John Shaw Billings - founder of Index Medicus and director of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office (now NLM)

The National Library of Medicine has an amazing and impressive history, but I didn't know until recently that it has only been called NLM since 1956. One of it's most the most influential individuals in the 19th century was John Shaw Billings. 

• "THE MEDICAL LIBRARIAN AND BIBLIOGRAPHER The gravitation of John Billings to books was as inevitable and as certain as any law of nature. It was equally certain that, given access to books, he would know their contents, use them, and introduce others to their solace and help. Detailed to the Surgeon General's Office and finding no library, he made one. That he and no one else was founder of the national medical library needs no discussion after reading the following letter, printed in The Medical Letter..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jsbillings.jpg