John Shaw Billings

John Shaw Billings was an American librarian, surgeon, statistician, and botanist. Born on April 12, 1838, and educated at Miami University, he worked for the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the New York Public Library. He contributed to the creative work *Popular Science* and wrote in the English language. His professional memberships included the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Library Association, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Billings served in the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Battle of Gettysburg. He died of pneumonia from natural causes in New York City on March 11, 1913. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. His archives are held at the New York Public Library Main Branch, and he is described in *Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography*. He received the award of Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.