Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater

Why Milwaukee’s Museum Move Is Putting Irreplaceable Public Heritage at Risk

For more than a century, the Milwaukee Public Museum has belonged to the people of Milwaukee.

Not just as a building. Not just as a brand.

But as a shared civic inheritance — one shaped by generations of artists, scientists, craftspeople, educators, and public investment.

As the Museum prepares to leave its longtime home and move into a new facility, most attention has been placed on what is wrong with the old building: aging systems, deferred maintenance, and infrastructure challenges.

Those concerns are real.

But there is a growing concern that in the rush to fix what is broken, something irreplaceable is being quietly left behind.

What “Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater” Actually Means

The phrase exists as a warning.

It does not mean “don’t change.” It does not mean “don’t modernize.”

It means: don’t destroy what matters while trying to fix what doesn’t.

In Milwaukee’s case:

• The bathwater is an aging building and allegedly outdated infrastructure.

• The baby is the Museum’s historic heart — its dioramas, murals, and immersive environments that cannot simply be rebuilt or replaced.

Modernization does not require erasure. But erasure is exactly what many fear is happening now.

This Isn’t Just About a Building

The Milwaukee Public Museum’s historic dioramas were not temporary exhibits or decorative backdrops.

They were:

• Purpose-built environments

• Designed specifically for education and immersion

• Created as permanent public assets

• Integrated into the architecture of the Museum itself

Many were constructed between the 1920s and 1940s, including during the WPA era, when federally funded artists and craftspeople were employed to create works meant to serve the public for generations.

These environments were never intended to be disposable.

What’s Being Left Behind — Quietly

As plans move forward for the new Museum, it has become increasingly clear that the vast majority of these historic environments are not being moved.

Some are being dismantled. Some are being abandoned in place. Some are being reclassified in ways that allow them to be treated as expendable.

All without:

• Independent appraisal

• Public accounting

• Transparent justification

• A clear explanation of why preservation was deemed impossible

This is not how public assets are normally handled.

These Are Not “Old Displays”

Dioramas are often misunderstood.

They are not props. They are not interchangeable set pieces. They are not easily recreated.

A single historic habitat diorama can include:

• Painted panoramic murals by named artists

• Sculpted terrain and structures

• Original taxidermy

• Hand-built foreground elements

• Integrated lighting and casework

• Scientific interpretation embedded into the scene

Once dismantled, their integrity is permanently destroyed.

Digitizing an image of a diorama is not the same as preserving the diorama itself.

Other Museums Faced the Same Choice — and Chose Differently

Milwaukee is not the first city to modernize a natural history museum.

Other institutions faced the same challenges:

• Aging buildings

• Changing technology

• New interpretive expectations

Yet many chose to preserve and reinterpret, not discard.

Museums in Minnesota, Illinois, and California invested in restoring historic dioramas, recognizing that they are core assets — not obstacles to progress.

That makes Milwaukee’s path feel increasingly unusual.

And increasingly troubling.

The Question the Public Has a Right to Ask

If these environments:

• Belong to the public

• Were built with public funding

• Cannot be authentically replaced

• Still hold educational, artistic, and cultural value

Then why are they being dismantled without public review?

Why is modernization being framed as an all-or-nothing choice?

And why has there been so little transparency about what is being lost — and what that loss truly means?

This Is Not Nostalgia

This is stewardship.

It is possible to build something new without destroying what already exists. It is possible to modernize without abandoning public heritage. And it is possible to fix the bathwater without throwing out the baby.

But those outcomes require intention, transparency, and public accountability.

Coming Next: What Milwaukee Is Really Losing

In Part 2, we will look closely at:

• What these historic environments are actually worth

• Why claims of “no value” don’t hold up

• How other institutions assess assets like these

• And why dismantling them without appraisal is a serious public issue

Because once these environments are gone, they are gone forever.

And that is a decision Milwaukee deserves to fully understand — before it’s too late.