Learning Lunch

Of all the History Museum’s programs, Learning Lunch affords me the most consistent opportunity to remove myself from a busy work week, and learn something new about the city I call my home….”

Pat Hand, Owner of MH3 Printing

This series allows guests to enjoy free presentations on a wide range of historical and cultural topics. Admission to Learning Lunch is free. Bring your lunch and enjoy complimentary beverages.

Each program begins at noon.

For more information about the Learning Lunch programs, contact Jennifer Theeck, Curator of Education at: 251-301-0270 or theeckj@historymuseumofmobile.com

2024 Learning Lunch Speakers & Topics


January 10

I’ve Got a Mardi Gras Secret

Steve Joynt, Journalist and Editor of Mobile Mask Magazine, featuring music from the Excelsior Band 


February 21

"Countrymarks on the Forehead": African Faces and African Freedom in the Archives of Nineteenth-Century Slavery

Dr. Roseanne Adderley, Associate Professor at Tulane University


March 13

Madame LeVert

Paula Webb, Outreach and Communications Librarian at the University of South Alabama


April 10

The Shipwreck and Excavation of La Belle, a 17th-Century French Attempt to Colonize the New World

Dr. Amy Mitchell-Cook, Professor of History and Interim Dean of the University of West Florida


May 8

George B. Rogers: A Look at His Designs and the Clients Behind Them

Tom McGehee, Director of the Bellingrath Home, and Cart Blackwell, Curator of the Mobile Carnival Museum


June 12

Mules, Machines, and the Cotton South, 1850-1950

Dr. George B. Ellenberg, Professor of History and Provost Emeritus at the University of West Florida


July 10

Getting Out of the Mud: How Alabama Built Roads that “Started Somewhere and Ended Somewhere”

Dr. Martin T. Olliff, Professor of History and Director of the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University


August 14

The Colonial Spanish Slave Trade in the lower Mississippi Valley: History and Violence between 1763 and 1819

Dr. Christian Pinnen, Professor of History and Co-Director of African-American Studies at Mississippi College


September 11

Race and Masculinity in William Johnson’s Natchez

Dr. Timothy Buckner, Associate Professor of History at Troy University


October 9

Digging All Night and Fighting All Day: The Civil War Siege of Spanish Fort, Alabama

Paul Brueske, Author and Head Track and Field Coach at the University of South Alabama


November 13

Alabama in the Great War

Dr. Matthew Downs, Dean of College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Mobile


December 11

Voyage of the Pelican Girls

Dr. Alison Henry, Biomedical Sciences Instructor at the University of South Alabama


Dates and topics are subject to change. Call (251) 301-0270 for more information.