Dr. Benjamin Franklin Davis papers

The Benjamin Franklin Davis Collection spans some 43 years and consists mainly of patient and store registers and ledgers, each with their own distinctive features. The small leather and cloth bound daybook registers are presumably ones carried by Davis during his patient visits, having his name engraved on some and all in the same handwriting. The large daybook registers are probably the office copied accounts of patient visits, corresponding to the information in the smaller books. These registers contain the patient name, treatment, and cost of services, but not the account balance. The patient ledgers, which look very much like the large office registers, are the only place one finds all the patients listed in alphabetic order, along with the balance. The store registers and ledgers follow the same pattern, giving a well-rounded look at a successful medical practice and business.

Included in the collection are three daybook patient registers of Davis' associate, Dr. C.R. Hume, who shared a practice with Davis starting around 1876. The collection also contains various prescription notices, receipts, blotters, cards, and advertisements associated with the Davis practice.

One minor item in the collection of particular interest is a small soldier-patient account, listing names, ranks, regiments, and diagnoses of soldiers treated by B.F. Davis in the hospital of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, during the Civil War.