Fielding H. Garrison Collection

Biography

Fielding H. Garrison was born in Washington, D.C. He received his A.B. in 1890 from the Johns Hopkins University and his M.D. in 1893 from Georgetown University. Garrison was a lecturer in the history of medicine and librarian of the Welch Medical Library. He came to Johns Hopkins in 1930 after a long career in the Army Medical Library (now the National Library of Medicine). Garrison supervised the Institute of the History of Medicine for one year following the retirement of William Welch. Garrison gained considerable acclaim as a historian, bibliographer, and librarian of medicine. His book Introduction to the History of Medicine was the first comprehensive American publication on the history of medicine. For this book he compiled a bibliography of major works in the history of medicine. This listing, later amended by Leslie Morton, was eventually published as a separate piece. Garrison and Morton’s A Medical Biblography is still widely regarded as a standard in medical historical bibliography.

Scope and Content

The Fielding H. Garrison Collection spans his years as a lecturer and librarian of the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins. The collection contains two series: correspondence and reprints. The bulk of the correspondence consists of photocopies of letters written by Garrison, which were collected and organized by Henry Sigerist after Garrison’s death. Garrison’s most extensive correspondence in this collection is with H.L. Mencken. There is also some correspondence between Sigerist and Garrison’s correspondents, arranging for the copying of Garrison’s letters. The reprints cover subjects such as epidemiology, geomedicine, gastroenterology, and the history of medicine. A reprint of “In Memoriam, William H. Welch” from The Scientific Monthly is also included.

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