Memory Lane at the Milwaukee Public Museum

Having braved nearly a two-hour-long commute from our home base in Chicago, I imagined that most of the group of adult field trippers were anxious to visit the Milwaukee Public Museum for the first time. Not I--while I certainly looked forward to the guided museum tour, it wasn't my first time there. Still, like any good museum proponent, I felt immense excitement as I once again entered the doors of the familiar institution. 

We arrived early enough in the morning that the Museum was not yet open to the public. The only voices to echo in the open halls were those of staff and members of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC). As I quickly learned that first conference day, it was customary to refer to ourselves as "spinach." While most spinach members appeared to fight against the urge to run to the enticing displays as our guides beckoned us to follow them, I found myself fighting against a flood of childhood memories. 

"Sense of Wonder" is an homage to the Victorian-era displays of objects
(often referred to as "cabinets of curiosities") which largely predated
the standard, taxonomically-driven museum display.

Before leaving for the tour that morning, I spoke on the phone with my father who had asked me to look out for the taxidermy mount of Samson. Of course, I had already been familiar with Milwaukee's beloved gorilla who had died in the city's zoo nearly 40 years ago. So as others dispersed around the entrance of "Streets of Old Milwaukee," I quickly scanned the familiar first floor and then dashed over to the Samson display. 

Samson the gorilla was a well-loved resident of the Milwaukee
Zoo until his untimely death in 1981. His award-winning
recreation can now be found on the first floor of the
Milwaukee Public Museum.

I took a photo as evidence for my father, then learned that the stoically large gorilla in front of me was not the remains of the animal himself (as I had assumed since a child), but a recreation done by taxidermy artist Wendy Christensen. As it turns out, Wendy has been instrumental in the artistry of displays at the Museum for a long time now. 

Anyone who has visited within the past 40 years would have come across such work. Senior Collections Manager Patricia Coorough-Burke, successfully assembling a small group who hadn't yet dove into exhibits unattended, led us through the concept of plate tectonics in "The Third Planet," where I was greeted by perhaps the second most well-known example of Wendy's work. 

Patricia Coorough-Burke discusses her favorite display--a Silurian
reef which would have thrived 410 million years ago when Wisconsin
was positioned on the equator.

Inside a dark room interspersed with sounds of heavy footsteps and flashes of lightening, we witnessed a diorama scene of a Tyrannosaurus rex feasting on a species of Triceratops. Much like the same figures of my early memories, the two creatures were imposing compared to the Dromaeosaurids gathering around the kill site. But something had changed--and this was the moment that I realized how decades-old exhibits still had room for improvement. 

Flanked by two Dromaeosaurids, Tyrannosaurus rex and Trycerotops sp.
replicas demonstrate to visitors just how large dinosaurs really were.
Although difficult to see in the above photos, the center Dromaeosaurid
has been repainted and fitted with feathers to adhere to our
new understanding of their anatomy.

Thanks to new discoveries, the Museum gained information regarding their Dromaeosaurid fossils procured from the Hell Creek Formations in current-day Montana. Having for decades assumed that the raptor-like dinosaurs were covered in dingy scales, it was recently accepted that they more closely resembled birds--with feathered bodies and brightly-colored heads. So, like any scientific institution, the Milwaukee Public Museum adjusted to current understandings. In addition to the costly, dated exhibit, the Museum now displays a more accurate Dromaeosurid--feathers and all. 

I had signed up for the trip assuming that I would primarily be reliving my various past experiences within the Milwaukee Public Museum's permanent displays. Yet within the first hour of the exhibit tour, I realized that no matter how many times I could visit that particular institution--or any other for that matter--I could be confident that there would always be a new experience, new knowledge, and a new sense of appreciation waiting for me within the museum.