Milwaukee Public Museum history

In 1890, Carl Akeley, a taxidermist and biologist noted as the "father of modern taxidermy" completed the first complete museum habitat diorama in the world, depicting a muskrat colony.

He also urged the city to purchase land on which a building could be constructed to house the museum and the Milwaukee Public Library; the new building (at 814 W. Wisconsin Avenue) was completed in 1898.

Henry L. Ward was hired as MPM's fourth director in 1902; previously, the museum had focused solely on the natural sciences: this changed when Ward began the creation of a History Museum.

Nearly six hundred members strong by 1914, the Milwaukee Art Society began the annual Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors exhibition and offered free Saturday classes for children, a tradition the Museum honors with free admission for kids 12 and under.

Together with the Layton Art Collection, the Milwaukee Art Society (after 1916, the Milwaukee Art Institute) worked assiduously to bring fine art to the people of Milwaukee.

Throughout his tenure as Milwaukee Art Institute director (1926–41), Alfred Pelikan also served as director of art education for Milwaukee Public Schools, forging a partnership around excellence in art education that continues today at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The challenge was met: in 1975, the Kahler building opened with vastly enlarged galleries for the Museum.

A controversy over the imposition of admittance fees on visitors who were not residents of the City of Milwaukee led to the museum being sold by the City to Milwaukee County in 1976.

In 1988 the Museum celebrated its centennial and, looking towards the future, developed plans for another expansion.

On December 10, 1997, the Milwaukee Art Museum began construction on the addition Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava designed to carry the Museum into the next millennium.

The bold Quadracci Pavilion opened in 2001 to rave reviews and was adopted as an icon of Milwaukee.

In 2006, charges were filed against former museum chief financial officer Terry Gaouette, following the revelation that the museum was several million dollars in the red, a fact that allegedly had been hidden for years by illegal money transfers.

In 2010, the Milwaukee Public Museum appointed a new director Jay B. Williams, formerly of PrivateBank.

The Streets of Old Milwaukee was renovated and expanded in 2015, reopening on December 11, 2015.

The Third Planet exhibit's Hell Creek underwent a refresh in early 2017.

On September 11, 2020, the museum announced plans to build a new building along N. Sixth St, between W. McKinley Ave and W. Vliet St on a site 1 block north of Fiserv Forum, where the Milwaukee Bucks play.