Milwaukee Public Museum

by Paula M. Sumpter

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is reprinted from LORE magazine, a benefit of museum membership. MPM, Inc. holds copyright to LORE magazine and to this posting. ©1996 Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc.

The MPM Geology Section has been collecting fossils for over one hundred years. In that time, no collector has contributed more to these collections than Dr. Gilbert O. Raasch. The Raasch collections date from the late 1920's to around 1940 and include specimens from the Cambrian of Northern and Central Wisconsin, the Ordovician of southwestern Wisconsin, the Devonian of the Milwaukee area and Michigan, and the Silurian of Eastern Wisconsin. Nearly twenty percent of the MPM fossil collections can be attributed to this one man.

For the last eight years the Geology Section has been computerizing the invertebrate fossil collections. The names of the collectors appear in the ledgers and on the specimen labels. Letters in the MPM archives between geologists in the field and the curators at home give us insight into what it was like to work for the museum years ago. The MPM archives have photographs of these men, but none of these records can tell us what they were like. Because of the magnitude of his contribution to our collections, we were especially curious about the life and work of Dr. Raasch.

In April of 1991 we were graced with a rare visit from this remarkable man. At the age of 89 he is still active in geology and paleontology as a consultant living and working in Alberta, Canada. His trip to the midwest entailed other stops, including visits with relatives still living in Milwaukee, leaving only a few short hours to visit with MPM Geology staff. His last visit to MPM was about 30 years ago, just after the museum moved to the new building. He was anxious to see the "Third Planet" Geology hall and explore the collections. We finally had a chance for conversation when we all sat down for a leisurely lunch at a local German restaurant. Over schnitzel and shaum torte he recounted stories from 60 years ago. When asked what he remembered about his co-workers he replied, "I can think back as if it were yesterday and remember these people and my experiences with them..." And then he did just that.

On one occasion, when Dr. Barrett and Owen Gromme returned from an MPM expedition to Africa with a lion cub, alive and well. As Dr. Raasch tells the story:

"The cub became a pet and they gave him a solid black bowling ball to play with. They kept him in the museum chained up by the leg, but if you got close enough he would make a sudden dash and get you by the ankle. Gromme would tell people 'it's ok as long as you don't move'. The lion had grown to be larger than a great dane. One day I was walking down the corridor and all of a sudden something jumped me and knocked me down. Gromme was laughing at me and I suspect the lion was also. I'm probably the only living person to be attacked by a lion in the city of Milwaukee." The lion, of course, became to large to keep as a pet and was eventually given to the zoo. We asked what stirred his interest in geology. "I remember when I was in sixth grade they called me back into the fifth grade to explain about the specimens. I found a list of fossils from along the river dated 1915, which means that I was about 12 years old. Of course it [collecting] was easy because I had this monograph. I would learn my terminology by working backwards. I would look at the illustrations and then read the descriptions and I'd say 'that one must be this and that one must be that'. They were digging this intake tunnel from Lake Park out into the lake and throwing all of the talis up onto the beach. At least once a week on my days after school when I was in the eighth grade I would go up and bring the stuff back on planks. I collected anything that looked like a fossil. The streetcar line terminated at the Park. On the poorer [collecting] days I was able to fill my pockets, but on the good days I had more than I could carry. I would look along the lake shore until I found a plank, then I would pile the specimens on the plank and then get on the streetcar. I lived only about a mile away. Some of those people looked at me as if I was silly! Can you imagine?"

Most of the Raasch collection was amassed during the depression. Money was tight and he was married, with children, and in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He would collect when the weather permitted and return to MPM on school vacations to identify and curate his collections. Sometimes MPM was able to provide him with a car, and sometimes he rode the train. MPM was able to compensate him only in a very modest way for his field expenses. His collection was not exactly donated to MPM. Raasch explains, "I sold it for the princely sum of one hundred dollars. That paid my way through the university."

In true museum tradition he is dedicated to spreading the understanding of geology. In a discussion about the "Third Planet" exhibit and its underlying theme of Plate Tectonics he expressed his pleasure saying, "Oh! I was so impressed with that! I hear my relatives talking about plate tectonics. That is the one thing that is getting across. It's not easy to find connections between geology as it is done and the general public." He added, "I think the museum has accomplished that excellently". We got a taste of his skill as a teacher when we walked with him through the exhibit. He commented on all of the exhibits, but he really demonstrated his wisdom and style in an impromptu lecture in front of the Silurian reef diorama. As he spoke, a school group gathered behind us and hung on his every word. If he noticed their arrival, he didn't show it. He simply talked and we were all compelled to listen. When he was reminded of the event at lunch he commented, "as a kid I was taken on these [museum] tours and I decided that's the place I wanted to head for. When I saw all of those kids this morning I thought 'gee, I hope they grow up and remember this'. I say on occasion 'yes, I was brought up in a museum' and in a sense that's true."

Unfortunately, space does not permit me to recall all of the reminiscences related to us that day. We learned a great deal about the life and work of Dr. Raasch and his collegues and what it was like to live in Milwaukee and work at MPM sixty years ago. Now, at least one of the names that we've typed thousands of times has a smiling face and a warm personality to accompany it. We were fortunate to share some time, however brief, with him while he was here. There are many parallels between his time at MPM and ours. Curators still work together to make collections and construct exhibits. We are still in the business of bringing science to the public, and at least one geology curator is still inclined to bring home locally collected fossils on public transit, but in a burlap bag. As Alphonse Karr once said " The more things change, the more they remain the same" (except, of course, for the lion).