Historic McDowell House Museum in Danville, Kentucky

We spent a recent day in Danville, and I finally got around to seeing some of the unique museums there.  Our first stop ended up being the Historic McDowell House Museum.

Dr. Ephraim McDowell called this his home, and he would make history by performing the first surgical removal of an abdominal tumor.  He performed the surgery on Christmas, 1809.  The patient was named Jane Todd Crawford.

According to our tour guide, Ms. Crawford noticed something was wrong, and she went to some other doctors, some thinking that she was pregnant.  They tried to help her with her "pregnancy".  Fortunately, Dr. McDowell was about to help her figure out what was going on, and he helped with the removal of the tumor.

Ms. Crawford was a religious lady, and she refused alcohol to help her through the surgery.  She sang hymns to help keep her calm through the process.  As you can imagine, many of the conveniences we have now for such a medical procedure were unknown and not available.

Period furniture and other items are displayed through the home.  There were some cases of instruments that Dr. McDowell would have used during his career.  Bottles of medicine were also displayed.  On the tour, there is a pharmacy where McDowell would have spent time. 

Our guide pointed out a piece of a tree that had craftily been transformed into a trunk case which was displayed beside a bed.  She mentioned that the case was owned by Jefferson Davis!

This was a great house tour, and we were really impressed with all that there was to see.