Fielding H. Garrison

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Colonel Fielding Hudson Garrison (November 5, 1870 - April 18, 1935) was the author of major scholarly works in medical history, including hundreds of articles and several acclaimed books. Garrison's An Introduction to the History of Medicine (1929) is a landmark text in this field.

[edit] Biography

Garrison was a lecturer in the history of medicine and librarian of the Welch Medical Library. He came to Johns Hopkins University in 1930 after a long career in the Army Medical Library (now the National Library of Medicine). Garrison's other positions included president of the American Association for the History of Medicine; president of the Medical Library Association and director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Medical History. He was also a much-respected editor, librarian, and translator, as well as a physician (MD, Georgetown University, 1893) and an accomplished classical pianist.

The son of U.S. Treasury Comptroller John Rowzee Garrison and noted Washington, D.C. civic volunteer Catherine Jane Jennie Davis, Garrison married Clara Augusta Brown in 1910 in Washington, D.C. and they had three daughters. He was a close friend of noted critic H. L. Mencken, with whom he exchanged 400 letters, some of which have been published in Mencken's collected letters. Mencken was a pallbearer at Garrison's funeral. Garrison was also brother-in-law (they married sisters in a double wedding) to Henry Campbell Black, author of "Black's Law Dictionary."

Garrison died April 18, 1935 in Washington, D.C. and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington VA. Garrison was the subject of two biographies by Solomon Kagan, and the April, 1937 issue of The Bulletin of the History of Medicine was devoted to essays about Garrison's life and contributions. Garrison's portrait hangs in the Reading Room of the United States National Library of Medicine, Rockville, MD where most of his papers have been deposited.

[edit] Bibliography

Notes on the History of Military Medicine (1922, Association of Military Surgeons)
An introduction to the history of medicine (1929, W B Saunders)
A Medical Bibliography (later amended by Leslie Morton)