Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2042

NORTON FOLSOM (1842-1903) Hospital construction and organization. In: Hospital plans. William Wood 1875 xxi, 353 pp., illus., plans (part fold.). 23.9 cm.

Johns Hopkins, merchant and banker died at Baltimore in 1873. His will included money and land to establish a university, construct a hospital to serve the indigent sick, and build an orphanage for black children. Two years later, five experts including Folsom, Caspar Morris (see No. 1684), Stephen Smith (see No. 1911), Joseph Jones (see No. 1989), and John Shaw Billings (see No. 2019) were asked to submit their ideas and recommendations for a modern facility. The publication of Hospital plans resulted when it was decided to make the five essays as widely available as possible. Folsom received a medical degree from Harvard in 1864. He served as an army surgeon during the Civil War, was assistant physician to the state hospital for the insane at Taunton, Massachusetts, practiced for a time in New York City, and in 1872 was appointed resident physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. At the time he was asked to submit plans for the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Folsom was superintendent of Massachusetts General. Although Billing's plans (see No. 2019) were the ones accepted by the trustees, Folsom's ideas for an isolation ward with single rooms were adopted with some modifications. His essay appears on pages 47-104 of the book and has twenty seven plates which illustrate his plans for the proposed hospital.

See Related Record(s): 1684 1911 1989 2019