Alabama Museum working on the “Gulf of America”

The world’s only museum dedicated to the history and culture of the Gulf of Mexico may be in the hot water following Trump’s decision to change the name of the planet’s biggest bay.

Last year, Karen Pos decided it was time to rename the museum, which operates in Mobile, Alabama, to better reflect its unique status.

To do this, she had to line up support from her first elected officials and her board of directors before raising funds for the project. Next, she had to update the museum’s website, logo and print. Then, in April 2024, she finally announced her new name in a letter extending 50 feet into the eight-storey building. It was dedicated to the largest Gulf culture, the only museum dedicated to history, folklore and culture, the Gulf of Mexico’s national maritime museum. On Earth.

So imagine her reaction when US President Donald Trump recently announced that he had planned to change the waters south of the United States, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. “My personality is to laugh,” Pos said. “Otherwise you’ll cry.”

The name change, which was signed into law on January 20th and part of Trump’s broader efforts to “respect for America’s greatness,” has created an international fire. After Google recently announced that it would rename the Gulf Coast on US Google Maps in accordance with Trump’s executive order, Mexican President Claudia Sinbaum argued that Trump cannot do it legally. did.

Pos says she’s not on her side, but admits she’s overwhelmed by the idea of ​​what would happen if the museum had to change every reference to the Gulf of America. “It’s going to be a complete redo of the whole museum. If you think about it, all audio, all video, all digital, all signs, and more will be very expensive.”

The museum is owned by the city of Mobile, so Pos said he will ultimately follow the lead of city officials. “If you need to change the name of the museum, we will change the sign at the top of the building.” The museum is still in debt from the opening 10 years ago, and Poth changed the name of the museum in 2024. It estimates it will cost nearly $100,000.

However, as museum visitors learn, the Gulf Coast actually has many names throughout its multicultural history. For example, the name Gulf of Mexico first appeared on the map of Spain in the mid-1500s as a way to honor the people of Mexicans who founded the Aztec Empire. However, the 218,000-square-mile ocean basin (the long coastline along five US states and Mexico’s eastern coast, as well as the longer coastline along Cuba’s northwest coast) also has other names.

When the Spanish first arrived in the bay in 1513, according to the museum’s maritime historian John Sledge, they thought they had found a route to Asia, and initially called it the Chinese Sea (Trump) (SLEDGE pointed out that the name is unlikely to appeal to the company). Other early explorers called it the Gulf of Corte or the Gulf of New Spain.

“It was really Spanish waters throughout the 1500s and 1600s,” Sledge said. The Spanish were followed by the French who founded Mobile and New Orleans in the early 1700s. The British ruled the eastern edge of the region in the 1760s, and in the 1810s the US ultimately seized the region.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of 2025, the giant boat-shaped museum is located on the Commando waterfront location in downtown Cooper Riverside Park in Mobile, with floor-to-ceiling windows being fed directly to the Gulf Coast. Interactive displays highlight the region’s multi-layered history and its global impact. Visitors learn that, as is commonly thought, were in St. Augustine, Florida, but not in St. Augustine, Florida, about 450 miles west of the Bay of Pensacola. The exhibits also show that Gulf water has become one of the world’s most productive fishing and one of the largest oil-producing regions in the United States. Furthermore, the Gulf Rivers born from this influence transatlantic transport routes and mitigate the weather in Western Europe by bringing warm tropical waters north.

Other popular exhibits include simulators where guests practice pilot ships, famous shipwreck models, multiple-storey screens tracking European voyages, and a tower of shipping containers that hold exhibits. Included. The city of Mobile, the museum curators say, changed the world in the 1950s when local companies helped launch the first containerized ship.

Most people don’t think about the complex history of the region, says Jack E. Davis, whose 2017 book, “The Gulf: The Making of American Sea,” won a Pulitzer Prize. “They are linking it to oil spills and hurricanes.”

Over the past few weeks, Davis says his friend teased him that his 592-page book might have encouraged Trump’s executive order to rename Water. But Davis said he wasn’t satisfied with the official new name of the US in the Bay, and when he saw the phrase “American Bay,” which was used in an official declaration from the Florida governor last month, he said He had a physical response. “I almost uked, it was awful. It’s so wrong.”

Considering that the Bay has been the center of many cultures for centuries, Davis argues that the new name is too locked up. “It’s not just us,” he said. “The (name of the Gulf of Mexico) is in mind that we go beyond what we call America and other people head elsewhere beyond the US.”

Raised along the Gulf Coast, Davis, a renowned history professor at the University of Florida, encourages travelers to learn about the museums, historic homes and natural scenery. One of his favourite spots is the National Coast of Padre Island in Texas. “If you’re not going to Padre Island and feel emotionally touching, check out the Pulse because it’s really this otherworldly place.”

According to Davis, the first inhabitants of the Gulf arrived 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Early European visitors were surprised when they met the people of Caloosa, who now flourished along southwest Florida. The tribes harvested the rich seafood of the Gulf Coast and stacked up mountains of oyster shells that stretch for miles. The tribe members were very well nourished and towered over the Europeans.

Over the next hundred years, Spain, France and the UK are competing for influence, says Deanne Stephens, a history professor at the Southern University of Mississippi and executive director of the Southern Gulf Historical Society. . “It was a pretty fusion of players in the region.”

Since the 19th century, the Gulf has attracted immigrants from all over the world, from the Sicilians selling New Orleans fruits to Greek sponge divers in Florida. Along the Mississippi coast in Stevens, the seafood industry has attracted workers from a variety of places, including Poland, Croatia, Vietnam and now Latin America. “No matter who was here, it was always recognized by people as a place of opportunity,” she said.

Similarly, Pos says her museum consistently surprises visitors. “They didn’t know how important the Gulf of Mexico was to the world.”

She is excited about the plans for a new exhibit dedicated to another Gulf Coast global influencer. The late singer and Mobile City native Jimmy Buffett introduced hits like the Margaritaville to the relaxed coastal lifestyles around the world. However, she acknowledges that the project can cause many problems. “What do we call it? All his songs are about the Gulf of Mexico.”

Meanwhile, Sledge says that if Trump wants to change the name of the Gulf Coast, the better option might be to call it the American Gulf. Scientists say the zone faces many threats in the coming century due to pollution, coastal erosion and climate change.

“It’s a shared resource,” he said. “We all rely on it and it is our interest to take care of it.