“Wisconsin was underwater, so we had a lot of cool sea creatures here.”

Chase Shelburne is a PhD student and a paleontologist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the Department of Geosciences. Shelburne oversees the outreach efforts at the UW-Milwaukee Thomas A. Greene Geological Museum, which was open for the Doors Open Milwaukee event.

Colby Lamb: What interested you personally about the Thomas A. Greene Geological Museum?

Chase Shelburne: I have worked in museums for about 10 years, but what is really cool about the Thomas A. Green Geological Museum is a few things. First, the Greene family is very graciously still involved to this day. It is one of, if not the best, collection of Silurian invertebrate fossils anywhere in the world. The Silurian is a time period of about 420 million years ago. Wisconsin was more equatorial and actually underwater during that time, so we had a lot of cool sea creatures here. It’s also an intact collection, which is very important and very rare from a historical perspective. Thomas Greene died in the late 1800s, and typically, when that happens, collections get split up, separated, sold or thrown away. His family had the foresight to maintain the entire collection of their ancestor and donate it to what was at the time the Milwaukee-Downer College, which eventually became UWM. 

Colby Lamb: What is a brief history of the Thomas A. Greene collection?

Chase Shelburne: Thomas A. Greene collected these materials from about the 1970s to the 1890s. He was not a formally trained scientist; he was actually what they called a druggist back in the day. We would call it a pharmacist today. His doctor told him he was too stressed out and needed a hobby. He proceeded to collect 65,000 mineral and fossil specimens and ultimately created the best Silurian collection anywhere in the world. He died in the late 1890s, and his family took the material and, in the early 1900s, donated it to the Milwaukee Downer College. A building on campus called the Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum was built where the specimens were kept and displayed. Then, eventually, in the 90s, the building had been sitting there for so long it was derelict and falling apart. It was very expensive to repair, so they left the building and brought all the material to Lapham Hall, where it is today. The Greene Gallery is on the first floor in Lapham 168 and represents around 10% of the collection. The remaining 90% of the collection is in compactor storage in the basement. 

Colby Lamb: What is one mineral or fossil that you recommend everybody see in the collection?

Chase Shelburne: From my perspective as a geologist, we have an unassuming mineral in the hallway gallery that isn’t as showy as a lot of the other stuff. It’s called millerite, which can be found elsewhere in the world. But the only known place where it takes this particular form that we have on display, tiny, grass-style needles, is Milwaukee. Now for fossils, we’re best known for our brachiopods, which are still alive today. We have a brachiopod and its scientific name is Orthosporifer Milwaukeeenis. Its species name comes from the city of Milwaukee, where it was found, and is an unassuming animal that is really cool for the history and geology of Milwaukee. 

Colby Lamb: Milwaukee being next to Lake Michigan, how does that factor into the fossils and minerals we have?

Chase Shelburne: The entire west coast of Lake Michigan, so the east coast of Wisconsin, is all Silurian dolomite. As a result, any beach along Lake Michigan around Milwaukee that has a rocky beach, you can find fossils there. This is what we call a fossiliferous formation.

Colby Lamb: Is there anything you would like to add about this event?

Chase Shelburne: We have two events coming up. First, we recently received an international designation, and we are one of the first 11 Geo Heritage Geo-Collections. This was designated by an international committee called the IUGS, and there are currently only 11 in the entire world. We are the only one in the United States. We just got this designation about three weeks ago; it is a very important, prestigious designation, and it says our collection is important for its historical value. This is a critically important piece of Milwaukee history and Wisconsin history. On November 1st, we are having an event called the Natural Treasures of Milwaukee, the story of the Thomas A. Greene Geological Collection. We are going to formally and publicly announce this designation, and we are going to lecture the audience about the history of Thomas Greene, the collection, and the geology of Wisconsin.  In February, we’re going to have our large general audience’s Natural History Day called Darwin Day, which is February 15th, a Saturday. We will have children’s activities and also things for adults as well.