You’re going on vacation this summer, aren’t you? If you’re like me and enjoy medical history (the more obscure the better), be on the lookout for unexpected boutique medical museums. They are everywhere. Tucked inside big museums, on their own in tourist towns, inside hospitals; you’ll find them wherever you look. Here’s a partial list for you (I’ll start with USA first.). I’m finding these delightful places and adding them to my list all the time.

Mackinac Island, Michigan is known for its ban on cars, and a charming horse-drawn and bicycle lifestyle. Fort Mackinac, important during the American Revolution and the War of 1812, happens to have a lovely recreation of a military infirmary, detailing medical treatment from 1780 to 1895. In a fascinating time-warp, the old infirmary, with soldier manikins lying in bed, is correct for the period, and a video shown on the back wall has current-day doctors strolling from bed to bed, discussing the ailments of that time, treatments used then, their efficacy, and what modern day doctors would do. Down the hill from the fort is a very well-done one room museum dedicated to Dr. William Beaumont and his patient Alexis St. Martin. In 1822 Alexis sustained a close-range gunshot to the abdomen, which surprisingly, he survived. He ended up with a gastrocutaneous fistula, which Dr Beaumont used to do research on stomach acids and the process of digestion. Dr Beaumont’s research was important for new knowledge about the stomach’s function, and controversial because of ethical issues about his relationship with Martin, who was not always a willing subject.

If you’re going to the Florida panhandle, please go to the John Gorrie Museum in Apalachicola. Dr. Gorrie moved to Apalachicola in 1840, just before the terrible yellow fever epidemic of 1841. He became convinced that cold was the healer. He noted that “Nature would terminate the fevers by changing the seasons.” At that time, it was big business to harvest ice in huge blocks cut from frozen lakes in New England, pack it in hay in railroad cars or the holds of ships and send it all over the world. But waiting for the ice ships to deliver was a problem in the hot humid small town of Apalachicola, and Gorrie needed a steady supply. Working on a way to cool sickrooms of his patients with high fever, he invented a mechanical device that produced ice. In 1851, Dr. Gorrie received the first U.S. patent for mechanical refrigeration. This charming museum has a big replica of his ice-making machine, and is well worth your time.

The Spanish Military Hospital Museum, in St. Augustine, Florida, is proudly located on “the oldest street in the Continental United States”. Taking you back to the colonial Spanish days of medicine, they claim to show you how the Spanish were four hundred years ahead of their time. The tour includes both surgical and apothecary demonstrations. And your dog can come along; they are pet friendly.

Atlanta’s CDC (Center for Disease Control) main building, near the Emory University campus, houses a jewel of a small museum, The David J. Sencer CDC Museum. You’ll see exhibits that reflect the work of CDC and the historic role of public health in preventing and controlling diseases, including old iron lungs from the last polio epidemic, beautiful displays about smallpox eradication, and artifacts from historic public health programs across the world. It’s a mix of permanent and changing exhibits, so you never know what will be there. The last time I went, they had a terrific exhibit on mosquito-borne diseases.

The Crawford W. Long Museum in downtown Jefferson, Georgia is dedicated to the life and career of Crawford Long, the surgeon best known for pioneering the use of inhaled ether as an anesthetic in 1842. A recreated general store, 1840s doctor’s office, and apothecary round out this small museum.

Many small towns have country doctor museums; keep your eyes peeled. The Country Doctor Museum in Bailey, NC is the oldest museum in the United States dedicated to the history of America’s rural health care. Guided tours (about one hour) include a history of nursing exhibit, an apothecary, doctor’s office, and sick room. In the Carriage House, you will see a transportation collection and polio display. During the spring and summer seasons, the museum’s medicinal garden is part of the tour.

Will you be in Boston or Cambridge? Try out The Innovation Trail. Patterned after the Freedom Trail, this walking trail connects 21 sites of discoveries in science, technology and medicine, including the Ether Dome at Mass General Hospital, the Museum of Medical History at Mass General Hospital, MIT’s Broad Institute (CRISPR research happened there), the Whitehead Institute (the Human Genome Project), Moderna vaccine research labs, and much more. You can do the tour yourself or with a guide. Many of the stops highlight technology innovations as well, like polaroid film, android phones, and the first Ice King (who made a fortune shipping ice around the world!). You can do it yourself, or with a guide. You can do all of it, spending an entire day, or just the parts that sound the most interesting to you. Check out their website before you go; periodically they have special tours, like hidden history tours, or midnight tours. https://www.theinnovationtrail.org/

Are you a Civil War buff? In Richmond, Virginia, capital of the Confederacy, Chimborazo Medical Museum sits on a bluff in Richmond National Battlefield Park. One of the largest hospitals in the world at that time, certainly the most sophisticated and best organized of the Confederate hospitals, it was once a huge complex of 150 buildings, housing almost four thousand patients at its busiest. Like a small city, it included stables, an apothecary, vegetable gardens, a bakery and more. Those original buildings are all gone but a small exhibit remains in a lovely house there, including a scale model of the original hospital, exhibits of medical equipment, uniforms and documents from the period, and an interesting film about medical practice in the 1860s.

I’ve just scratched the surface here. There are so many more interesting medical museums. Don’t forget the larger, better-known ones, like the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, the National Museum of Health and Medicine, near Washington, DC, and the medical sciences collection in the Smithsonian. Do you have a favorite I haven’t mentioned? Let me know!