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Can I donate material to the Collections of the Milwaukee Public Museum?
Donations to the Permanent Collections are accepted when they meet a number of critieria including fitting the Museum’s mission and collecting goals for each department. The Museum only accepts gifts without restrictions and abides by all appropriate state, federal, and international laws concerning materials offered for donation.

Enter the Rainforest and you are immediately enveloped by a mountain of biological diversity.

A vivid audio background with the chatter of monkeys, parrots, and other wildlife sets the stage as you gaze at huge transparent cubes filled with scores of colorful butterflies, beetles, toucans, macaws, tree frogs, jaguars, and an incredible variety of tropical plants.

Mercury makes its best evening appearances in late February and all of June. For morning watchers, the best time to catch the smallest planet is late July/early August and mid-November.

Venus slowly becomes visible in the evening sky about mid-February. Look for the brightest planet all spring and summer as it fades back toward the sun in mid-September. Venus quickly returns to the morning sky in November and December.

Origin Story

In the beginning, Earthmaker sat in space and there was nothing around him. He became conscious and realized there was nothing there. He wondered what he should do, and he began to cry. Tears flowed from his eyes and fell down below him. He looked down and saw something bright: it was his tears which had fallen and formed the oceans, lakes, and streams. Earthmaker thought some more. He realized that if he thought of something, it would simply appear. He thought of light and it became light.

Great Lakes Indian tribes depended on the forests for raw materials for their homes and they built a variety of dwellings depending on the season.

The most common was the dome-shaped wigwam, which served from late fall through spring. With the exception of the Iroquois, all Woodland tribes from New England to the Mississippi River built this style of structure.

Menominee Culture

The Menominee, who speak a language of the Algonkian language family, are the only present-day tribe in Wisconsin whose origin story indicates they have always lived in the state. The Menominee refer to themselves as Mamaceqtaw (pronounced ma-ma-chay-tau), meaning "the people." Other Indians called them Menominee (also spelled Menomini), derived from manomin, an Algonkian word for wild rice, because it is a major food source for the tribe.