Marcia Croker Noyes

Marcia Crocker Noyes was born in December 1869 in Saratoga Springs, New York. She was the youngest of four children born to Levi and Catherine Noyes. She studied at Hunter College in New York, and considered becoming a dress designer or an artist, much to her parents' chagrin.[3]

Noyes began her career as a librarian after moving to Baltimore, Maryland to live with her sister, Kitty Noyes Marshall. She took a position as a relief worker for $15 a month at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, led by Dr. Bernard Steiner, where she worked for three years. During this time, she proved herself to be an invaluable and efficient employee and moved into a supervisory role.[3]

In 1896, Sir William Osler, MD became the President of The Maryland State Medical Society and began his search for an "intelligent, dedicated, full-time medical librarian" to meet the increased demand for medical library services and oversee a steadily growing collection of 7,000 volumes. Because of her exemplary work at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Dr. Steiner recommended Noyes for the position, declaring her "a woman of executive talents."[3] Noyes was, indeed, selected as the new librarian and received an annual salary of $200.[3]

In her news role as a medical librarian, Noyes learned on the job by attending all Faculty functions. She also served as Sir William's understudy and developed a long-lasting friendship with him; she was "infected with his mission to improve the medical library and by so doing to improve the quality of medical practice."[3]

In her first year on the job, Noyes developed a book classification system for medical books, based on the index medicus, and called it the Classification for Medical Literature. The system uses the alphabet with capital letters for the major divisions of medicine and lower-case ones for the sub-sections. "The system has not been revised since Miss Noyes' death, and it is now out of date, but the Noyes' Classification is still used at the Medical and Chirurgical Library for all original historical material."[3] Friends from the Enoch Pratt Free Library were hired to help catalog in the evenings at the modest rate of 25¢ an hour. In fact, due to the library's meager budget, Noyes was only able to hire one full-time assistant during the first ten years of her employment - Gustave Orville Caution.[3]

In 1904, the library was reorganized, and Noyes assumed the role of Secretary. However, she would not be formally appointed to the position of Executive Secretary until 1925.[3]

Marcia Crocker Noyes at the midpoint of her career.

Within ten years, the library had outgrown its space, and plans, spearheaded by Noyes and Sir William before his move to Oxford, were made to build a headquarters building, mainly to house the library's growing collection of medical books and journals.

Paralleling her career, Noyes was also involved in the Medical Library Association (MLA), as one of eight founding members[4][5] and later Association President. On May 2, 1898, the eight charter members gathered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to form the MLA, determining the Association's objective to "foster medical libraries and promote the exchange of medical literature."[3]

One of the earliest mandates of the MLA was the Exchange, a distribution and trade service for those who had duplicates or little-used books in their collections. Initially, the Exchange was run out of the Philadelphia medical society, but in 1900 it was moved to Baltimore and Noyes oversaw it. Several hundred periodicals and journals were received and sent each month, a huge amount of work for a tiny staff. In 1904, the Faculty had run out of room to manage the Exchange, so it was moved to the Medical Society of the County of Kings (Brooklyn, New York). But without Noyes's excellent administrative skills, it foundered and in 1908, the MLA asked Noyes to take charge once again. In 1909, when the new Faculty building opened, there was enough room to run the Exchange and with the help of MLA Treasurer, noted bibliophile and close friend, Dr. John Ruhräh, it once again became successful.[3]

Additionally, Noyes and Dr. Ruhräh combined forces to revive the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, which had all but ceased publication in 1908, taking the Exchange with it. This duo maintained editorial control from 1911 until 1926.[5] In 1933, Noyes was elected the first woman and the first non-physician (or the "first unmedicated member") to preside over the Association.[2][6][7]

Marcia Crocker Noyes with the Osler sideboard

Noyes wanted to write the history of the MLA once she retired from full-time work at the Faculty, but her health was beginning to fail. She had an increasingly painful back condition that required her to wear a brace and had suffered a serious burn on her shoulder,[3] possibly from her summers spent running a summer camp, Camp Seyon (Noyes spelled backwards), for young ladies in the Adirondack Mountains.[8][9]

On April 24, 1946, a reception was planned to honor Noyes's 50 years at the Faculty; despite her request that the physicians wait until November, the actual date of her 50 years. The Faculty went ahead and hosted the reception on the earlier, planned date due to her deteriorating health.[3] More than 250 physicians attended the celebration and many speeches were given. She was presented with a suitcase, a sum of money to use for travelling, and her favorite painting which she had persuaded the Library committee to purchase many years earlier.

Marcia Crocker Noyes in her apartment at the Faculty building

The painting was of Dr. John Philip Smith, a founder of the Medical College in Winchester, Virginia. It was painted by Edward Caledon Smith, a Virginia painter who had been a student of the painter Thomas Sully.[10] She adored this painting and vowed, jokingly, to take it with her wherever she went.

The painting was not to stay with her for very long, for she died on November 24, 1946,[2] and left it to the Faculty in her will. Her funeral was held by her request in the Faculty's Osler Hall, named for her dear friend. More than 60 physicians served as her pallbearers,[3] and she was buried at Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery.

In 1947, the MLA established the Marcia C. Noyes Award to honor her lasting, outstanding contributions to medical librarianship. It is awarded yearly, and presented at the Annual Meeting, to a librarian who shows distinguished service and leadership in health sciences librarianship. Awardees receive an engraved sterling silver bowl.[11] Additionally, in 2014, awardees receive a bouquet of flowers to further remember Noyes; much evidence exists for this tradition, as we know that the physicians, especially Drs. Osler and Ruhräh, frequently gave her bouquets of flowers. Noyes also cultivated flower gardens at the Faculty and decorated the rooms with her work.[3]