Doctor's Bag. The label inside this bag notes it once belonged a "Dr. Leatherwood", c. mid-20th century. Collection of the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, UAB.
The museum now exhibits in the new Dennis G. Pappas Historical Collections Gallery, located on the second floor of Lister Hill Library.
Want to schedule a gallery or collections tour? Contact curator Christina McClellan at mcclelcm@uab.edu to make an appointment, or contact the museum at 205.934.2355 | medicalmuseum@uab.edu.
About Us
The earliest recorded donation to what would become the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences was an apothecary scale given in 1946 to the University of Alabama and its Birmingham medical center. Faculty member, Emmett B. Carmichael, PhD, continued to collect items for donation throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In 1952, the instruments were incorporated into the Reynolds Historical Library collection; however, later donations of objects were accessioned independently from the Reynolds Historical Library’s books and manuscripts. A dedicated museum space was created in 1975, and in 1996 the first curator of the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences was hired and a new museum space established.
Since that time, the museum has grown to over 15,000 objects and has changed gallery spaces several times. As one of the three entities of UAB Historical Collections, the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences will now call the Dennis G. Pappas Historical Collections Gallery home for its public display area.
The Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, supports UAB and broader communities through the stewardship of health sciences' objects and histories, with an emphasis on Alabama, and through educational opportunities, engaging exhibitions, and thoughtful collecting. The scope of the collection includes, but is not limited to, the following fields: medicine, nursing, ophthalmology, dentistry, public health and allied health.