Milwaukee Public Museum February, 2023

[deutscheben]

I was in Milwaukee for a concert last weekend and I decided that I should revisit the local natural history museum while I was there. The Milwaukee Public Museum was a childhood favorite of mine- it honestly left a stronger impression on me than the Field Museum, and there is one main reason for that: their incredible life-size reconstructions of prehistoric life. 
 

So that is where my focus for this report will be. The fossils on display were mostly casts, and nothing stood out to me as particularly notable. 
 

Near the entrance, the museum had a diorama showing paleontologists at work, along with some featherless dromaeosaurs. Nearby, though, they had a reconstruction of one with some plumage on:

 

 

The first ancient ecosystem you encounter when entering the hall of prehistoric life is the Silurian seas that covered the area. This is an incredible display, teeming with trilobites, crinoids, brachiopods and the enormous orthoconic cephalopods. 
 

 

 

Up next is a small display of tetrapod evolution- this one spans multiple periods, featuring Ichthyostega in the water and Seymouria on the land.

 

 

Across from this was the Pennsylvanian coal swamp display case. This one unfortunately was very slightly run-down, with some animals from the accompanying identification key missing. But I still greatly appreciate the detail and care that must have gone into creating it. 
 

 

 

 

I especially like the attention to detail in the display, and the inclusion of some smaller animals like the coelacanths in the water.

I have to pause here, but I will return with my dramatic and enduring core memory of the museum later, the Mesozoic display! 

Edited February 28, 2023 by deutscheben

[deutscheben]

Time for part 2… 

 

The first dinosaur model you encounter is this very friendly Stegosaurus.

 

 

Just look at this face!

 

 

But that’s only a teaser before the Hell Creek centerpiece, an enormous and moody depiction of a Tyrannosaurus gruesomely feeding on a dead Triceratops. This scene, complete with dinosaur and storm sounds and flashing lightning, has changed little since I first saw it some 35 years ago. One of the two dromaeosaurs also present in the scene has been updated with feathers, but I think that’s about it. And I love it! It was an incredible rush of nostalgia to see it again after many years. 
 

 

 

 

And frankly, I think it holds up really well too, aside from the unfeathered small theropods. It’s incredibly immersive seeing these dinosaurs at life-size, in a well-crafted and realistic natural environment. 
 

Mostly realistic, that is… I didn’t notice this until reading a plaque located on an elevated walkway above the display.

 

 

Yes, it says the “mournful cries of loons”. 

 

And here, alongside an ornithomimid and a very realistic and accurate paddlefish and soft shell turtle, we have…

 

 

A loon! Some very cheeky Wisconsin humor for you. 
 

I realized as I was leaving the museum that my visit really was only about seeing the Tyrannosaurus- although I enjoyed the rest of it, I would have been satisfied visiting just that exhibit. I also noticed as I was leaving that plans are underway to build an entirely new museum in a new location in the next few years. Will any of these exhibits come with? I don’t know, but I will certainly be sad if they do not. Despite other flaws in the museum, the dioramas and reconstructions here are incredible and memorable and it would be a great loss if they went away. 

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by deutscheben