4. The MILWAUKEE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND MUSEUM BUILDING, W. Wisconsin Ave. between N. 8th and N. 9th Sts., covers more than half of a square city block. This four-story stone structure of Renaissance design, with characteristic details of both French and Italian styles, is the work of Ferry and Clas, Milwaukee architects. The symmetrical facade is designed with a rusticated first story and Corinthian colonnades and elaborate Palladian windows at the second story. The interior has a rotunda, open from the first floor to the dome, finished in Italian marble. The rotunda floor is one of the finest examples of mosaic inlay in the city.
In front of the Museum, contrasting sharply with the architectural design of the building, stands a large Totem Pole bought by the institution in 1921 from the Haida Indians on the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia.
The Library (open 8:30-9 weekdays; 1:30-5 Sun.), founded in 1847 by a group of private citizens, changed residences many times before the present building was erected in 1898. Most of the library's books are on open shelves readily available to the reader. A system whereby readers charge the books they take from the library, subject to verification by the librarian at the door, makes for rapid handling and reduces losses. Eighteen branches throughout the city circulate 20,000 books daily and extend library facilities to more than 700,000 people. Traveling collections go to suburban schools and institutions, and an extension division brings library privileges to prison inmates and hospital patients. To adapt the facilities to individual and group needs, a reader's advisory bureau outlines specialized reading and research programs. A collection of children's books, some printed as early as 1700, is one of the most outstanding divisions of the library. Notable also is an immense volume containing the signatures of 2,300 nationally known persons, compiled by Lydia Ely, art patron, who hoped to pay for the Civil War monument in the Court of Honor with contributions accompanying the autographs. When her plan failed to bring the necessary revenue, Captain Frederick Pabst agreed to pay the balance in exchange for the book. Presented to the library years later, the autograph book is estimated now to be worth far more than the original cost of the monument.
Instructive exhibits, environmental groups, and mural paintings in the several branches of the natural sciences, anthropology, and history occupy the Museum (open 9-9 Nov. 1 to May 1; 9-5:30 May 1 to Nov. 1; 1:30-5 Sun. and holidays). The exhibits ranging from archeological and zoological specimens to typewriters and ceramics, include 562,000 specimens. Many of them have been improved since 1932 through the use of $700,000 from the Federal Works Program. The museum conducts a program of free popular illustrated lectures and field excursions.
The museum is noteworthy for the extensive series of groups and dioramas in all its departments. The Rudolph J. Nunnemacher collection of arms, the George A. West collection of aboriginal pipes, the Carl P. Dietz collection of typewriters, the B. F. Goss collection of birds' eggs, and the William J. Uihlein collection of philately are outstanding.
The museum maintains an extensive reference library, primarily for the use of its staff, but available to special students. There is, in addition, an extensive loan service of teaching aids to schools and other educational organizations of the city.
It is the largest municipally owned and operated museum in the United States.
---Wisconsin, A Guide to the Badger State, 1941
Today the building itself looks much as it did in 1941, except the totem pole is no longer in front of the building. The public museum was moved into a building one block north, but this building still houses the Central Library. The library's hours are: Mon. - Wed. -- 9 a.m.-8:30 p.m.; Thu. - Sat. -- 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sun. -- 1-5 p.m. (Oct. thru April)