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Chamacoco Collection

The Museum's Chamacoco Collection consists of 70 objects, such as this belt ornament made of tropical bird feathers, and represent items both for everyday use and for ceremonies. Collected in 1925 by the Museum of the American Indian in New York, they came to the Milwaukee Public Museum that same year. The Chamacoco live in the Gran Chaco region of northwest Paraguay. The Chamacoco today alternate between their traditional hunting and gathering and more recent light agriculture, craftsmanship, or labor. Their population has dwindled from several thousand to approximately 1,000 people today, and few museums in the United States have such collections.

Item Image
belt ornament
Catalog Number
N/A
Accession Number
8117
120

Apache Playing Cards

These playing cards are from the Apache, an American Indian tribe living in Arizona. Apache playing cards are thought to be influenced by the Spanish, however the cards' decorations are distinctly of the traditional Apache artistic style. Made of rawhide and decorated with a variety of pictorial designs, the cards represent numbers or face card values. Playing cards had widespread use by the Apache during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and were even traded for by non-Apache groups. There are not many complete card sets, such as this one, that exist today. These cards a part of a larger collection donated by G. E. Copeland of Milwaukee in 1922.

Item Image
Apache Playing Cards
Catalog Number
30947a-mm
2

The Plundering of the Past: Its Affect on Iranian Archaeology

Some of the first archaeological expeditions to Iran began in the mid 19th century, when British and French archaeologists investigated the site of Susa in southwestern Iran. Over the following decades, excavations were predominantly conducted by American, British, French, German, and Iranian sponsored expeditions throughout Iran. Many of these early excavations proved successful in uncovering a wealth of artifacts, architecture, and information pertaining to the ancient civilizations of the region.

MPM History

MPM was one of several major American museums established in the late 19th century.

Although it was officially chartered in 1882, its existence can be traced back to 1851, to the founding of the German-English Academy in Milwaukee. 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.