Garrison, Fielding H. (Fielding Hudson), 1870-1935

Author of medical works, ed. of Index Medicus, 1903-1927, Librarian, Welch Medical Library, Baltimore, from 1930.

George Washington Corner worked as an anatomist, endocrinologist, and medical historian.

Medical librarian and historian.

Historian of medicine.

Garrison (Georgetown, M.D. 1893) was librarian of the Welch Medical Library in Baltimore, Md., and lecturer in the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He also served as assistant librarian in the U.S. Surgeon-General's Office from 1889 to 1922 and edited Index Medicus from 1903 to 1927. Among his writings are An Introduction to the History of Medicine and a checklist of texts illustrating the history of medicine which formed the basis of Garrison and Morton's Medical Bibliography.

Fielding Hudson Garrison was born on 5 November 1870 in Washington, D.C., the son of John Rowzee Garrison II and Jennie Davis Garrison. He received an A.B. degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1890 and a M.D. degree from Georgetown University in 1893. In 1910 he married Clara Augusta Brown. The Garrisons had three daughters: Patricia Garrison Boorman, Margaret Garrison Estey, and Shirley Garrison Klein. Garrison died in Baltimore on 18 April 1935.

Most of Garrison's professional career was spent as a librarian, bibliographer, and medical historian at the Army Medical Library (later the National Library of Medicine). First appointed as a clerk in the library in 1891, Garrison rose to become principal assistant librarian, second only to the director of the library. Commissioned in the Army Medical Corps in 1917, he also rose to the rank of Colonel. In 1930 Garrison left the library to become the librarian of the William H. Welch Medical Library at Johns Hopkins University.

Garrison's contributions were numerous. He served for many years as Editor of Index Medicus, and also performed detailed reference services in the Army Medical Library. He prepared plans and collected material for the history of the U.S. Medical Department in World War I. He wrote countless articles and reviews instructing and encouraging medico-historical activity in the United States. He is perhaps best known as the author of the Introduction to the History of Medicine, the first comprehensive American treatise on the history of medicine.