FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT:
Madeline Anderson
414-278-2784
andersonm@mpm.edu
MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM TO EXPLORE OWN 142-YEAR HISTORY IN SPECIAL IN-HOUSE EXHIBIT: GROUNDBREAKING
Limited engagement October 18, 2024, through January 20, 2025
MILWAUKEE — Throughout its 142-year history, Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) has been at the forefront of exhibit design, scientific research and community involvement. In the special in-house exhibit Groundbreaking: The Evolution of a Natural History Museum, MPM invites visitors on a journey through the institution’s past, present and future to explore the ways it has changed and grown with its many revolutionary achievements and how this tradition of innovation will continue in its new home. The special exhibit runs October 18, 2024, through January 20, 2025, and is included with general admission.
“The design and construction of the Museum’s future home has sparked renewed interest both from the public and our staff about MPM's history and impact,” said MPM President & CEO Dr. Ellen Censky. “What better way to celebrate this institution’s legacy and build upon the excitement surrounding the new location than to look back on how the Museum has evolved—from its first specimens collected by schoolchildren in the 1850s on field trips to formally becoming a museum in 1882, and now, preserving more than 4 million collections items and serving half a million people annually.”
In Groundbreaking, artifacts, taxidermy and old exhibit props that have been kept behind the scenes will once again be put on display, along with photos of the Museum’s three different locations and some of its very first exhibits, curators and visitors. In addition, a “follow the object” interactive will trace five objects in the Museum’s collections throughout time to demonstrate how technology, scientific discovery and cultural responsiveness have changed our perspectives about them.
Visitors will also learn how MPM set the standard for natural history museums in the 20th century by:
- Being home to the world’s first habitat diorama, created by Carl Akeley, who is known for inventing the “Milwaukee style,” which posed taxidermy animals in recreated scenes to mimic how they would be found in their natural habitat;
- Creating the nation’s first educational outreach program, which delivered natural history lessons out in the community using magic lanterns;
- Being one of the world’s first museums to co-create a Native American exhibit with tribal members;
- Designing the world’s first diorama that visitors could enter and walk through;
- Developing the world’s first exhibit that put life-size models of dinosaurs in their natural habitat;
- Creating the world’s first permanent tropical rainforest exhibit.
“With each of these ‘firsts,’ MPM took a risk in developing and implementing new methods in research, education and preservation that had never been done in the museum world,” said Amanda Kopp, MPM Collections Interpretation Manager. “Each innovation was prompted, in part, by changes happening in society. As we begin to transition to our new home, it’s important to understand that MPM and museums in general are ever-evolving—physically and conceptually—to reflect the larger scientific, technological and cultural shifts occurring in the world.”
The Future Museum, set to open in 2027, will continue MPM’s groundbreaking legacy by building an iconic building with architectural features inspired by Wisconsin’s geological landscape and the confluence of Milwaukee’s three rivers, and in designing exhibits that feature storylines and artifacts developed in consultation with members of origin communities—cultures from which the objects originated.
About the Milwaukee Public Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum is Wisconsin’s natural history museum, welcoming over half a million visitors annually. Located in downtown Milwaukee, the Museum was chartered in 1882, opened to the public in 1884, and currently houses more than 4 million objects in its collections. MPM has three floors of exhibits that encompass life-size dioramas, walk-through villages, world cultures, dinosaurs, a rainforest, and a live butterfly garden, as well as the Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater & Planetarium. MPM is operated by Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a private, non-profit company, and its facilities and collections are held in trust and supported by Milwaukee County for the benefit of the public.
About the Future Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin’s natural history museum, will be relocating from its current location on Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee to a newly constructed building due to open in early 2027.
To be located on a 2.4-acre site at the corner of Sixth and McKinley Streets in the Haymarket neighborhood adjacent to the city’s Deer District, the Future Museum will be the largest cultural project in Wisconsin history. Heavily influenced by the ecological histories of Milwaukee and Wisconsin, the design of the new Museum will be reminiscent of the geological formations in Mill Bluff State Park, emblematic of the region’s diversity of landscapes formed by the movements of water through time. The building will be approximately 200,000 square feet, including five stories, with an additional 50,000-square-foot collections storage building.
To learn more about the Future Museum, visit mpm.edu/future.
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