Medical Pioneer. Born in Allensville, Indiana, he graduated from Miami University and as a surgeon from the Medical College of Ohio, in 1858. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army and served as medical inspector of the Army of the Potomac and was eventually posted to the office of the U.S. Surgeon General as Lieutenant Colonel. Remaining in the Army after the war until 1895, he oversaw the establishment of the National Library of Medicine as it grew into the most comprehensive collection of medical books and journals in the world. He helped design the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, as one of the best medical schools in the world. He also was the first director of the New York Public Library and his organization of U.S. medical institutions was central to modernization of hospital care and maintenance of public health in America. He died of pneumonia in New York City.
Medical Pioneer. Born in Allensville, Indiana, he graduated from Miami University and as a surgeon from the Medical College of Ohio, in 1858. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army and served as medical inspector of the Army of the Potomac and was eventually posted to the office of the U.S. Surgeon General as Lieutenant Colonel. Remaining in the Army after the war until 1895, he oversaw the establishment of the National Library of Medicine as it grew into the most comprehensive collection of medical books and journals in the world. He helped design the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, as one of the best medical schools in the world. He also was the first director of the New York Public Library and his organization of U.S. medical institutions was central to modernization of hospital care and maintenance of public health in America. He died of pneumonia in New York City.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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