XIV

The Library in the 1920's

THE LET-DOWN AFTER THE WAR

FTER the war the demand for library service did not drop to the prewar had increased threefold or more since 1914.' While the Library's work was increasing, the government was reducing its war-related spending as rapidly as possible. The Medical Department's funds were so limited that it could not provide even the few additional employees needed to maintain the Library in top shape. Also, vacant shelf space was becoming scarce. Under these conditions the Library had to concentrate on providing essential services-interlibrary loans, indexing for the Index-Catalogue, answering inquiries received by mail, acquiring publications, compiling of special requested bibliographies2—while allowing other tasks to lag behind. The shelf listing, recataloging, and rearranging that Garrison had hoped to undertake had to be left undone. The cataloging and arranging of documents and pamphlets dropped further and further behind. The public card catalog was not kept up to date. The acquisition of catalogs and announcements of medical schools and reports of hospitals and health organizations became haphazard because no one could be spared to keep track of and write for them. The systematic collection of photographs of physicians was curtailed for the same reason. The plan for expanding and mounting the collection of autographs and letters of famous physicians was abandoned. For a period after the war the Library could not even spare clerks to send out copies of its famous product, the Index-Catalogue.3

PAUL FREDERICK STRAUB, LIBRARIAN 1919

After the armistice as the American Army was busy demobilizing, Surgeon General Ireland appointed Colonel Paul Frederick Straub Librarian.1 Little is known about Straub, which is unfortunate for he was unique among the Librarians in possessing the Congressional Medal of Honor. Born in Germany on July 3, 1865, he was brought to the United States when his family immigrated and settled in Iowa. He received medical degrees from University of Iowa, 1885, and University of Berlin, 1892. He entered the Medical Department in

1892 and served in the Spanish-American War, in the Philippines, and in World War I. In 1910 he published a little text, Medical Service in Campaign: a Handbook for Medical Officers in the Field, much of which was based on his own experience.

During the Philippine Insurrection, Straub was surgeon of the Thirty-sixth United States Volunteer Infantry. At Alos, Zambales, Luzon, on December 21, 1899, a detachment from the regiment was attacked by insurgents. He helped fight off the attackers and risked his life to rescue and carry to safety a wounded comrade. For his heroism he was awarded the Medal of Honor. He was decorated on two other occasions.

At the end of World War I, Straub was within a few months of retirement age. The Surgeon General apparently thought that the Library was a quiet, restful place for him to wait out his remaining days in the Army. He sent Straub to the institution in early 1919. With Straub the Surgeons General began the practice that continued for a quarter of a century of assigning to the Library officers approaching the end of their Army careers.

The precise date when Straub entered the institution is not known, but by February he was signing outgoing correspondence. He did not have time to learn much about the art and science of librarianship for he left the Army on May 6, barely 3 months after he arrived at the institution. He moved to Hollywood, California, practiced medicine until 1927, and died in Los Angeles on November 25, 1937.

FRANCIS ANDERSON WINTER, LIBRARIAN MAY-SEPTEMBER 1919

Francis Anderson Winter was born on a plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, June 30, 1867. His father was professor of Greek at Centre College. He attended Bethel Military Academy, Warrenton, Virginia, and St. Louis Medical College (M.D., 1889). In 1891 in St. Louis he watched the military funeral of General William T. Sherman and decided to join the Army. He served at several posts in the West, went to Cuba during the war with Spain, was stationed in the Philippines three times, taught at the Army Medical School, commanded the Army-Navy Hospital at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and in 1917 was sent to Europe with the A.E. F., where he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

5

Returning to the United States in December 1918, he was appointed commandant of the Army Medical School and also on May 17, 1919, Librarian of the Surgeon General's Library. Winter had led an active life and did not relish desk jobs at the school and Library. After serving as Librarian for less than 4 months, he requested a transfer and in September was sent to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, as chief surgeon, where he remained until he retired in September 1922. Thereafter he lived in Washington and died there January 11, 1931.6

Little can be said of Winter as Librarian. He served one of the shortest tenures, along with Straub and Walter Reed. One would assume that Garrison directed the operations much of the time; during Winter's absences he was officially Acting Librarian.7

ROBERT ERNEST NOBLE, LIBRARIAN 1919-1925

The Librarian who had to contend with the postwar conditions was Robert E. Noble, sent to the institution in 1919 after two previous librarians had come and gone in 9 months. Noble had been born in Rome, Georgia, November 5, 1870. He studied civil engineering (B.S., 1890) and chemistry (M.S., 1891) at Alabama Polytechnic Institute before finally settling on medicine (M.D., Columbia, 1899). In 1901 he joined the Army as assistant surgeon and by 1918 had risen to the wartime grade of major general, with permanent grade as brigadier general. Along the way he served in the Philippines from 1903 to 1907, assisted Surgeon General William Gorgas in eradicating yellow fever in the Panama Canal Zone during construction of the canal, had charge of the anti-mosquito campaign in Puerto Rico in 1911-1912, accompanied a commission to Ecuador to study yellow fever in 1912-1913, was a member of the commission sent to Transvaal, South Africa, to study causes of pneumonia among miners in 1913-1914, and headed the Personnel Division of the Surgeon General's office from 1914 to October 1918, where he organized the Medical Service and Nurse Corps for war duty. Also from February 1918 to October he was in charge of the Hospital Division. He sailed for France in October and was chief surgeon of two A. E.F. units.

8

In September 1919 he was appointed Librarian." Noble, an expert in disease control and medical administration, was now in a field about which he knew nothing, library administration. With Garrison as tutor he began to learn how to manage a library. But he barely started before Surgeon General Ireland placed him on the Rockefeller Foundation Yellow Fever Commission to the West Coast of Africa. When Gorgas, the leader, died on the way Noble became