In the opening scenes of The Godfather Part II, a young Vito Corleone undergoes a health screening as he enters the country at Ellis Island. Inspectors use a buttonhook, a tool used for fastening shoes, to flip over his eyelids to look for the telltale signs of trachoma. Had they found small bumps and scarring, he would have been sent back to Sicily immediately. End of story. Iconic, fictional stories aside, this feared blinding eye disease has served a critical narrative plot point across human history since 800 B.C.E. A new exhibit at the Truhlsen-Marmor Museum of the Eye®, the world’s only free, public museum dedicated to the science of sight, explores the history of this bacterial eye infection in a special exhibit. Trachoma: Bacteria, Immigration, and Public Health opens May 20, 2026 and will be on display until Spring 2027.
Known as "Egyptian ophthalmia," trachoma caused widespread blindness in the 19th century as returning soldiers from the Napoleonic Wars in Egypt brought the infection back to Europe. The public health crisis led to the creation of the world's first dedicated public eye hospital in 1805 to combat the epidemic, Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary was also established to treat trachoma, as were other eye hospitals in the US. Both institutions today are leading centers for eye care, research, and education.
The exhibit traces the fascinating history of trachoma from this outbreak during the Napoleonic Wars. It explores trachoma’s relevance to the American story of immigration at Angel Island and Ellis Island, and the discovery of an antibiotic cure via worldwide public health efforts. This exhibit also features rare medical books, antique surgical tools, and fascinating glass photo slides.
Trachoma wasn’t treatable until the 1930s when it was identified as a bacterial infection, enabling antibiotic treatment.
“While trachoma has been eliminated from most developed regions, the disease is still a public health problem in 25 countries and is responsible for the blindness or visual impairment of about 1.2 million people,” said Professor Hugh R. Taylor, MD, FRANZCO, an ophthalmologist and researcher. “In just the last few weeks, Australia and Tunisia were validated as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem.”
Dr. Taylor’s research and advocacy have gone a long way towards the control and elimination of trachoma and onchocerciasis, also known as river blindness.
His landmark laboratory and epidemiologic field studies identified the critical role reinfection played in the development of blinding trachoma, and the impact that face-washing and annual dosing with azithromycin would have on the eradication of trachoma.
“This is one of the museum’s first special exhibits leaning heavily on the historical side of medicine,” said Jenny Benjamin, director of the Truhlsen-Marmor Museum of the Eye. “Viewers will walk away not only with an understanding of how trachoma played a part in what we now know about contagious diseases, but also how a major outbreak helped shape some of the nation’s first public health policies at immigration stations like Ellis Island and Angel Island.”
The exhibit can be viewed during the museum’s regular or summer hours, Wednesdays through Sundays.
The Museum of the Eye is located on the ground floor of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood.
(Newswise/HG)
