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Elizabeth Latimer Shrimpton, M.D. (1875-1955): Unsung Heroine of Medical LibrarianshipEric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S.Diane K. Hawkins (since 2002 Diane Davis Luft), M.L.S., Head of Reference Services The following is an electronic "reprint" of an article which appeared in The Watermark 19, 3 (Summer 1996): 85-87; and erratum, 19, 4 (Fall 1996): 129. Not until the 1890s did American medical schools realize that well stocked and well maintained medical libraries would be essential components of the rapid modernizing of medical pedagogy which had begun in the 1870s with the shift from proprietary schools to graded instruction.(1) This lack of attention to medical libraries was the prevailing attitude not only in medical schools but throughout the entire medical community. As Charles Perry Fisher noted during his tenure as Librarian of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, individual physicians practicing prior to 1879 were obliged to acquire and maintain private collections of medical journals, often at great expense, only to have these gatherings of a lifetime scattered and wasted after their deaths.(2) C.D. Spivak, referring to the state of medical libraries in the United States in 1898, lamented: "There is no profession which has such a large and valuable literature as ours, and there is none in which the care of its literature is so sadly neglected."(3) In his survey of 120 medical schools he was able to obtain reports from only 24 affiliated libraries, and urged his colleagues to "revive the libraries which are in a state of syncope."(4) A paper read before the American Academy of Medicine on May 29, 1897 by ophthalmologist George Milbry Gould, founder of the Medical Library Association, is evidence of the growing appreciation within the medical profession of the importance of organized medical libraries just before the turn of the century.(5) Gould recognized the importance of securing the collections of retiring or deceased physicians for distribution to libraries, and of establishing a system among libraries for the exchange of duplicates.(6) In the first year of its existence the exchange listing which Gould published in JAMA was amazingly successful: "3934 journals and pamphlets, and 1921 bound volumes, most of them of great value, have been rescued, preserved, and, for all time, placed at professional disposal."(7) By coordinating these efforts through the fledgling group then called the Association of Medical Librarians,(8) Gould was instrumental in building collections and gaining support for numerous medical libraries, including the Syracuse University College of Medicine (SUCM).(9) In the time of Elizabeth Blackwell the library of Geneva Medical College (GMC) was excellent, with not only current works but also older classics donated by Dean Edward Cutbush, Professor of Botany and Medical Jurisprudence Anson Colman, and many others. But for the next 25 years after the transfer of GMC to SUCM in 1872, the collection was mostly in storage, unused, untended, pilfered, and who knows what else.(10) Although SUCM from the beginning had designated a member of the clinical faculty as "Librarian," the title rotated and was merely pro forma. The collection was regarded as a quaint curiosity from a bygone era. The Fourth Annual Catalogue of SUCM, 1875-76, was the first to mention the library, and described it as comprising "the entire collection of the Geneva School, with some additions made by contribution and purchase. It is especially rich in the medical literature of an earlier day."(11) Professor of Ophthalmology Frank William Marlow (1858-1941) became Librarian in 1890 and remained so until his death, even after his retirement from medical teaching and practice. Marlow seems to have been the first to discern the harm to SUCM caused by neglecting the medical library. He was especially disturbed that students were not using the Library because there was neither a serviceable reading room nor a regular attendant.(12) In 1896 he created a library committee consisting of himself, Professor of Pediatrics A. Clifford Mercer, and Lecturer on Hygiene and Public Health William H. Mills. He appointed the SUCM secretary, Abby M. Bond, and assistant secretary, Mary A. Barker, to serve as assistant librarians. The minutes of the earliest library committee meetings are in Bond's hand. Marlow also began to build the collection, despite the fact that library funding remained inadequate for respectable acquisitions. He negotiated a marvelous gift of about 1100 titles from Stephen Smith, founder of the American Public Health Association and erstwhile schoolmate of Elizabeth Blackwell at GMC; a bargain purchase of about 2500 volumes for $300 from Gould; a substantial bequest from the estate of SUCM Professor of Anatomy Scott Owen; and ongoing gifts from such SUCM faculty members as Mercer, Professor of Surgery John Van Duyn, and Dean Henry D. Didama.(13) But the situation did not really begin to improve until the fall of 1897 when Marlow hired a first-year medical student, Elizabeth Latimer Shrimpton, to reorganize the library in the new medical school quarters on McBride Street and to serve as the first regular library attendant in the history of SUCM. Shrimpton was born on July 1, 1875, in Fayetteville, New York. After receiving her B.S. from Knox College in 1896, she entered SUCM in 1897 and received her M.D. in 1901. Her medical career was entirely in Syracuse, in general practice until her retirement in 1951. She never married, yet at the age of 44 adopted a son, David MacDill Shrimpton. She died at her home in Syracuse on June 6, 1955. Little of Marlow's dream for the library could have been actualized without Shrimpton's tireless toil as she bravely contributed to her medical tuition at the rate of only twelve and a half cents an hour! She was the first "real" medical librarian at SUCM. Her four years in charge of daily activities marked the turning point for the library in terms of its utility and relevance to modern medical education. Most of the thousands of accession entries from 1897 (the year SUCM accessions started) to 1901 are in her hand, with many in Bond's and some in a third, perhaps Barker's. Judging by GMC accessions noted on bookplates, there were at least 811 and probably over a thousand volumes in the original GMC library. Yet when the SUCM accession process for these books was completed in 1898, only 406 GMC volumes were found to be still in the collection. What happened to the remainder is anyone's guess. But thanks to Marlow's collection development savvy and Shrimpton's management skill and initiative, the SUCM library had officially recorded 5072 volumes by the end of 1901. That total would have been far fewer without her. Shrimpton's effort and dedication brought the library into the 20th century with efficient methods of cataloging, inventory control, and reader services. She can be credited with instituting the policies and practices which continue to make the resources of the Library accessible to its main group of users, the medical community of Syracuse. NOTES
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