Venue Spotlight: Milwaukee Public Museum!

The Milwaukee Public Museum exhibits were once housed in the Milwaukee Central Library, but moved to the current 800 Wells Street location across the street in 1962. The original location began as the German-English Academy in Milwaukee in 1851 but its popularity caused it to expand over time to encompass a broadened field of history. It eventually opened to the public as a free public museum on May 24, 1884.

In the late 1920s, museum employees in the Central Library building had a pet lion named Simba, who lived in their offices and played on the roof of the building. He was purchased in Africa during a trip to acquire artifacts for the museum. When he outgrew his living quarters, he was moved to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where he lived until he died of old age in 1943. He was then taxidermied and moved back to the Milwaukee Public Museum. You can see him in the Africa exhibit on the third floor.

More awesome things you might not know about – the Streets of Old Milwaukee decorate for Christmastime, including an updated sound design with sleighbells and other winter sounds. You can download a Streets of Old Milwaukee app for a guided tour!

Host Your Event In A Variety of Locations on the Museum Campus

The Milwaukee Public Museum offers three exhibition floors, the Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater & Planetarium, Garden Gallery, and the Gromme Lecture Hall.  In addition, unique add-on possibilities exist with Nickelodeon Theater, docent-guided tours, scavenger hunts, special exhibits, the Butterfly Vivarium, and more. The exhibition hall has moveable walls so it can be broken up into several smaller rooms when needed for conferences and classes. Events may be held in one room of the Museum or on all three floors.

Custom Catering for Your Event

If you want to nourish your team between lectures or classes, the Milwaukee Public Museum events catering is provided by Zilli Hospitality. Together, they can work with you to create a custom menu that’ll fuel your conference’s attendees to keep on learning.

Inquire about hosting your next event at the Milwaukee Public Museum!

Milwaukee Public Museum

800 W. Wells Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233

Learn more about their services here.

Charmaine Gunther | Event Designer

Zilli Hospitality Group t: 262-547-9447 x1120
f: 262-547-9418
charg@zillihospitalitygroup.com