The printed catalogues of
the Surgeon-General's Office Library are the basis for the Civil War medical textbook collection and an
accurate reflection of Civil War medicine as practice during the war
years 1861-1865. The exact publications (date and edition) as
shown in the catalogues are the issues presented in this collection.
The reason for using the catalogued issues is these were the authors
who the U.S. Army Medical Department and SGO surgeons thought worthy of being in the library
and the ones used for distribution to the U. S. Army surgeons during the
Civil War.
The Surgeon General's Library, the
collection that would in 1956 become the National Library of Medicine, was
arguably the Medical Department's most valuable and lasting contribution to
medical science developed in the decades immediately following the Civil War. As
new developments in the world of medical science began to grow in number with
great rapidity, the nation's best-educated physicians came increasingly to rely
on medical libraries, particularly the Surgeon General's Library, for the
information that kept them abreast of the work of their colleagues around the
world. Much of the library's growth in size and fame resulted from the work of
Billings. Working aggressively and imaginatively to increase the library's
holdings, he made the most of the meager funds allotted that institution by
astute buying and by trading copies of the departments various publications for
the books, journals, reports, manuscripts, letters, pamphlets, and portraits he
believed it should have.
The following links
are to copies of the first (1840) handwritten catalogue, extremely
rare copies of the first printed (1864), and the second printed (1865)
catalogues which were produced for the Surgeon General's Office Library
before and during the Civil War. Few people have seen these catalogues as
only a small number of copies survived and are not available to the general public. The textbooks were selected by the Surgeon
General's Office staff for use by the U. S. Army Medical and Hospital
Department prior to, but mainly during the Civil War.
These super rare
printed catalogues (few examples exist) and publications by the U. S.
Army Medical Department, are the basis for the collection. Where possible, the
exact same edition is in this collection as the one shown in the Medical
Department's SGO
catalogue. If not the same edition then the intent is to obtain
one published during the Civil War. Any help in adding to this
collection would be greatly appreciated.
Surgeon General's Office
library 1840 hand-written catalogue
The first handwritten catalog
Surgeon General's Office library 1864
printed catalogue The
first printed catalogue
Surgeon General's Office Library 1865
printed catalogue The
second printed catalogue
Addition information
on medical textbooks used during the Civil War
Article on
early American Medical Libraries.
Ciba
article on Civil War medical education
Ciba article
on Civil War medicine during the Civil War
Information on the Surgeon
General's Office Library by
Wyndam Miles
PDF of Information on the Surgeon General's
Office Library by
Wyndam Miles
Reynolds Library Civil War era list of books
