MPM was one of several major American museums established in the late 19th century. Although it was officially chartered in 1882,[1] its existence can be traced back to 1851, to the founding of the German-English Academy in Milwaukee.[3] The academy's principal, Peter Engelmann, encouraged student field trips, many of which collected various specimens—organic, geological, and archaeological in nature—which were kept at the academy. Later, alumni and others donated specimens of historical and ethnological interest to the collection.[clarification needed][citation needed]
By 1857, interest in the academy's collection had grown to such an extent that Engelmann organized a natural history society to manage and expand the collection. Eventually, the collection, which had come to be informally called "The Museum", exceeded the academy's ability to accommodate it. August Stirn, a city alderman and member of the national history society[clarification needed], obtained legislation from the state legislature for the City of Milwaukee to accept the collection and take the measures to establish "a free public museum".[3]
Early years
The newly formed Board of Trustees hired Carl Doerflinger to be the museum's first director and rented space to place exhibits. The Milwaukee Public Museum opened to the public on May 24, 1884. Doerflinger placed emphasis on using MPM's exhibits for study and research as well as for public education. He also urged the city to purchase land on which a building could be constructed to house the museum and the Milwaukee Public Library. He resigned in 1888. The new museum building at 814 W. Wisconsin Avenue[1] was completed in 1898.[3]
Henry L. Ward was hired as MPM's fourth director in 1902. Previously, the museum had focused solely on the natural sciences, but this changed when Ward began the creation of a History Museum.[3] To further this goal, Samuel A. Barrett, the recipient of the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by the University of California, was selected to head an anthropology-history department.
Akeley's muskrat diorama
Barrett later succeeded Ward and led the museum through the Great Depression of the 1930s. Barrett used the Works Progress Administration and other New Deal programs to keep the museum running and to create employment beyond the existing staff.
Modern history
Construction on MPM's current building began in 1960 and was completed in 1962. The current site is at 800 W. Wells Street,[1] a block north of the old Museum-Library building, still the home of the Milwaukee Central Library, which continued to house exhibits until 1966.[3]
A controversy over the imposition of admittance fees on visitors who were not residents of the City of Milwaukee led to the museum being sold by the city to Milwaukee County in 1976.[4] In 1992, amid assertions that the museum was on the verge of bankruptcy and might have to be sold or completely privatized, a compromise was reached in which the county retained the museum's nominal ownership but all operating control was handed over to Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a not-for-profit controlled by local business interests such as Miller Brewing. Employee wages and benefits were reduced, but private donations expanded and the county's share of costs was diminished.
A Sense of Wonder in the first floor lobby, done in the style of the early museum
In 2006, charges were filed against former museum chief financial officer Terry Gaouette, following the revelation that the museum was several million dollars in the red, a fact that allegedly had been hidden for years by illegal money transfers.[5] Gaouette pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of falsifying a financial report,[6] and his CPA license was restored in 2010.[7]
In 2010, the Milwaukee Public Museum appointed a new director Jay B. Williams, formerly of PrivateBank. He has focused on fundraising and improving repeat traffic.[8][9][10]
In 2014, MPM hired Dennis Kois as president and CEO. Kois resigned from the museum in 2018 for personal reasons, following the museum board's investigation of an alleged affair between Kois and a staff member. Ellen Censky had been named the interim president and CEO while the MPM Board of Directors conducted a nationwide search for the position.[11]
At the conclusion of the search in June 2019, Dr. Ellen Censky was officially named president and CEO [12]
Future
In 2017, the Milwaukee Public Museum announced their intention to relocate after results from a two-year study indicated the existing museum was in need of extensive and costly repairs.[13][14] In 2020, MPM revealed the new construction's location on a 2.4 acre site along North Sixth Street, between West McKinley Avenue and West Vliet Street. Designs for the $240 million project were released in 2022, featuring a five-story, 20,000 square foot building.[15][16] The project is set to break ground in Spring 2024 and estimated to open early 2027.
Exhibits
The Milwaukee Public Museum houses permanent and traveling exhibits.
Streets of Old Milwaukee exhibit
Permanent exhibits
The first major exhibit in the current museum to be completed was Streets of Old Milwaukee, which opened in January 1965. It is one of the more popular exhibits in MPM, and it is estimated that several million people have visited it since its completion.[17]
Research and collections
The Hebior Mammoth on display in the atrium
Totaling more than 4 million artifacts,[1] research and collections at the Milwaukee Public Museum include
A 14,500-year-old woolly mammoth skeleton donated to the museum. The real bones are too fragile to display or mount and are preserved for research, but a fiberglass replica set is on display at the museum.[18]
A collection and digital archive of over 10,000 bird eggs from around the world, focused on birds native to Wisconsin.[19]
United States
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