Letter of the Day: December 13

Curatorial Records: Numbered Correspondence 1094

War Department,
Surgeon General’s Office,
U.S. Army Medical Museum and Library,
Corner 7th and B Streets S.W.,
Washington, D.C., December 13, 1895

Dr. J.S. Billings,
Laboratory of Hygiene,
University of Pennsylvania,
34th and Locust Sts.,
West Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Dr. Billings:

I herewith enclose a letter received this day from Mr. Wm. S. Bonwill, of Philadelphia, in regard to a collection of his inventions in medical and dental surgery.

Will you kindly read the letter and return it to me with any information you may have regarding the man or his offer.

Very sincerely yours,

D.L. Huntington
Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Army,
In charge of Museum and Library Division.


My dear Dr Huntington

Dr Bonwill is a very ingenious dentist who has invented a number of instruments and devices. The best known of which is the “Dental Engine” which every dentist uses. His is somewhat cranky and appreciates himself highly. I would suggest a polite reply delivering thanks, and saying that this will be a valuable addition etc. etc.

Very truly yours
JS Billings.

Letter of the Day: September 18

Department of the Interior,
Washington, September 18, 1886.

Dr. John S. Billings,
Surgeon General’s Office.

Sir:-

In conversation with the Public Printer this morning, I learned that he does not purpose [sic, propose] reopening the question of the rejection of the Bell photo-lithographs which were intended to accompany Part 2 of the Census report on Mortality and Vital Statistics. I therefore desire to have an expression of your views as to whether it would be better to issue Volume 12 at once, without illustrations, or to ask the Public Printer to call for proposals in accordance with your original recommendation. In the latter case, the illustrations, 21 in number, might accompany the diagrams belonging to the report, and in either event, the report may be put upon the press at once and made ready for immediate distribution.

I shall be glad if you will address any recommendation you see fit to make, to the Secretary of the Interior.

Very respectfully,

J.H. Wardle
Chief of Census Division

Answered Sept 18th/ 86

Letter of the Day: September 8

The Hague, Holland

Sept. 8^th 1886

 

Dr. John S. Billings,

Surgeon US Army

Washington, D.C.

 

Dear Sir,

 

Your letter of June 19^th was duly received by me, but not sooner answered on account of your absence mentioned in it.

 

After due consideration, I think it better to renounce my possible appointment as a clerk of the Army Medical Museum, employed for special duty.

 

I am sorry the great uncertainty as to the time of my appointment, and the terms relating to it oblige me to take this decision.

 

Very respectfully

 

Dr. H. ten Kate

Letter of the Day: June 15 - census questions

Museum curator John Shaw Billings also did a lot of work on the US Census, directing the medical parts of it.

1811 Spruce Street

My dear Dr. Billings,

For my Address next May, as President of the Climatological Society I propose to give a discussion of phthisis in Pennsylvania, considered statistically and in reference to race, occupation and topography.

Will you kindly inform me, though I fear I should not trouble you with this question, what is the present status of the volume of vital statistics and the Statistical Atlas of the Census of 1880.

Have they been published or if not can you tell me when it will be likely that they will be published.

Yours truly,
William Pepper
6-15-85

Pages 128-135 of Table XIII Census Rep sent June 20.

Letter of the Day: April 29 - Census

Eleventh Census of the United States

Department of the Interior,
Census Office,
Washington, D.C., April 29, 1889

Sir:

By direction of the Superintendent of Census, Miss Sara E. Nolan, of the District of Columbia, a computer in this office, will report to you for duty on Wednesday morning, May 1.

Please report Miss Nolan's time to the Superintendent monthly.

Very respectfully,

J.H. Wardle,
Acting Chief Clerk

Dr. John S. Billings
In Charge
Mortality and Vital Statitics, Eleventh Census
City

New book on Billings published

A new work on our own John Shaw Billings who organized the Library and Museum of the Office of the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (which, of course, when split became the National Library of Medicine and the National Museum of Health and Medicine respectively), written by the distinguished author, historian of medicine and NLM staff member, the late James Cassedy, has been published posthumously by Xlibris.

According to the publisher: "Much has been written about John Shaw Billings' (1838-1913) role in the founding and development of two great American libraries, the Army Medical Library and the New York Public Library, to the neglect of other aspects of his career. Billings' role as a physician was many-faceted. Beginning his medical career as an Army surgeon during the Civil War, during the next 30 years he added to his medical skills those of scientist, administrator, and planner, builder, and organizer of several important medical and public health activities and institutions. This book explores Billings as a leader of the a medical revolution and the public health movement of the late 19th century. It emphasizes the part he played as a link between the growing federal government's presence in health policy and scientific activity and the world of private medicine and local public health."

John Shaw Billings: Science and Medicine in the Gilded Age
By James H. Cassedy
(253 pages)