Arkansas Country Doctor Museum
501-918-3025
calsfoundation@cals.org
calsfoundation@cals.org
Arkansas Country Doctor Museum (ACDM)
The Arkansas Country Doctor Museum (ACDM) in Lincoln (Washington County), in rural northwest Arkansas, is located in an eleven-room combined house, office, and four-bed clinic used successively by three physicians from 1936 until 1973. It features numerous examples of vintage medical equipment and a Hall of Honor highlighting notable pioneer-area physicians and their contributions to patients and the community. A carriage house and an educational building are also part of the museum.
Dr. Harold Boyer, son of the last doctor to use the clinic, established the ACDM in 1994 to honor his father and other country doctors and the values they embodied. Herbert L. Boyer graduated from the University of Arkansas Medical Department, now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), in 1911.
A carriage house contains an 1886 Studebaker horse-drawn buggy used by a country doctor to make house calls until 1920, as well as a 1924 Model T Roadster. Pre-modern medical displays include an iron lung, a delivery room, a surgery room, and dental and ophthalmic instruments. The living quarters have the Boyers’ original mid-twentieth-century home furnishings, including a number of women’s hats, china plates, and an extensive salt and pepper shaker collection.
The museum contains a unique collection of video interviews featuring recollections of bygone aspects of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. The Harold L. Boyer Educational Building, built in 2004, houses educational programs to acquaint area students with the challenge of diseases and their effect on patients and healthcare providers. Symposia bring together wider groups from the community to discuss issues bearing on healthcare, past and present. The museum is privately funded.
For additional information:
Arkansas Country Doctor Museum. http://www.drmuseum.net (accessed July 11, 2023).
Parks, Michelle. “House-to-House Healing.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. July 19, 2005, pp. 1E, 6E.
Schnedler, Jack. “On Call 24/7.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 11, 2023, pp. 1E, 6E. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jul/11/lincoln-museum-lauds-arkansas-country-doctors/ (accessed July 11, 2023).
Webb, Rachel. “Showcase Honors State’s Early Physicians.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. May 5, 2003, p. 2B.
E. Mitchell Singleton
Arkansas County Doctor Museum
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This facility is truly a “hidden gem.” It is absolutely packed with different types of medical equipment that was used long ago yet used very successfully. A person could take several days to fully investigate every display. The museum has a functional Iron Lung, the only example of which that I am aware of. Hearing how loud this piece of equipment is gives me a higher level of awe and respect for the individuals who used it. There is a significant display for a local lady who used this one for many years and learned to paint scenes while holding a brush in her mouth. This museum would be of interest for most anyone, because everyone needs medical care at some point, and this museum shows how it was done many years ago. One of my hobbies is to visit different museums, and I’ve seen many, but this is probably the most interesting museum I’ve ever seen. Again, an absolute hidden gem.
My grandmother Sybil Loften Hutchens lived with the Boyers as a high school student at Lincoln High School during World War II and worked as Dr. Boyer’s receptionist. This would have been from 1942 to 1944. She and her family lived in nearby in Sugar Hill, but due to the war there were no school buses running, as well as a shortage of gasoline.
Dr. Boyer delivered all four of my grandmother’s children between 1948 and 1952–my three uncles and my mother. The last two boys were delivered in 1951 and 1952 after my grandparents moved to Texas, and Granny was cared by Dr. Boyer even after the family moved to Texas. My great-grandparents lived in both Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma for the rest of their lives.
I just learned of the ACDM’s existence. I grew up in Newton and Boone Counties in Arkansas. Around 1939, my parents contracted milk sickness. A doctor from Harrison visited them in Compton. They were not expected to recover. When they did, the doctor said the episode would be written up in a journal. I am ninety-one now and would like to read about that.