Library and Information Science Commons^™

Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes 45 objects from the Thai Royal Silver collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Of these, 41 were donated by a single donor, Dr. Louis Schapiro, who collected the objects during his time working as Medical Advisor for the King of Siam in 1931-1932. Following his death, his son Mark held onto the objects until 1969, when they became a part of the MPM’s collection. The chosen objects include boxes, bowls, and other types of vessels. Through researching this collection, the following questions guided the direction for this thesis: How did the silver industry begin …

The Case Of The Benin Bronzes: Exploring Repatriation In U.S. Museums, Kendra Voelz

Theses and Dissertations

The Benin Bronzes are a grouping of an estimated 10,000 works made from brass, ivory, wood, clay, as well as other materials. These objects originated from the royal palace in Benin City, located in present day Nigeria in Africa. Within the last five years, beginning in 2017, discussions surrounding the repatriation of these artifacts from museums around the world have been reignited to a high degree where institutions are actively working towards researching and, in increasing numbers, repatriating the material to Nigeria. Through video and written interviews this thesis examines the thoughts and opinions of 11 professionals in museums across …

Typological And Iconographic Analyses Of Casas Grandes Pottery At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Samantha Bomkamp

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the results of analyses conducted on 80 ceramic vessels from the

Casas Grandes region (Chihuahua, Mexico) currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum

(MPM). This collection, most of which was donated in 1977, was accompanied with little to no

provenience information, and no research has been conducted on the materials since they came

to the Museum. Drawing upon published studies of Casas Grandes pottery, a detailed coding

scheme was developed in order to record formal and stylistic data that could be used to classify

the vessels typologically and chronologically. Fifteen different ceramic types dating to the Viejo …

Investigating The Contents Of A Maya Tomb: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Ceramic Collection From Chajul, Guatemala, Emma Eisner

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a collection of 120 artifacts recovered from a tomb at the highland Maya site of Chajul, Guatemala, and currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Prior to this study, research on the MPM collection was very limited and there were few publications related to Chajul. The study focuses primarily on the 84 ceramic objects in the Museum’s collection. Detailed analysis of these artifacts was undertaken in order to collect data on their likely dates of production, forms, surface treatment’s, functions, and iconography. Contextual information from the tomb is also considered, including details of its construction as …

A Collection Divided: An Analysis Of Accession 16082, The Ohio Hopewell Site Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katrina N. Schmitz

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates and documents sixty-one Ohio Hopewellian objects that form a collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). The objects were excavated from the Hopewell site of Ross County, Ohio which lends its name to a renowned and geographically expansive archaeological cultural horizon. The meaning and interpretation of these MPM objects, and the site itself have evolved over time through decisions made by Native peoples, archaeologists, and museum curators. The MPM’s collection can be used as a conduit enabling discussion of the evolution of interpretations for the entire Hopewell site and the extraordinary number of artifacts which …

Collecting Aztalan: An Analysis Of The Chipped Stone Projectile Points From The Milwaukee Public Museum’S Aztalan (Je-0001) Legacy Collections, Kevin Akemann

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a qualitative analysis of chipped stone projectile points from the Milwaukee Public Museum that were obtained from private collectors who reportedly surface collected these artifacts from the site of Aztalan (47-JE-0001). Private collections like these, referred to as Legacy Collections, are the result of early collecting and excavation practices, by private and professional individuals, and in this research, have been only partially examined in relation to Aztalan and mostly overlooked in favor of materials with more reliable and scientific provenience. Through this research I developed a database from the MPM's digital inventory, handwritten catalogs, accession records, and …

Food For Thought: An Analysis Of The Robenhausen Botanicals At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Ann S. Eberwein

Theses and Dissertations

Museum collections excavated from archaeological sites represent an intersection of disciplines and provoke innovative approaches to the study of these material aspects of culture. Botanical collections of food remains in particular, provide an opportunity to interrogate the way in which culinary practices in the past are understood. The circum-Alpine lake dwelling complex of central Europe includes hundreds of archaeological sites dating to the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age; many of these sites are known for exceptional preservation of organic material due to a waterlogged, anaerobic environment. Robenhausen, located in eastern Switzerland was one of many lake dwellings discovered in the …

Ancient Andean Tattooing Practices, Madison Auten

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the practice of tattooing in the ancient Andean world focusing on Peru. I ask the question: What can we learn about how people in the ancient Andean world used tattoos? For example, who were the people receiving tattoos, where on the body were tattoos located and what did they depict? To address this, I collected data on tattoos preserved on human remains. Mummies originating from Peru were examined and their tattoos were photographed. The mummies I examined come from collections in three museums in the United States, including: the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), the Field Museum (FM) …

An Evolving Experiment In Community Engagement: The Philippine Co-Curation Partnership At The Field Museum, Sarah E. Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, Field Museum staff have worked to build enduring partnerships with local Filipinx-American community members. These partnerships engage participants in the stewardship of the collection, reinterpreting entangled object meanings and connecting the Museum’s collection to the lived experiences of modern communities. Through collaborative digitization efforts and events the Philippine Co-Curation partnership works to confront a colonial past while offering a gathering space for local Filipinx-Americans. As an emerging approach to collections management, it aims to embody the ideals of modern museology, bringing both partners and staff into uncertain territory and inspiring important questions about how collaborative relationships …

Melita In Milwaukee: The Milwaukee Public Museum’S Leopardi Collection, Stephan Noureddine Hassam

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

MELITA IN MILWAUKEE:

THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM’S LEOPARDI COLLECTION

by

Stephan Noureddine Hassam

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017

Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold

The Phoenician/Punic occupation of Malta is an important period in the nation’s history. The Phoenicians first settled the Maltese islands sometime in the early to late seventh century B.C., and their material culture left a lasting influence on the island for nearly a millennium. Beginning in the early 1600s, Phoenician material culture began to be recognized as such upon discovery. Following wider trends in the Enlightenment era in Europe, Maltese nobility and clergy began …

Decolonizing African-American Museums: A Case Study On Two African-American Museums In The South, Anastacia Jonique Scott

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand how African-American museums’ exhibits help individuals gain their sense of racial identity through public memory. In an era where the United States is supposedly “post-racial” African-American museums are flourishing. As institutions serving an important role in preserving the collective memory of African-American people in the US, African-American museums evoke questions of representation within the larger US narrative that confirm the persistent saliency of race in society, and therefore continue to have a public function in maintaining and developing a racial African-American identity (Jackson 2012; Eichstedt and Small 2002; Wilson 2012; Golding 2009).

My research is …

The Unsung Evolutionist: Charles Rau's Swiss Lake Dwelling Collection At The Smithsonian Institution, Liam C. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

During the second half of the nineteenth century, museums and collectors around the world engaged in a collecting frenzy focused on objects from the Swiss Alpine sites known as Pfahlbauten. Romantic reconstructions of these sites captured the antiquarian imagination and resulted in an artifact diaspora. Charles (Carl) Rau, a German-American archaeologist who became the first Curator of Antiquities at the Smithsonian Institution (SI), collected several hundred Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts from the lake dwelling sites of Robenhausen and Auvernier, donating this material as well as his library to the SI upon his death in 1886. This thesis investigates the …

Collecting In Context: A Study Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's French Paleolithic Faunal Collection, Rebecca Fetzer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the history of collecting practices of individual collectors and

museums of French Paleolithic archaeological material between 1869 and 1945. During this time period, thousands of French archaeological artifacts were dispersed to museums throughout North America, many with scant provenience. National agendas and the social and economic factors of the time greatly affected their dispersal. The individual agendas of the collector also played a role. This in turn had impacts on the overall understanding of these collections as well as the contemporary construction of archaeological knowledge relating to the study of early humans.

A sizable French Paleolithic faunal …

A Preliminary Museological Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Euphrates Valley Expedition Metal Collection, Jamie Patrick Henry

Theses and Dissertations

Destruction of ancient sites along the Euphrates River in northern Syria due to the construction of the Tabqa Dam resulted in excavations conducted between 1974 and 1978 by the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) at the site of Tell Hadidi, Syria, by Rudolph Dornemann. The hundreds of thousands of artifacts at the MPM have never been completely published. This preliminary analysis presents an inventory and analysis of the 941 metal artifacts as well as new archival information about the Tell Hadidi/ Euphrates Valley Expedition, whose publication has recently become critical, in order to make the material more useful for future research.

Forgotten Sherds: Analysis Of Archaeological Ceramics From The Riverside Site (20me01), Michigan, Devyn Mcilraith

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides an analysis of the ceramic sherds recovered from the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and the Oshkosh Public Museum’s (OPM) 1961-1963 excavations at the Riverside site (20ME01) in Menominee, Michigan. The Riverside site is most well known as a Late Archaic/ Early Woodland Old Copper/Red Ocher burial site. This analysis focuses on using the ceramic assemblage to refine the Riverside site’s cultural chronology and relationship to the Riverside II site (20ME40). More than 1,300 sherds were collected from the site between 1961 and 1963 and they have been permanently housed at the MPM for the past 60 years. …

The New Pulpit: Museums, Authority, And The Cultural Reproduction Of Young-Earth Creationism, Lindsay Marie Barone

Theses and Dissertations

Since the mid-twentieth century there has been increasing concern among evangelical Christians over the depiction of human origins in American education. For young-Earth creationists, it has been a priority to replace scientific information which contradicts the six-day origin story reported in Genesis 1 with evidence they claim scientifically reinforces their narrative. As this has failed in public education, creationists have switched tactics, moving from “teach creationism” to “teach the controversy”. The struggle over evolution education in the classroom is well-documented, but less attention has been paid to how young-Earth creationists push their agenda in informal educational venues such as museums. …

Re-Examined And Re-Defined: An Exploration And Comparative Analysis Of Moche Ceramic Vessels In The Milwaukee Public Museum Collections, Kirsten Marie Mottl

Theses and Dissertations

For this thesis, I studied Moche ceramic vessel collections from three museums, the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM), the Field Museum in Chicago, and the Logan Museum of Anthropology at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. All three collections originated around the turn of the twentieth century, with the earliest accession in 1893 and the most recent in 2007. These Moche ceramic vessel collections clearly illustrate the evolving museum documentation systems used in natural history and anthropology museums and the challenges of trying to standardize object names, descriptions, and attributes in the museum record. My research for this thesis included personally examining …

Historiographical And Archaeological Study Of The M.S. Thomson Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Sara T. Miller

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a historiographical and archaeological study of artifacts collected by avocational archaeologist M.S. Thomson, focusing on sites in and near the Sheboygan Marsh, Wisconsin. Evidence from this indicates continuous occupation beginning as early as 12,000 years ago. The history of the acquisition of the collection by the Milwaukee Public Museum is summarized and a comprehensive description of the various kinds of materials in the collection is provided. The locations of sites where Thomson collected are mapped and then compared to other known collectors' assemblages from the area. These other known sites were documented as part of the Great …

Fire On The Mountain: The Bronze And Iron Alpine Ash Altar Material In The Frankfurth Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, William Arnold

Theses and Dissertations

Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) Accession 213 is one of many collections orphaned by nineteenth century antiquarian collecting practices. Much of the European prehistoric and early historic material in MPM Accession 213 was collected in a single two-year period from December 1889 to December 1891, but the sudden death of the donor--William Frankfurth--and the passage of a decade between collection and donation left the museum without much context for the materials. Among the artifacts in MPM Accession 213 is a collection of almost 350 metal objects from prehistoric and early historic Europe that have yet to be examined or contextualized. Through …

Andean Archaeological Featherwork At The Milwaukee Public Museum: A Case Study In Researching Potential Context For Limited-Provenience Artifacts, Diane Kay Newbury

Theses and Dissertations

The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) has a collection of 134 archaeological Peruvian featherworked items accessioned in the last century with minimal provenience information. The collection is composed primarily of feather fans and ornamental devices with the remainder being sections of tunics and smaller apparel items. Due to the long-standing prevalence of grave looting in Peru and subsequent sale to collectors, many ancient Andean examples in modern museums are bereft of contextual information. Archaeological collections with limited excavation provenience may be viewed as having less research potential. However, the artifacts themselves may carry indications of their original context. As a result, …

Vessel Form And Function In The Ceramic Assemblages From Bilbao And Santa Lucia Cotzumalhuapa, Guatemala, Amy Kaczmarek

Theses and Dissertations

My investigation of two ceramic assemblages from Santa Lucia Cotzumalhuapa in the Guatemala piedmont zone builds on previous ceramic studies; however, my research focuses on vessel form and decoration as possible indicators related to human activity and site development in the region. I compared data from the Pacific Coast Archaeological Project Relational Database (2002), which include type names, vessel forms, dimensions, and contextual information, with Parsons' findings from the Milwaukee Public Museum Bilbao Project (1967). My quantitative analysis focused on functional vessel attributes related to ceramic types, forms, and decorations from the Santa Lucia Cotzumalhuapa ceramic assemblages to examine the …

Historic Museum Collections As Primary Sources: Thomas Wilson's Robenhausen Material At The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum Of Natural History, Kathryn G. Maxwell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the role of early museum curators and their collecting practices in the construction and transmission of archaeological knowledge. During the late 19th century, artifacts from Swiss lake-dwelling sites, including Robenhausen, a Neolithic and early Bronze Age site located on Lake Pfäffikon in Switzerland, were sold and traded in a "lake-dwelling diaspora" to many collectors and museums in the US and UK (Arnold 2013:877). A collection of Robenhausen material acquired by the Smithsonian Institution's (SI) United States National Museum (USNM) in 1904 is used as a proxy for the collecting practices of the time and serves as a …

"Democracy" In A Virtual World: Eve Online's Council Of Stellar Management And The Power Of Influence, Jessica Ireland

Theses and Dissertations

Interest in virtual worlds has grown within academia and popular culture. Virtual worlds are persistent, technologically-mediated, social spaces. Academic literature focuses on issues such as identity, sociality, economics, and governance. However studies of governance focus on internal or external modes of control; less attention has been paid to institutions of governance that operate within both the virtual and real worlds.

In EVE Online, the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) represents a joint venture between developers and users to shape the direction of EVE's virtual society. As a group of elected representatives, the CSM represents societal interests to the game's developer, …