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.