George M. (George Milbrey) Gould

Born in Auburn, Maine, in 1848, George Milbrey Gould studied at Ohio Wesleyan University and Harvard Divinity School before later earning his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. He built his career as an ophthalmologist in Philadelphia, then became widely known as a medical writer and editor whose reference works helped doctors and students navigate an expanding body of scientific language.

Gould is closely associated with several important medical books, including dictionaries and other reference works, and he also co-authored Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. Beyond his own writing, he played an important public role in the profession: he served as the first president of the Association of Medical Librarians, the organization that later became the Medical Library Association.

His career joined practical medicine with a deep interest in collecting, organizing, and clarifying information. That mix of doctor, editor, and lexicographer makes him an especially interesting figure in the history of medical publishing.