Significant photography collections housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum include:
- Sumner W. Matteson Collection: 6,000 images documenting the changing American lifestyle at the turn of the century - 1890 to 1920.
- Wisconsin Indians: A series of photographs taken by museum anthropologists from 1910 to 1960 that reflects their work among several of the Wisconsin Indian tribes.
- Non-Wisconsin Indians: A series of photographs mostly taken by Museum staff from about 1915 through 1971 that reflects their work among several American Indian tribes.
- Wisconsin Archaeology: 2,000 photographs of the Milwaukee Public Museum's anthropologists at work at the important archaeology sites in Wisconsin.