being added just before 1880. Both were started at the Boston Medical Library in 1875. At the New York Academy of Medicine Mr. John S. Brownne made an author card catalogue in 1880, but the subject catalogue was not begun until 1901" (Celebration of the Centennial of the Library of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of the State of Maryland, 1830-1930 p. 6). I have not seen any evidence that a card catalog existed in the Library in 1865. There were so few books that the preparation and maintenance of a card catalog would have been a waste of time. Furthermore the Library had printed catalogs. I imagine that Malloch guessed the date "about 1865." 20 Index cards of this period attached to a War Dept., SGO Record and Pension letter, July 9, 1875, and to a letter, Billings to Bridges, Dec. 1, 1875, measure 4% by 6inches: MS/ C/81. Billings mentioned the card catalog on p. 176 of his chapter, “Medical Libraries in the United States,” in Public Libraries in the United States.... He stated here that the card catalog was used in printing the 3-volume catalog of 1873-74. The card catalog may have been started earlier, but I have not seen any reference that would place it before 1872. 21 The letter of transmittal in volume 1 of the 1873-74 catalog was dated Aug. 15, 1873. Volumes 1 and 2 listed authors alphabetically. Volume 3 contained a list of anonymous works, one of transactions, one of reports, and one of periodicals. The Library at the date of transmittal contained about 25,000 volumes and 15,000 pamphlets (theses, reports, etc.). About 700 of the volumes contained collections of theses, and about 700 other volumes held groups of pamphlets. The catalog listed about 50,000 titles, exclusive of cross references. In the transmittal letter and at the beginning of volume 3 are lists of donors of publications. In NLM are copies of these catalogs, some volumes of which are interleaved and contain marginal additions and corrections. 22 Printed library catalogs were considered superior to card catalogs at that time. Indeed, card catalogs had a long way to go before they would become as standardized and as universal in libraries as they are today. See, for example, the section "Printed or Manuscript," pp. 552560; the answers to questionnaires on the desirability of printing catalogs, pp. 567–573; and the list of printed catalogs, pp. 576-622, in C. A. Cutter's chapter, "Library Catalogues," in Public Libraries in the United States of America, their History, Condition, and Management, U.S. Dept. of Interior, Bureau of Education, Part 1, Washington, 1876. 23 W. L. [William Lee], “Letter from Washington," Boston Med. Surg. J., 99: 709 (1878). 24 Letter, Billings to Mrs. Celeste Willard, Oct. 25, 1885: MS/C/81. See also memo by Billings, May 2, 1890: MS/C/81. 25 Boston Med. Surg. J. 99: 707-8 (1878). 26 Boston Med. Surg. J. 99: 709 (1878). 27 Letter, Billings to "Dear Doctor," Jan. 10, 1874: MS/C/81. This was a form letter that clerks copied and sent to editors and physicians. For examples of responses see letters, J. C. Peters to Billings, no date, Jan. 15, 1874: NYPL. Editorial, Buffalo Med. Surg. J. Feb., 1874. 28 Letter, Smith to Billings, July 29, 1868, with note by Billings: MS/C/81. 29 Letter, Woodward to Billings, April 26, 1872: MS/C/81. 30 Boston Med. Surg. J. 94: 138–142 (1876). 31 For example H. C. Wood, Philadelphia, Sept. 26, 1871, asked if the Library had a certain German publication he was "very desirous" to see. E. Andrews, Chicago, Nov. 21, Dec. 19, 1871, asked if the Library had reports of European hospitals and if he could send someone to examine reports. William Pepper, Philadelphia, Feb. 17, 1874, asked if books were sent to reliable persons. MS/C/81. 32 "Prior to this time [1883] no large collection of books and periodicals was freely available to the doctor [in Chicago] except in university medical schools. . . Dr. Bayard Holmes recalled that many were forced to make a journey to Washington to complete a subject under investigation." Thomas N. Bonner, Medicine in Chicago: 1850-1950, p. 82. 33 Letter, Dunglison to Billings, Sept. 28, 1874: MS/C/81. 34 Letter, William Pepper to Billings, Feb. 20, 1874: MS/C/81. 35 The AMA librarian reported in 1873 that he made loans to members by mail or express, while the Surgeon General's library was "strictly for reference within its proper precincts": Trans. A.MA. 24: 99-109 (1873). As far as I have been able to ascertain the librarian loaned books only to members of the AMA. A brief account of this library may be found in: M. H. Moore, "The Library of the American Medical Association," in M. Fishbein, ed., History of the American Medical Association, 1847 to 1947, pp. 107184. See also W. J. Wilson, "Early Plans for a National Medical Library,” Bull. Med. Lib. Assoc. 42: 426-34 (1954). Letter, M. Michel, Charleston S.C., to Billings, July 22, 1876, "The Smithsonian Institute has occasionally forwarded [books to] me by express & I have returned [them] immediately ."; Billings to Michel, July 28: MS/C/81. 36 Letters, Wood to Billings, Mar. 16, Mar. 21, 1875; Billings to Wood, Mar. 18; Pepper to Billings, July 2: MS/C/81. 37 Letters, Billings to W. W. Keen, Oct. 2, 1875; Billings to Bridges, Dec. 1, 1875: MS/C/ 81. 38 Letters, L. A. Duhring to Billings, Mar. 2, 19, 1877; H. Allen to Billings, Apr. 9, 1877: MS/C/81. 39 Letter, Billings to H. C. Wood, Oct. 11, 1878, sending books to College of Physicians for Wood: NLM. 40 Letters, Billings to J. R. Chadwick, librarian, Oct. 30, 1876, sending 12 publications; E. H. Brigham, asst. librarian, to Billings, Nov. 4, returning volumes; E. H. Bradford to Billings, Mar. 25, 1877, requesting loan of books to N.Y. Hospital Library; A. W. Tyler, librarian, Johns Hopkins, Oct. 12, 1877, returning 22 volumes: MS/C/81. The letter from Tyler shows that the SG library kept a list of accession numbers as well as titles of books it loaned. 41 Letters, C. R. Rice to Billings, Dec. 20, 1880; Billings to Rice, Dec. 22: MS/C/81. Billings forgot to add one rule to the letter, "For most part dissertations] not permitted to be taken out"; letter, L. Hektoen, Chicago, to Billings, May 29, 1889, with Billings' endorsement: MS/C/81. 42 For example, editorial, "Library of the Surgeon General's Office," St. Louis Courier Med. 9: 43-45 (Jan. 1883); Billings' letter stating conditions for loan in Med. News 43: 140 (Aug. 4, 1883); remarks by Alexander Hutchins, Trans. Med. Soc. State N.Y., 1884, p. 11. 43 Example: telegram, R. F. Weir to Billings, April 19, 1893; "Kindly send immediately [Gustav] Schneider [Ueber] traumatische gangrän inaugural dissertation Freiburg 1892 to New York Hospital librarian important legally": MS/C/81. "Letter, J. T. W. Ross, librarian, Ontario Medical Library Association, Toronto, to Billings, June 29, 1893, sending check for $100 which Billings made the association deposit as security. Letter, librarian, Pathological Anatomical Institute, Basel, Switzerland, to Billings, Sept. 22, 1886, requesting four U.S. and British publications. MS/C/81. 45 Letter, Ostertag to Billings, Sept. 1, 1876, with Billings' endorsement: MS/C/81. 46 Letter, Delamater to Billings, Sept. 13, 1876; Billings to Delamater, Sept. 15, in Billings' abbreviated style which I expanded into the quote: MS/C/81. 47 Letter, Billings to Parvin, Apr. 17, 1878: MS/C/81. I have deciphered Billings' scrawl into the quote. 48 Letter, Billings to L. H. Petit, Paris, April 8, 1885: MS/C/81. 49 Letters, Stockton-Hough to Billings, Aug. 29, 1889; Billings to Stockton-Hough, Aug. 30, 1889: MS/C/81. 50 Letter, Osler to Billings, Feb. 18, 1890, with Billings' endorsement that a replacement copy of the book had been ordered from Trübthe Library's agent in Germany: MS/C/81. 51 Letter, Billings to Jewett, May 13, 1872: MS/C/81. ner, 52 Letter, Billings to James, Feb. 19, 1872: MS/C/81. 53 Annual Report of the Surgeon General, 1882, pp. 16-17. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only year for which such statistics were kept. 54 Examples. A. Duceau, Académie de Médecine, Paris, asked for information on three American physicians; letter, Duceau to Billings, Dec. 6, 1882. The Medical Board of New South Wales, Australia, requested information on the American Eclectic College of Ohio; letter, to Billings, Dec. 7, 1882, with answer, Feb. 3, 1883: MS/C/81. 55 After the Index-Catalogue began to be published, if a physician requested references to a subject covered in a volume of Index-Catalogue being readied for publication Billings loaned the correspondent page proofs from the Index. Examples: letters, J. O. Roe to Billings, July 13, 1888; S. T. Armstrong to Billings, Feb. 19, Mar. 3, 1892; L. Hektoen to Billings, Mar. 7, 1892; J. P. Tuttle to Billings, Mar. 10, 1892; all asking or thanking for proof sheets: MS/C/ 81. 56 Letters, E. A. Brigham, Boston, to Billings, April 4, 9, 1878, re an unnamed clerk who charged $2.75 for copying 75 index cards (higher than the usual charge) under the heading "Women as physicians"; E. T. Reichert, University of Pennsylvania, to Stone, Sept. 30, 1878, requesting translations and Billings to Reichert, Oct. 5, 9, explaining that clerks were not medical men and could not read foreign languages; Austin Flint, Jr., to Billings, July 6, 1880, requesting a copy of an article, and July 15, sending $6 to Stone for making the copy; Billings to R. F. Fletcher, Rochester, N. Y., Sept. 27, 1881, and to J. B. Fuller, Pawtucket, R.I., Dec. 22, 1881 stating that clerks charged $2 per 100 cards for copying references; E. H. Brigham to Billings, Oct. 15, 1885, requesting all titles on "iron" be copied at usual rates, with attached note stating that Clark copied 190 cards for $3.80; W. W. Keen, Phila., to Billings, May 28, 1886, asking for refs on "stumps," with note that 150 had been provided for $3; Billings to Brigham, Dec. 24, 1886, naming Myers as an abstractor: MS/ C/81. 57 Memo, E. B. Fullerton to B. Israeli, Feb. 10, 1893, paying $4.00 for translating: MS/C/81. 58 Letter, Allen to Billings, Nov. 19, 1875, presenting a volume of his Encyclopedia and thanking Billings for courtesy to Miss Morrill: MS/C/81. 59 Letter, J. J. Putnam, Boston, to Billings, May 18, 26, 1876, regarding a literature search by Lee for Putnam on cases of poisoning from medicinal doses; Duvall to Billings, Sept. 18, 1883; E. H. Brigham, Boston, to Billings, Nov. 19, 1886, Billings to Brigham, Nov. 23, and L. A. Stimson, New York, to Billings, Dec. 13, re Gurley; Billings to E. J. Beall, Mar. 25, 1887, memo on P. C. Knapp, Boston, Jan. 21, Feb. 8, 1889, and Brigham to Billings, Feb. 8, 1893, regarding Lorini; E. B. Fullerton, Columbus, Ohio, to Billings, Feb. 1, 6, 1893, S. Loving to H. Liddell, April 10, 1893 sending $25 for translations, and Liddell to Billings, April 11, 1893: MS/C/81. The Library provided patrons with the names of translators until the 1960's. Handcopying of articles ceased after World War I when the museum obtained equipment and personnel to provide photographs and photostats. 60 The monthly accounts, vouchers, and other financial records that Billings kept as disbursing officer, 1870-1877, are in NLM. Full title of the Disbursing Division was Library and Disbursing Division. 61 Orders to Billings are in SGO records, NA. Copies of some orders are in MS/C/273. 62 Letter, Asst. Surg. Gen. Crane to Billings, July 10, 1872: NA. 63 Plans of Barnes Hospital and Billings' comments thereon are in: War Dept., SurgeonGeneral's Office, Circular No. 8, A Report on the Hygiene of the United States Army, with Descriptions of Military Posts, edited by Billings, Washington, G.P.O., 1875, pp. liv-lvi. This circular was reprinted with introduction by Col. Herbert M. Hart, N.Y., 1974. 4 Letter, W. Wesley to Billings, June 18, 1872; "I am very much pleased to hear that the resignation does not take place”: NLM. 65 The plans submitted by Billings and the other physicians were published under the title: Hospital Plans. Five Essays Relating to the Construction, Organization, & Management of Hospitals, Contributed by their Authors for the use of Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore (New York, 1875). 66 Example: letter, Billings to F. Flügel, bookseller, April 17, 1875, asking Flügel to procure working drawings of Saint Joseph Hospital, Leipzig. Flügel sent them; letter, Flügel to Billings, Feb. 23, 1876: NLM. 67 Letter, Billings to L. W. Schmidt, bookseller, Sept. 26, 1876: MS/C/81. 68 Garrison, Billings, pp. 191-196, reprints portions of Billings' letters from Europe to his wife. 69 Billings was asked on a number of occasions to plan, or give his opinion of the plans for, hospitals. In 1877–78 he drew up plans for the central, or administrative, building and east wing of Children's Hospital. The buildings were erected under contract. See 69 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate Doc. 207, Charitable and Reformatory Institutions in the District of Columbia, by George M. Kober. In 1878 Billings advised James R. Chadwick, librarian of the Boston Medical Library Association, about the ventilating and heating system of the new Boston Medical Library. See Joseph E. Garland, The Centennial History of the Boston Medical Library, 1875 to 1975, p. 40. VII The Beginning of Indexing in the Library BILLINGS STARTS TO INDEX JOURNALS Y 1873 the Library had an author catalog in book form, a supplementary a a cards. Those finding aids helped readers locate information in the tens of thousands of books, pamphlets, theses, and reports in the Library, but not in articles in the myriads of issues of journals. Billings now turned to the indexing of periodicals. This would be a monumental task, and presumably he thought about it long and hard before going ahead. He had to consider the length of time it would take, and the number of assistants that would be available. Undoubtedly he considered the alternative of directing readers to the annual indexes provided by many journal publishers. But having concluded that an index should be prepared, he had to consider the alternatives of author and/ or subject and/or title indexes, and of printed or card catalogs. In considering the indexing of journals Billings was not exploring new territory. In 1867 the Royal Society of London had begun to publish its Catalogue of Scientific Papers, a multivolume bibliography of articles that had appeared in American and European journals from 1800 to 1863, arranged alphabetically by author. The Library had obtained the first three volumes of the set in 1870, and it appears that the catalogue may have provided Billings with a model and perhaps stimulation.' Billings, however, felt that a subject index would be preferable to an author index (the Royal Society had considered compiling a subject index but had abandoned the idea because it would have been too expensive).2 Billings' preference for a subject index may have had roots in a time-consuming, disappointing literature search he had undertaken back in 1859 and '60 while preparing his thesis on the surgical treatment of epilepsy. He had discovered that it required "a vast amount of time and labour to search through a thousand volumes of medical books and journals for items on a particular subject. . . ." It was the memory of this experience that, according to Billings, led him to prepare "a comprehensive catalogue and index which should spare medical teachers and writers the drudgery of consulting ten thousand or more his library at 84 GAY St Billings working in his home in the Georgetown section of Washington. The caption was written by one of his children. Number 84 Gay Street later became 3027 N Street. different indexes, or of turning over the leaves of as many volumes to find the dozen or so references of which they might be in search."3 Billings started to prepare the index on New Year's Day, 1874. One would assume that at the beginning he indexed several volumes to obtain an estimate of the time that it would take to index every volume of every journal. Probably during the indexing he made the decision to include original articles only, not reprinted articles, editorials, news of medical events, book reviews, letters to the editor, and other material (occasionally in the future Billings was to violate this rule and select editorials and items of interest to him). He decided to follow this method; he would scan journals and check, in pencil, the title of each article he wanted indexed. His clerks would copy on a card a complete reference to each article checked, leaving the top line of the card blank for Billings to add a subject heading.5 Recent journals would be indexed before old journals; current journals would be indexed within 24 hours of arrival.6 Once started, Billings scanned journals in his office and at home. "Almost |