Luncheon Lecture Series
Learn over lunch during our fascinating lecture series featuring topics ranging from Cleopatra to climate change.
Luncheon Lecture Schedule
11:30am - 12:15pm Lunch in the Garden Gallery
12:30 - 1pm Lecture in Gromme Hall, 1st floor
1 - 1:15pm Q & A
Cost
Lunch & Lecture: $20, $17 for members. See our Luncheon Lecture Menu page for lunch details.
Lecture only: $5; free for members.
Registration required prior to lecture, even for free admission. Please pick up your tickets at the admissions windows.
Register for lecture tickets by calling (414) 278-2728 or (888) 700-9069.
Luncheon Lectures Series 2011-2012
November 8, 2011 – Heart disease in Egyptian women 1000 years before Cleopatra - CT studies of Lady Rai's mummy
Samuel Wann, MD, Cardiologist, Wisconsin Heart Hospital
Dr. Wann, a cardiologist at the Wisconsin Heart Hospital, has
worked for several years with Egyptian and American colleagues
to perform CT scans on more than 50 mummies in the Cairo
Museum, looking specifically for evidence of cardiovascular
disease. Surprising to many, ancient Egyptians, including women,
had heart and vascular disease similar to that found in modern
humans. Dr. Wann will compare the CT findings of cardiovascular
disease in the mummy of Lady Rai, who lived 1570 - 1530 BCE,
to the increasing prevalence of heart disease in contemporary
Egyptian women. Perhaps we can learn how to prevent heart
disease by studying ancient Egyptians.
December 13, 2011 – Images and Interpretations of Cleopatra Over 2,000 Years
Carter Lupton, Curator of Ancient History, Department Head
No individual from ancient times has generated more popular interest than Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. She has been subjected, from her own time until today, to numerous and varied appraisals, analyses and opinions, ranging from violent contempt to glorious praise. She has been dealt with in histories, dramas, fiction and film. Her appearance continues to be a subject for intense debate. This talk will examine some of her various physical and intellectual portrayals and try to find what we can about what she was really like.
Lupton is an archaeologist with a broad range of excavation experience in Egypt, Syria, and the United States. He was curatorial director for the Museum’s exhibition on the ancient Mediterranean world, “Temples, Tells and Tombs,” and is also responsible for the Central and South American Pre-Columbian exhibit areas. He frequently leads Museum tours of the Eastern Mediterranean and Latin America. Lupton’s areas of knowledge include the Near East, especially Egypt, and Latin America, especially Maya Research. Lupton’s interests include Egyptian archaeology and mummies, complex civilizations, pre-Columbian archaeology and museum studies.
January 10, 2012 – Sumner Matteson’s Milwaukee Photographs
Susan Otto, Museum Library and Archives, Library & Photo Collections Coordinator
Sumner W. Matteson (1867-1920) traveled throughout the western United States plus Mexico and Cuba at the turn of the last century, photographing a world that was changing from a frontier to a settled society. In 1909 Matteson settled in Milwaukee and worked as a bookkeeper, first for the Milwaukee Coke and Gas Company, then for the First National Bank. But he did not give up photography completely. He photographed Milwaukee, mostly the east side, from 1909 to 1920. The museum has almost 600 of his Milwaukee photographs.
Otto worked in the Watertown Public Library and the Marquette Memorial Library before coming to MPM in 1983. She spends most of her time in the photograph collection as photo librarian/ archivist – with occasional stints in the library as needed. Otto became Museum Librarian in charge of the library, the archives, and the photograph collection 2005.
February 14, 2012 – Atmospheric CO2 Levels and Climate Change over 500 Million Years
Dr. Peter Sheehan, Head of Geology Department
About 440 million years ago a glaciation caused one of the five great extinction events during the history of Earth. Carbon dioxide levels declined and cooling temperatures created glaciers in the southern hemisphere. As the glaciers grew water was taken from the oceans, draining the warm shallow seas of North America, including those covering Wisconsin. Rising carbon dioxide levels warmed the Earth, glaciers melted, sea level rose and the stage was set for our Silurian Reef diorama.
Dr. Sheehan is the Robert and Sally Manegold Distinguished Curatorial Chair and head of Geology at MPM. He is also Adjunct Professor, Department of Geosciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
March 13, 2012 – Plants used by Wisconsin Indians
Neil Luebke, Curator of Vascular Plants
Luebke oversees the care of MPM’s plant collections, which total around 250,000 specimens. He oversaw a 2 ½ year IMLS grant to conserve the Huron Smith Ethnobotanical collections, and the entire collection along with field notes and publications can be viewed on the museum’s website.
Luebke’s main interest is in the identification, ethnobotany, ecology and conservation of flowering plants, especially in the Midwest. He is currently working on conserving the Huron Smith ethnobotanical collections and publishing Smith’s fieldnotes on the Oneida.
April 10, 2012 – Pleistocene Pachyderms - Elephants in the Cabbage Patch
Dave Overstreet, Senior Archaeologist at the College of Menominee Nation and Research Associate of the Milwaukee Public Museum since October of 1988
Gazing out your window while traveling south on I-94 from Milwaukee to Chicago you might observe fields of cabbage growing in the muck soils that have been drained for agriculture. Prior to this, these locales were characterized by large marshes that were favored hunting spots for migratory waterfowl. Hidden in these muck soils are the remains of possible ice-age prey. At the end of the last glacial episode, some 15,000 years ago, the region was occupied by mammoth, musk-oxen, and caribou in a tundra-like or open spruce parkland habitat. Whether or not mammoth were actively preyed upon by people living on the margins of the waning Laurential ice sheets is uncertain at this time.
May 8, 2012 – Wisconsin Butterflies
Susan Borkin, Head of Life Sciences and Curator, Invertebrate Zoology
From monarch to cabbage white to endangered karner blue, more than 150 species of butterflies have been recorded in Wisconsin. Discover what features they share in common plus differences that make each species unique. Borkin will also talk about efforts underway to help conserve some of Wisconsin’s rarest butterflies.
Borkin oversees the Puelicher Butterfly Garden, arthropods in the Bugs Alive! exhibit and insect collection of over 500,000 specimens. She provides various aspects of research support and is also the Museum’s appointed representative to the State Natural Areas Preservation Council. Borkin holds a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research focuses on the ecology and conservation of Wisconsin butterflies, especially the swamp metalmark (Calephelis muticum), poweshiek skipperling (Oarisma poweshiek) and monarch (Danaus plexippus).