Billings
Billings names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Billings JOHN SHAW, an Amerzerland co
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOHN SHAW, an Amerzerland co., Ind., April 12, 1839; was graduated at Miami University, in 1857, and the Ohio Medical College, in 1860; II-Cyc was demonstrator of anatomy in the last institution, in 1860-1861; entered the Union army as an Assistant Surgeon, in 1861; was promoted to Lieutenant- Colonel and Deputy Surgeon General, June 6, 1864; and was retired, Oct. 1, 1895. He was Professor of Hygiene in the University of Pennsylvania, in 1893- 1896; and in the last year was appointed Director of the New York Public Library (Astor, Lenox and Tilden foundations). After the close of the war Dr. Billings took charge of the library in the Surgeon- General's Office; reorganized the United States Marine Hospital Service; was Vice-President of the National Board of Health, in 1879-1882; and had charge of the compilation of vital and social statis. tics in the Eleventh Census (1890, et seq.). He was a member of a large number of American and foreign scientific societies, and his numerous publications include "Principles of Ventilation and Heating," "Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office, United States Army" (14 vols.), and "The National Medical Dictionary" (2 vols.); "Some Library Problems of Tomorrow" (1902); "Physiological Aspect of the Library Question" (1903). He died in 1913.
Billings a city of Montana
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city of Montana, the the Yellowstone river and on the Northcounty-seat of Yellowstone co. It is on Burlington and Missouri railroads. It is ern Pacific, the Great Northern , and the the center of an important stock-raising district and has been for several years one of the largest inland wool markets of the United States. There are flour and lumber mills, beet sugar factories, foundries , brick yards, and other indusbuildings, including a public library, tries. The city ty has many handsome opera house, a city hall, and a court 15,100. house. Pop. (1910) 10,031 ; (1920) ican surgeon and librarian, born in Swit-
Billings Josh. See Shaw
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Josh. See Shaw ; Henry W
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JOSH. See SHAW, HENRY WHEELER.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's noted in 1921 that Billings, Montana, had grown from 10,031 people in 1910 to 15,100 in 1920; it is now Montana's largest city, with about 117,000 residents in the 2020 census, and the wool market and beet-sugar plants have given way to oil refining, medicine and regional trade. John Shaw Billings, who died in 1913, is remembered less for the "Principles of Ventilation and Heating" than for two things the entry mentions only in passing: his 14-volume "Index Catalogue" of the Surgeon-General's library grew into Index Medicus and, eventually, the online MEDLINE and PubMed databases, and that library itself became the National Library of Medicine at Bethesda in 1956. As director of the New York Public Library he also shaped the plan of the Fifth Avenue building that opened in 1911, where the main reading room now bears his name. Josh Billings, the humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw, was a household name in 1910 and 1921 and is now read almost only by scholars of American humor.
Written for this edition, 2026.