Milwaukee Public Museum

A series of photographs taken by museum anthropologists from 1910 to 1960 that reflects their work among several of the Wisconsin Indian tribes.

The Milwaukee Public Museum has, from its beginnings, taken an active interest in anthropology and anthropological research. When Samuel Barrett joined the museum staff in 1909, the museum gained an enthusiastic field photographer. To prepare anthropology exhibits for the young Milwaukee Public Museum, Barrett and other staff members went into the field to collect specimens, artifacts, and data; and photographs became a natural and necessary extension of their field notes. A brief look at a bibliography of the Museum’s publication between 1910 and 1960 shows the museum staff at work researching North American Indians in the Southwest, Great Basin, Northwest Coast, as well as Wisconsin.

Wisconsin was of particular interest to the museum anthropologists not only because it was their own backyard, but because Wisconsin is home to several tribes of Woodland Indians. Starting in 1910 with the Lac Court Oreilles Ojibwe, museum staff worked steadily with the Ojibwe, Menominee, Oneida, Potawatomi, and Ho-Chunk into the 1960s, recording the Indian’s activities as they preserved their cultural heritage.

The photograph collection has started a project to digitize the Wisconsin Indian photographs in an effort to make accessible.

Ojibwe Indians

The Milwaukee Public Museum has done extensive fieldwork among the Ojibwe Indians of Wisconsin. Most of this fieldwork was done at the Lac Court Oreilles Reservation in Sawyer County, Wisconsin [Barrett, 1910; Ritzenthaler, 1940s] and the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Vilas County, Wisconsin [Smith, 1920s and Ritzenthaler, 1951]. Short fieldtrips brought back photographs from the Ojibwe of Big Bear Lake, in Barron County Wisconsin [Smith, 1924 and 1927]; Leach Lake, Minnesota [Smith, 1925]; and the Bayfield Pageant held in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. The Ojibwe were also photographed during the Milwaukee Midsummer Festivals of the 1930s.

Menominee Indians

From 1915 to 1950 the museum made several fieldtrips to the Menominee Indians in Shawano County. Samuel Barrett, Alanson Skinner, and Robert Ritzenthaler were particularly interested in the Menominee culture. Huron Smith, while photographic many aspects of the culture, was primarily interested in the ethnobotany of the Menominee.

Oneida Indians

There are two major series of Oneida photographs in the collection. One is a donation by Florence Jones. These photographs were taken by E.H. Kruger around 1900. The other collection is the result of a two month fieldtrip that Robert Ritzenthaler made in 1939 among the 1500 Oneida living in and around the village of Oneida, Wisconsin, in Outagame County, Wisconsin. These photographs represent a preliminary rather than an exhaustive report and represent the community under depressed conditions.

Potawatomi Indians

The museum sponsored two field studies of the Potawatomi in Wisconsin. Although the Potawatomi are widely scattered, two settlements, Stone Lake and Wabeno, can be found in Forest County, Wisconsin. Huron Smith’s fieldtrip in 1925 was primarily at the Stone Lake Settlement. [Stone Lake refers to a lake near the Reservation and not the town of that name.] His work focused on the ethnobotany of the Potawatomi.  Robert Ritzenthaler’s fieldtrip in 1951 was primarily at the Wabeno Settlement. His work focused on the Potawatomi culture.

Ho-Chunk Indians

Between 1925 and 1977 museum anthropologist have visited three Ho-Chunk settlements. Black River Falls in Jackson County, Wisconsin was visited by Alanson Skinner in 1924, Robert Ritzenthaler in 1950, and Nancy Lurie in the 1970s. Ho-Chunks in Shawano County were visited by Huron Smith in 1925. Huron Smith also visited Ho-Chunks in Woods County, Wisconsin in 1928.  Photographs of the Ho-Chunk were also taken during the Milwaukee Midsummer Festival in the lake 1930s.