Did you know the Country Doctor Museum has installed temporary, rotating displays at Wake Tech Health Science Library since 2017? The community college health sciences campus located in Raleigh offers a wide range of health care related programs for their students. The library has offered a display cabinet for the museum to use to showcase our collection and add a bit of history to the advanced health care courses at the college.
This semester, the museum’s display, “Medicine Managed: The Practice of Country Doctors” features some of the museum’s artifacts and archival materials associated with the business side of running a rural family practice. Scans from doctors’ ledgers illustrate the barter and trade practices of the 19th and early 20th centuries with entries for ham, beef, chickens and corn, along with some cash here and there. We also showcase examples of visiting lists or day-books in which country doctors would record their daily house calls. From Dr. Phelps’ archival collection are examples of notes from individuals, churches and community groups asking the doctor to check on a patient and they would cover the doctor’s fees.