Mary Louise Marshall (1893 - 1986) was Librarian and Professor of Medical Bibliography at

Tulane University School of Medicine The Tulane University School of Medicine is located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States and is a part of Tulane University. The school is located in the Medical District of the New Orleans Central Business District. History The school wa ...

, and the longest-running president of the

Medical Library Association The Medical Library Association (MLA) is a nonprofit educational organization with more than 3,400 health sciences information professional members and partners worldwide. History Founded on May 2, 1898, by four librarians, including Marcia ...

(1941–46).

Early life and education

Mary Louise Marshall was born on July 19, 1893 in

Salem, Illinois Salem is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,485 at the 2010 census. Geography Salem is located at (38.6282, -88.9482). According to the 2010 census, Salem has a total area of , of w ...

. The oldest of three children, she studied at the Illinois Women's College and

Southern Illinois Normal University Southern Illinois University (SIU or SIUC) is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois. Founded in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. The university enrolls students from all 50 st ...

before completing her studies at the University of Wisconsin's Library School in 1914; the university did not grant library degrees at the time. Marshall completed an internship at a public library where she earned $50 a month in wages and lived in the home of a faculty member.

Career

Around the time of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Marshall worked at the library of Southern Illinois Normal University. In 1919, she left Illinois for

New Orleans, LA New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

's (ALA) War Library "scheme for soldiers not yet discharged from the armed forces." When the New Orlean's ALA office closed, she took the position of librarian at the

Rudolph Matas Rudolph Matas (September 12, 1860 – September 23, 1957) was an American surgeon. He was born outside New Orleans in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, and spent much of his childhood in his parents' native land of Spain. Matas returned to New Or ...

-Orleans Parish Medical Society Library, which later consolidated into Tulane University's Medical Library. She held a dual role as Professor of Medical Bibliography. Marshall worked closely with fellow librarians Eileen Cunningham and Janet Doe on various projects. One project being the ''Handbook of Medical Library Practice'', where Marshall authored a chapter on classification schemes. When the

Army Medical Library The Library of the Surgeon General's Office, later called the Army Medical Library, was the institutional medical literature repository of the U.S. Army Surgeon General from 1836 to 1956 when it was transformed into the National Library of Medic ...

, now the

U.S. National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

(NLM) needed a chairperson to lead a committee of librarians, medical scientists, and physicians to produce a classification scheme, which would later evolve into the

National Library of Medicine classification The National Library of Medicine (NLM) classification system is a library indexing system covering the fields of medicine and preclinical basic sciences. The NLM classification is patterned after the Library of Congress (LC) Classification system ...

, a library indexing system covering the fields of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and preclinical basic sciences. Frank B

When the NLM formed their first Board of Regents, Marshall was invited by Dr. Frank B. Rogers, then Director of the NLM, to serve as the only woman and the only medical librarian. Mere days after retiring from Tulane University's Medical Library in 1959, Marshall began working closely with medical school libraries in Columbia, South America as a consultant with the International Congresses on Medical Librarianship.

Medical Library Association

During her years as librarian, Marshall became an active member of the Medical Library Association. She served as membership committee chair from 1927 to 1929, treasurer from 1930 to 1937, and in 1941, was the second woman elected as president. Due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, annual MLA meetings were put on hold, and Marshall became the longest running MLA President, serving until 1946. Marshall received the Marcia C. Noyes Award in 1953, the MLA's most distinguished award.

Personal life

While living in New Orleans, Marshall met and married Mr. John Henry "Jack" Hutton. In addition to her interest in medical librarianship, she was also interested in the history of medicine and wrote several books on the topic: ''Medicine in the Confederacy, Plantation Medicine, Versatile Genius of Daniel Drake, Nurse Heroines of the Confederacy.'' She was also interested in genealogy and was actively involved with the Colonial Dames, serving as their national librarian, historian, and chairwoman of research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Mary Louise 1893 births 1986 deaths People from Salem, Illinois Southern Illinois University Carbondale alumni MacMurray College alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Library and Information Studies alumni American librarians