Sunday, March 7, 2010

2009-10 Winter Tana Tour, Museum of Mobile

As I was telling you the other day at 2009-10 Winter Tana Tour, Oakleigh, Mobile Alabama, John, Donna, Man and I trekked over to Mobile for some museum hopping.  After our fabulous lunch we drove over to the Museum of Mobile.

We were greeted by friendly helpful staff.  We had 2 hours on the parking meter (little did we know there was a free parking lot not far from where we parked John's big truck, but, with big trucks you take what you find when you find it and don't complain!) so we got right to it, following the suggestions of the staff.

This is Marianne, the Goddess of Liberty.  She stood on the 1889 Mobile County Courthouse until she was damaged by a hurricane in 1916, removed in 1917 and was stored in pieces until the 1970's when she was "rescued" by the Museum of Mobile.  But, it took a few more years to put her back together and on display.


One of the current exhibits is a collection of stamps and/or coins issued for Black Americans, each individual display had some history about the person, photos of them, a sample of the stamp or coin (a few had entire sheets of the stamp).  It was a great exhibit, where the 4 of us took quite some time closely studying.

This next photo had the 4 of us laughing for quite some time.  This display was of underground pipes from early Mobile.  Strange looking display for sure.  On the left is a clay type of pipe, on the right is a wooden type of pipe.  I kinda drifted by the wood and was studying the clay side, standing squarely facing it.  John and Donna were facing square on looking at the wooden pipe.  We were discussing the display and they were making comments about it, well, that did not quite match what I was seeing.  I said something about it being made from clay, and they both looked at me like I had lost it.  I'll bet they were thinking, okkk, call the paramedics, Carol needs to take a little ride to the hospital.  A few moments later we discovered the humor of the museum staff, they had put a mirror in the middle of the display, and half of the pipe, the mirror of course, making the pipe look whole.  Sorry to say, we don't have a photo to show you of each half, but here is the display showing both halfs at the same time.  Guess this was a "you had to be there" moment.  But we enjoyed it!



Below,  sample of beautiful bench.  Just love it! 
But, not sure it would be very comfy to sit on!


There were some wonderful displays of Civil War artifacts, Mardi Gras collection (very heavy into sequins!) and doll house collection.  This photo, which is still out of focus gives some idea of the detail.  Running low on parking meter time, we had to get moving on, this would be a great museum to revisit, and next time we will see if we can scare up one of those free parking spots.

Poker, and drinks, doll house sized.


One of the doll houses, guestimate the size of 6 to 8 foot wide:


The Museum of Mobile, well worth the visit.



Copyright 2010, CABS for Reflections From the Fence.

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3 comments:

Joan said...

Hey Carol,
Thanks for taking us along on your museum hopping. I am a push-over for miniatures and dollhouses, so it was really a treat.

Linda Hughes Hiser said...

This is like Where's Waldo....Where's Carol today. I love miniatures, too. And I love that pink azalea.

The Museum of Mobile said...

Thank you Carol. We here at The Museum of Mobile, are so happy that you had a good visit. I hope your travels will bring you back to Mobile soon. Opening on March 22 is the George Washington Carver exhibit that will be here until July 4, 2010. The exhibit comes to us from the Field Museum in Chicago. To learn more about the exhibit and the Museum of Mobile, please visit our website.
Elyse Marley
Public Relations Coordinator