Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum facts for kids
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Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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 Location in Wisconsin
Location in the United States
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| Location | 3367 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
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| Built | 1913 |
| Architect | Alexander C. Eschweiler, Sr. |
| Architectural style | Moderne, Art Deco |
| Part of | Milwaukee-Downer "Quad" (ID74000106) |
| NRHP reference No. | 93001615 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | November 4, 1993 |
| Designated NHL | November 4, 1993 |
| Designated CP | January 17, 1974 |
The Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum, also known as the Greene Geological Museum, is a special place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It holds an amazing collection of minerals and fossils. This museum is managed by the Department of Geosciences at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
The Original Museum Building
The first building for the museum was designed by a famous Milwaukee architect, Alexander Eschweiler. It was built to be fireproof and to keep the collection of Thomas A. Greene safe. Thomas Greene was a druggist in Milwaukee, but he was also a very keen amateur geologist, plant collector, and fossil collector.
In 1913, Greene's family, Mrs. H.A.J. Upham and Mr. Howard Greene, had the building constructed. It was later named a National Historic Landmark in 1993. This was because Thomas Greene's collection was so important and still mostly complete. Even though the collection is now shown in Lapham Hall on the UWM campus, the original building has been updated. It is now used for academic studies by UWM's Sam and Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies.
The Amazing Collection
Thomas A. Greene gathered most of his fossils in the 1880s and 1890s. He collected about 75,000 specimens! Most of these fossils come from rocks found near southeastern Wisconsin. These rocks are called the Silurian Racine Dolomite Formation and the Devonian Milwaukee Formation.
The fossils include many different ancient sea creatures from the Silurian period. You can see trilobites, crinoids, corals, brachiopods, cephalopods, and gastropods. Fossils from the Devonian period are mainly fish and plant remains. All these fossils were found in quarries that no longer exist, which makes the collection truly special and impossible to replace.
The museum's mineral collection has many different minerals and ores. These come from all over North America and even some from other countries. You can see beautiful examples of amethyst, copper, tourmaline, garnet, and turquoise. A very cool part of the mineral collection is a piece of iron meteorite. This meteorite landed in nearby Washington County, Wisconsin. It was given to Greene by a scientist named Increase A. Lapham, who Lapham Hall is named after.
Greene also worked with another amateur collector, Dr. Fisk Holbrook Day. Dr. Day's home in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, the Dr. Fisk Holbrook Day House, is also a National Historic Landmark.
See also
