Rural Maine Medicine, 1850s

This is Dr. George A. Wheeler, MD of Castine. Yesterday, I came across a real find at an area antique shop----a cardboard box of documents connected to the life of Dr. George A. Wheeler which included his diplomas and credentials as well as some photos. Wheeler served as a military doctor during the Civil War. This is from a group photo taken at Wheeler's Alma mater Bowdoin College in the 1880s; in fact, I know this familiar doorway. Wheeler was a graduate of Bowdoin in 1859, and I have his real sheepskin in Latin before me as well as many other original documents ---some in period frames that they desperately need to be rescued from. As some might recall Dr. Isaac Trafton of Newfield was also a graduate of Bowdoin, or what was part of Bowdoin, and also known as the Maine School of Medicine, back in the 1850s; Trafton graduated circa 1853 before building the house in 1856 that is part of the museum. Willowbrook gifted his Bowdoin medical diploma to the Historical Society of Newfield, ME last year but the Curran Homestead Village still has the fine collection that comprises the Doctor's Office Exhibit in the Trafton House ( FYI Trafton was a country doctor and had no formal "doctor's office" ; his office was likely confined to a satchel that he carried in his horse carriage in 1850s Newfield and Limerick). Dr. Wheeler's more complete collection of credentials will be a fine substitute to the Trafton documentation for the purposes of our ongoing exhibit of 19th century medicine in rural Maine and New England, which is one of many hands-on learning experiences for school field trips and general visitors alike at Curran Homestead Village at Newfield. As I do research on Dr. Wheeler I will share it with you.