Portrait of John Shaw Billings
Unknown photographer
John Shaw Billings
1910
John Shaw Billings (1838–1913) was the legendary first director of The New York Public Library. In addition to being a distinguished bibliographer and librarian, he was one of the most prominent American physicians of his generation. His medical career decisively diverted to librarianship after his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1895, when he was invited to head the newly established New York Public Library. Billings was committed to building well-rounded and comprehensive collections in all areas of scholarship. He fostered a close and long-lasting relationship with the banker and philanthropist Jacob Henry Schiff (1847–1920), the Semitic collections’ main benefactor, and advocated for establishing a separate Jewish Division to serve a city with a rapidly growing Jewish population. Billings can be credited with the exponential growth of the Jewish collection at the Library during his leadership. In this photograph from 1910, Billings is shown in his office at the Astor Library, which served as the first home to The New York Public Library from 1895 to 1911.
: Manuscripts and Archives Division
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