Colonel Fielding Hudson Garrison, MD (November 5, 1870 - April 18, 1935) was an acclaimed medical historian, bibliographer, and librarian of medicine. Garrison's An Introduction to the History of Medicine (1929) is a landmark text in this field.
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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 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 of the History of Medicine (for one year following the retirement of William H. Welch). He was also a much-respected editor and translator, as well as an accomplished classical pianist. Garrison was a close friend of noted literary 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.
Legacy
- 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 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.
- Garrison's portrait hangs in the History of Medicine Division Reading Room of the United States National Library of Medicine, Rockville, MD where most of his papers have been deposited.
Bibliography
- Garrison, Fielding, H. (1915), John Shaw Billings: A Memoir, Putnam
- Garrison, Fielding, H. (1922), Notes on the History of Military Medicine, Association of Military Surgeons
- Garrison, Fielding, H. (1929), An Introduction to the History of medicine, W B Saunders
- Garrison, Fielding, H. (1933/1943), A Medical Bibliography (amended by Leslie Morton)
