond, and helped to save the Hammond farm in Aiken County SC. 

John Shaw Billings died in New York City in 1913 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His vast contributions as a surgeon, researcher, librarian, curriculum designer and architect mark him as one of the great pioneers of medicine, modernizing hospital care and improving public health.