On these self-led tours, you'll get the chance to explore our exhibits while also getting behind-the-scenes access to interesting collections items, fascinating videos, and links to the exciting research happening at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
That the MPM endures as one of the finest institutions of its kind in the world is due in no small part to efforts of the Museum’s first Curator of Anthropology, Samuel A. Barrett (1879-1965). Barrett, born in Conway, Alaska, was a student of University of California anthropologist Alfred Kroeber and the first person to receive a PhD in anthropology west of the Mississippi (Lurie 1983: 48).
Long, long ago, people did not live on the Earth. Instead, they lived in the Sky World, and things were very similar to what we think of as life on Earth. There were people, birds, animals, and everything else in the Sky World.
Around 800 A.D. Late Woodland Indian cultures in the Midwest made a shift to more extensive maize (corn) horticulture and by 1000 A.D. had organized a complex society referred to by archaeologists as Middle Mississippian. This distinct cultural name is derived from its development in the central part of the Mississippi River valley.
Despite changes wrought by contact with Euro-American cultures and societies, Native people in the Great Lakes region have maintained a strong sense of communal life and family organization, and have persevered in many traditional ways of life while simultaneously accommodating themselves to American society and its economy.
Schlitz Audubon Nature Center is 185 acres of woodlands, prairies, various types of wetlands, and lake beach natural communities. Surface waters include ponds, Mystery Lake, and Lake Michigan. The diversity of ecosystems creates many ecotones that can attract a number of organisms.
American military history, American decorative art, American textile history, and communications/typewriter history are well-represented collections, and firearms technology is a specialty. Additional collections include historic to modern (1600-present) cultures of Europe, Middle East, and Asia.