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