Mobile Medical Museum: A Journey Through Healing History

The Mobile Medical Museum, located in the Lyons Park area of Mobile, Alabama, offers a unique glimpse into the evolution of healthcare over the past 300 years. Founded in 1962 by Dr. Samuel Eichold II, the museum preserves and exhibits medical artifacts and archives, commemorating Mobile's vital role in medical education and public health along the Gulf Coast.Housed since 2004 in the Vincent-Doan House, one of Mobile's oldest extant homes dating back to 1827, the museum provides a tangible link to the past. The building itself adds to the atmosphere, offering a glimpse into the lives of those who lived and practiced medicine in earlier times.The museum's permanent exhibit showcases over 300 years of local and world medical history, from the colonial period through the present. Visitors can examine pre-Civil War anatomical models used for teaching, early 20th-century X-ray equipment, and a functioning 1969 heart-lung machine. An Emerson model iron lung from the 1930s serves as a reminder of the challenges posed by the polio epidemic and the importance of vaccination. The museum also organizes special exhibits in the Mary Elizabeth and Charles Bernard Rodning Gallery, as well as at various offsite locations throughout Mobile.Other popular exhibits include a larger-than-life papier-mache anatomical model from the Medical College of Mobile, Civil War medical tools, and two skeletons that are over 120 years old. The Robert Thrower Medicinal Garden highlights multicultural traditions of herbal medicine practiced around the world for thousands of years. The museum's J.L. Bedsole Archives and Ben May Library contain rare books, letters, documents, and photographs available to students and scholars by appointment.