Fielding Hudson Garrison


Colonel Fielding Hudson Garrison, MD was an acclaimed medical historian, bibliographer, and librarian of medicine. Garrison's An Introduction to the History of Medicine is a landmark text in this field.

Biography

Garrison was born in Washington, D.C. and received his A.B. in 1890 from the Johns Hopkins University and his M.D. in 1893 from Georgetown University. The son of U.S. Treasury Comptroller John Rowzee Garrison and noted Washington, D.C. civic volunteer Catherine Jane Jennie Davis, he married Clara Augusta Brown in 1910 in Washington, D.C. and they eventually had three daughters.
Garrison joined the staff of the Army Medical Library as a clerk in 1891. He became Assistant Librarian in 1899 and Principal Assistant Librarian in 1912. He joined the Officers Reserve Corps as a Major in 1917. Garrison was assigned to index medical literature. In this he worked closely with John Shaw Billings. He helped create and compile the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office. His editorial responsibilities also included the Index Medicus, of which he was Associate Editor and Editor. He was also Associate Editor of the Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus for 1927–1929. Garrison wrote the first comprehensive treatise on the history of medicine and "gained recognition as the foremost American authority on the subject". He prepared plans and collected material for the history of the U.S. Army Medical Department during World War I. In all, he served on staff at the AML for almost 40 years.
From 1930, Garrison was lecturer in the history of medicine and librarian of the Welch Medical Library of the Johns Hopkins University. He was also a much-respected editor and translator, as well as an accomplished classical pianist.
Garrison died April 18, 1935 in Washington, D.C. and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington VA.

Positions, honors and accolades

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