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Re: Question from a patron (ie Civil War records_



        I'm afraid memory didn't serve.  The Union Army physician was
Surgeon General William Hammond, the top medical man in the Army.  He
established the Army Medical Museum to examine medicine, surgery and
resulting mortality during the war (See Robert Henry's Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology: The first 100 years).  The Surgeon General's Library
was already in existence (See Wynn Miles book).  The resulting publication
was the 6 volume set _Medical and Surgical History of the War of the
Rebellion_.  John Shaw Billings, later head of the NYPL, was an agressive
builder of the SGL in the later 19th century.  He did such a good job that
the SGL eventually became the National Library of Medicine in the early
1960s.  The MSHWR was reprinted as MSH of the Civil War and does have some
mortality figures in it.  I think there is probably a Congressional report
on Southern camps as well, since the commandant of one was hung as a war
criminal.

Michael Rhode, Archivist
Otis Historical Archives
National Museum of Health and Medicine
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Washington, DC 20306-6000
202-782-2212; FAX 202-782-3573
http://natmedmuse.afip.org/
http://natmedmuse.afip.org/collections/archives/archives.html


> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 3 May 2001 16:54:56 -0000
> From:    Butcher Sharon L Contr AEDC/ACS <Sharon.Butcher@ARNOLD.AF.MIL>
> Subject: Re: Question from a patron
>
> If memory serves me correctly, a Union Army physician, so appalled by the
> incredible mortality he observed in the Civil War hospitals, and so
> appalled
> by the difficulty in obtaining medical literature during the conflict,
> took
> it upon himself to establish a collection of medical literature after the
> war. This collection, I recall, was done at his expense and with his time,
> so concerned was he about the availability and organization (or lack
> thereof
> up to that time) of medical literature. (And he probably had the financial
> wherewithal to do this). His dedication did not go unnoticed, and I recall
> he approached Congress to take over this collection and help fund it.
> Congress thought it a good idea, and the seminal work had already been
> done
> by the good doctor (I think his name was Billings, Billig....something
> like
> that).  Thus, the origins  of the National Library of Medicine.
> "Andersonville", by McKinley Kantor, vividly portrays that camp, including
> its hospital. The book garnered a Pulitzer Prize in Literature for Kantor
> some years ago.
>
> Sharon Lee Butcher
> Reference Librarian
> AEDC Technical Library
> 100 Kindel Drive, Ste C212
> Arnold AFB, TN  37389-3212
> 931-454-4430
> Fax:  931-454-5421
> sharon.butcher@arnold.af.mil
>

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