Mobile Medical Museum

12/31/2025

Zowie, what a year it's been! Thanks to all the visitors, supporters, volunteers, artists, guest speakers, tour assistants, and community partners who helped us succeed in 2025! We are looking forward to more great things in the year ahead. 🎉🍾

12/30/2025

"With the new year coming, many of us start thinking about New Year’s resolutions, which are often centered around our health. In 2025, 42% of Americans planned to focus their New Year’s resolutions on physical health. In contrast, only 25% aimed to improve their mental health. But our mental health and physical health go hand in hand. Good mental health can help to strengthen our immune systems, develop stronger relationships, cope better with life’s challenges, and improve our overall life satisfaction."

Discover practical New Year’s resolutions for mental health to reduce stress, boost emotional well-being, and start the year with a healthier mindset.

12/24/2025

The Museum will be closed today and tomorrow. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

12/23/2025

There's still time left to make a 100% tax-deductible contribution to the Mobile Medical Museum! Your annual appeal gift enables us to continue providing low-cost STEM tours to hundreds of primary, secondary, and post-secondary students from Mobile and throughout the Gulf Coast region. Scan the QR code or visit mobilemedicalmuseum.org to make an online donation today! 💀💉🩺🩻💊🔬🧫🌡️🦠🧬

12/22/2025

During the Jim Crow era, Dr. Goode was a staff physician at Blessed Martin de Porres Hospital, the only hospital in Mobile where Black patients could be attended by a Black physician. The hospital was a Catholic institution administered by the Sisters of Mercy. Its rapid growth and quality of service drew international attention, though there were never enough beds to adequately serve the community. This picture shows Dr. Goode standing to the left of Bishop Joseph Oliver Bowers of Ghana, who visited the hospital in 1952. They are surrounded by sister nurses and hospital administrators. Image courtesy of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Mobile.

12/18/2025

Man with head wrapped in a gauze bandage, c. 1895. In the late nineteenth century, medical bandages were made of gauze, muslin, flannel, rubber, and elastic webbing. "In applying dressings to wounds of the head and neck...[one] make[s] a few turns over the upper part of the chest and around each shoulder, which prevents the turns of the bandage from slipping, and holds the dressing in place, so that it cannot be disarranged by movements of the patient." From Minor Surgery and Bandaging, by Henry R. Wharton, M.D. 4th edition (Philadelphia: Lea Brothers & Co.), 1899.

12/15/2025

This Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) was planted by a groundskeeper before the Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden was established, but it has become an important part of our educational programming. In Japan, the tree is called momiji. It has a long tradition as a cultural symbol, prized for its beautiful red leaves. It appears in landscape paintings by Sakai Hōitsu and other well-known artists, representing longevity and peace. This time of year, tourists flock to Kyoto for momijigari (leaf peeping) season. Maple leaf tea, or momiji tea, is rich in polyphenols and low in caffeine.

12/12/2025

It's time to start wrapping presents for the holidays.

For Toy Safety Month, remember that toys with small parts pose a significant risk to children, especially those under the age of 3. This X-ray shows the esophagus of a child who swallowed a small object while playing.
Have a safe holiday season!

Image: X-ray of foreign body in esophagus, a cog mechanism from child's toy swallowed while playing, 98th Army Hospital, Munich, Germany, June 13, 1951. MIS 54-22776-2

12/11/2025

Some recent tour groups:
Biloxi High School
Clark-Shaw School of Math, Science and Technology
Connie Hudson Senior Center

We're so glad you visited us! Come again soon 🤩

12/09/2025

"By triggering a cool and overcast period in the Mediterranean, the eruption started a domino effect that led to a downturn in agricultural production, which required merchants to import grain — and the bacterium Yersinia pestis that causes bubonic plague — via the Black Sea."

A volcanic eruption in 1345 may have kicked off a series of events that led to the Black Death sweeping through medieval Europe.

12/05/2025

Third graders from UMS-Wright Preparatory School toured the Museum this week. We learned about Native American and colonial medicinal practices, germs and disease, and how your center of mass changes with different body movements so that you can stay balanced. We enjoyed our time with you and hope you'll be back soon!

12/03/2025

Gebauer's Ethyl Chloride is a local anesthetic that has been used ever since the 1890's. Before the development of Novocaine in 1905, it was the most widely used local anesthetic in the world. Ethyl chloride (also known as chloroethane) is a colorless, flammable gas or liquid. It acts as a vapocoolant--when it is applied to the skin surface, it will evaporate and produce a cooling sensation for about sixty seconds. Originally, a glass ampoule at the end of a canister would be filled with ethyl chloride. The tip would be broken off for manually applying the anesthetic to the body of the patient. An aerosol spray was patented by the Gebauer Company in 1901, and today the anesthetic is delivered through spray bottles and cans. It is most often used for the short-term relief of pain associated with injections, IV's, venipuncture, minor surgeries and sports injuries.