10 YEARBOOK, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE. [Vol. I. 



nent home. The agitation for a site on which to erect such a builcHng 

 culminated, in the year 1890, in the purchase l)y the city, at a cost of 

 $150,000, of the present site, on Grand Avenue between Eighth and 

 Ninth streets. In 1896 the construction of the first unit of the Museum- 

 Library building began. It was completed in 1898 and cost the city, with 

 its original furniture, over $600,000. 



Immediately thereafter, the Museum's collections were transferred 

 from the quarters in the Exposition Building to the new edifice on Grand 

 Avenue, and on January 23rd, 1899, it was dedicated to the public with 

 fitting ceremonies. The Museum's portion of the new building afforded 

 38,000 square feet of exhibition room, and it was generally supposed that 

 this would suffice for many years to come, but when the collections were 

 all arranged it was found that the exhibition halls were well filled. Con- 

 gestion soon developed, and within a few years agitation was begun for 

 an addition to the new building. 



At that time, it was discovered that in 1897, a law had l)een passed 

 by the Legislature allowing cities of the first class to establish Historical 

 Museums. In 1905, an amendment to this law was enacted giving to the 

 trustees of already established Public Museums the power conferred 

 upon trustees of Historical Museums. Under this law the Common 

 Council in October, 1906, passed a resolution establishing an Historical 

 Museum, as a part of the Public Museum. Soon thereafter the Board 

 of Trustees secured a site adjoining the original building and erected, at 

 a cost of $400,000, a new addition for an Historical Museum, which was 

 completed in 1912. This more than doubled the exhibition space of the 

 Museum besides providing much needed space for offices, studios, shops, 

 and other work rooms indispensable to the growing staff of the institu- 

 tion. 



Not the least of these benefits was the large lecture hall provided in 

 this new addition. This made possible a great expansion in the lecture 

 activities of the Museum. Almost from the time of the Museum's in- 

 ception the different Directors and Boards of Trustees had hoped to 

 inaugurate lecture courses, especially for the pupils of the public schools. 

 As far back as 1887, Dr. Wheeler, then the custodian of the Museum, 

 gave the first lectures to the 8th grade pupils of the schools. These 

 school lectures have been gradually improved and augmented until they 

 now form a very vital part of the extension work of the Museum. 



The work of the extension service has so greatly increased from this 

 modest beginning that now about 90,000 persons attend our lectures 

 annually, and courses of lectures are given on many different subjects 



