The International Union of Geological Sciences Commission on Geosciences has recognized UWM’s Thomas A. Greene Geological Collection as one of the 11 most important geological collections in the world as part of its new Geo-Collection Program.
The Thomas A. Greene Geological Sciences Museum is the only museum in the U.S. to receive this recognition for its “high scientific, historical and/or educational relevance for geological sciences,” according to IUGS.
The museum was recommended for this designation by 700 experts from 80 nations and 16 international organizations. The list also includes geo-collections from Australia, Austria, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, South Africa and Spain.
UWM’s Thomas A. Greene Collection contains 75,000 specimens mostly from the Silurian Period and the Devonian Period. However, the Thomas A. Greene Geological Museum can only display less than 5,000 specimens.
To commemorate this occasion, UWM’s Geological Sciences Department opened up the Thomas A. Greene Geological Museum’s archives to the public for the first time.
UWM Geology Department Student Volunteer Showing Attendees the Greene Museum Mineral Collections – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne 
UWM Geology Department Student Volunteer Showing Attendees the Greene Museum Mineral Collections – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne 
UWM’s Thomas A. Greene Museum Mineral Collection – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne 
Ultraviolet Fluorescent Minerals in the Greene Museum Mineral Collection – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne 
Ultraviolet Fluorescent Minerals in the Greene Museum Mineral Collection – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne
In the basement of UWM’s Lapham Hall, UWM’s Geosciences Department carefully studies and preserves the rest of the collection using compact shelving similar to UWM’s Golda Meir Library.
“Mr. Greene was a perfectionist with his collection, so he always got the best of the best,” said one student volunteer. “So a lot of these are very rare, and I would argue that they’re priceless.”
Compact Shelving Housing the Greene Museum Fossil Collection – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne 
Attendees Gather in UWM’s Greene Geological Museum Archives – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne 
UWM Geology Department Student Volunteers Showing Attendees the Greene Museum Fossil Collection – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne 
Various Fossils in the Greene Museum Fossil collection – Cael Byrne Credit: Cael Byrne
“A lot of people will get one specimen of every type of fossil, but Greene had whole drawers of different types of fossils,” said Curator of the Weis Earth Science Museum Donald Mikulic. “So you could actually start doing population studies back in the 1800s which is something people never did.”
Mikulic is a 1975 UWM alum, retired Senior Paleontologist at the University of Illinois, member of Niagara Escarpment Research Network and an expert on the Greene collection.
“It has certainly always been known as scientifically important for the locality of the midwest and the Silurian and Devonian fossils, but one of the more important things that was missing from most other collections is the documentation,” said Mikulic.
The Greene collection also has most of Greene’s original handwritten labels and documentation for each specimen, museum catalogs, guest books and checkout logs.
“He was very precise about what quarries he was getting them from, and we know exactly where most of those quarries are and their geological ages,” said Mikulic.
In an effort to preserve this documentation, UWM’s Geosciences department has begun an initiative to scan Greene’s catalogs as well as guest books and checkout logs from the Greene Memorial Museum in high resolution.
“Our plan is to make it accessible online as an official educational database that students, educators and researchers will have access to,” said one student volunteer.
The Geosciences Department also has an initiative headed by Distinguished Dissertation Fellow Chase Shelburne to digitize the specimens in the collection through photography and 3D scanning.
UWM had a similar initiative five years ago led by Interim Director of Weis Museum Scott Schaefer as part of a grant from Illinois Masonic Outreach Services. They were able to digitize about a quarter of the collection before the grant ran out. With this designation, UWM’s Geology department hopes to get more grants and funding.
“We’re really hoping in the next few years to build it into more of a destination and more of a teaching resource by bringing more school groups in and hosting outreach events like this,” said UWM Department of Geosciences Chair Lindsay McHenry.
According to event organizers, they had 110 attendees which filled their lecture hall to standing room only. Twenty-One student volunteers from UWM’s Geology Department staffed the event and informed attendees about their various research projects.
All registration fees for this event went directly to the Thomas A. Greene Geological Museum fund, to support outreach efforts and collection digitization, permitting long-term preservation of this important scientific resource.