Mission and Board

Mission Statement

Our mission is to promote the importance of the historic surgery performed by Dr. Ephraim McDowell and the bravery of his patient Mrs. Jane Todd Crawford.

We aim to:

• Preserve and maintain historic McDowell House, the attached apothecary shop, and the surrounding grounds.
• Seek, collect, conserve, and exhibit that material culture which belongs to the Ephraim McDowell family and that which is appropriate to the house while the McDowells lived there from 1802-1830 and the Apothecary Shop where Dr. McDowell practiced medicine.
• Study and interpret the lives of Ephraim and Sarah McDowell, their children, and their slaves while they occupied the house;
• Communicate and celebrate McDowell’s work and his contributions to modern medicine;
• Identify the museum’s target audience and develop continually evolving strategies of connecting with them.

Board of Managers 

Dr. Barry Spoonamore, Chairperson

Mrs. Janet Hamner, Vice-Chair

Mr. Paul D. Bodner 

Dr. John W. Collins 

Dr. Thomas A. Courtenay 

Mr. James Critchfield 

Mrs. Sally Davenport 

Dr. Philip N. Eskew, Jr. (Board Member Emeritus) 

Dr. Mark Evers

Mr. David Hall 

Dr. Charles E. Martin 

Dr. Wally O. Montgomery 

Mrs. Diana Moore (Alliance Representative)

Mr. Michael Overmyer

Mrs. Linda Porter 

Ms. Mary Quinn Ramer 

Mrs. Georgia Hart Rodes

 Mrs. Bunny Scutchfield 

Mr. James C. Thomas (Board Member Emeritus) 

Mrs. Sherrill Thomas

Dr. Russell Alan Williams 

Dr. Emery Wilson (Board Member Emeritus)