Library of the Surgeon-General's Office (U.S.)

The Library and Museum Division of the Surgeon General's Office indexed all incoming correspondence by subject from September 1, 1889 to June 30, 1894.

From the guide to the Record cards of correspondence of the Library and Museum Division of the U.S. Surgeon-General's Office, 1889-1894, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)

Born September 10, 1869 in Texas, Champe Carter McCulloch earned several academic degrees, among which was Doctor of Medicine at Columbia University in 1892, the same year he joined the Army Medical Department. After serving at various posts, Lt. Colonel McCulloch was assigned to the Army Medical Library in 1913 as an administrator. He simultaneously taught at the Army Medical School. He remained with the Library until 1919.

From the guide to the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office Correspondence, 1914-1918, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)

Walter Drew McCaw, 1863-1939, was a career Army medical officer. After training at the Medical School of Virginia and Columbia University Medical School, he joined the Army Medical Department in 1884. He served in various posts in the west and south, in Cuba during the Spanish American war, and in the Philippines afterward. He was appointed director of the Library on October 3, 1903. McCaw left his position in 1913 to resume active duty in the Philippines.

From the guide to the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office Correspondence, 1904-1913, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)

A Civil War veteran and member of the Army Medical Department since 1861, David Lowe Huntington had prior experience with the Surgeon General's office as curator of the Army Medical Museum from 1881 to 1883. He took over as head of the Museum and Library Division of the Surgeon General's office upon John Shaw Billings' resignation in August 1895. He left the Library on April 1, 1897.

Surgeon General Walter Sternberg found Huntington's replacement among his own employees. Major James Cushing Merrill had begun in the Surgeon General's office maintaining supplies for the Medical Department in 1891. By 1897 Merrill was a lecturer for the Army Medical School. A naturalist and linguist, he died at age 49 in 1902 and his potential at the library was never fulfilled. Merrill's successor, Walter Reed, also had his term cut short by an early death. Before the Spanish American War, Reed had been curator of the Army Medical Museum. Appointed by Surgeon General Robert O'Reilly on November 1, 1902, he served as director for only 23 days until his death on November 23.

Colonel Calvin De Witt, head of the Museum and Library Division, assumed the role of acting head during periods when both Merrill and Reed were too ill to fulfill their official duties and after Reed's death until Walter D. McCaw was appointed head in October 1903.

From the guide to the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office Correspondence, 1896-1903, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)