Saddlebag

It’s all objective.

Yes, this object is objective. The redundancy is exquisite.

This is a medicine saddlebag, typical of field surgeons during the late 1800s. It held a variety of apothecary items, or medicines, so the surgeon could always be prepared for what they encountered in the field. This particular bag was patented by a man named George Washington Elliott; it was widely used by rural physicians and was one of the earliest accomplishments in his wide array of professions(Eagleton). The embossing on the front of the leather closure reads “Elliott’s Patent, Granted January 18, 1970, St. Louis Missouri, Sole Proprietor.” It contains many small square glass jars with cork stoppers, some even have medicine still in them. It would wrap around a horse, fastened with a leather strap at the bottom, and the two sections of the bag hanging at either side.

Dr. Owen David Slaughter was the owner of this bag and used it in the Habberton area about a 30 minute drive east of Fayetteville. He practiced in the area until the late 1880s after moving to the area from Little Rock around 1865 with his family. He donated land to the local Baptist church in 1877 after it was destroyed during the civil war. He and his son are both listed as pastors for the church(Washington).

Dr. Slaughter likely wore this bag well from 1870 until he stopped practicing, but it is rational to question what he did before this when living in Little Rock, the capital of a confederate state, during the Civil War. Meaning no taint or disrespect to Dr. Slaughter, medicine saddlebags were a common tool used by field surgeons. This bag was obviously not used in the war itself, as it was made in 1870, but it is feasible to say that bags of this type were. Now, picture this bag six years prior. How does its meaning change for you? The initial perspectives change when it is placed on a battlefield. It would have treated different people, in a completely different context. No meager home visits, this was war, thick with death, and the bag would have been the difference of life or death for many.

In this situation, it would not be inherently bad. It would still hold wonderfully enticing bottles used to help people. Doctors are supposed to be good and impartial, helping those in need with compassion. Their bag would be an extension of this, a tool to nearly execute the decision between life and death. However, this perception becomes altered when one considers who it supported. The wielder engrains it with stories of those it treated, carving each and every story into its leather. It holds the lives and stories of many, it is incapable of telling one compact tale.

Now we revert to the idea of medicine bags as a whole. There are no ties to the confederacy or a particular doctor. It is the mystery of the bag and its contents that draw you in. It is a visual playground of bottles that lure you in with their mystery medicines and images of it being strapped onto a horse by an old country doctor who rides into the sunset to go save a life. This idea is what drew me in before I had done any research into the bag itself. It has an inherent mystery

These stories really have nothing to do with the bag though. It is not actually the bag that is objective, it is your perspective.

Bibliography:

Eagleton, N. Ethie. “Elliott, George Washington (1830–1910).” Handbook of Texas, Texas State Historical Association, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/elliott-george-washington.

 “Washington County.” History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas, The Godspeed Publishing Co, Chicago, Ill, 1889, pp. 308–309. Google, https://books.google.com/books?id=zFW0FccemgAC&lpg=PA309&dq=dr%20OD%20sl aughter%20arkansas&pg=PA978#v=onepage&q=dr%20OD%20slaughter%20arkansas& f=false