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Milwaukee Public Museum begins massive move
The Milwaukee Public Museum starts a major phase of its move on Monday, Feb. 9, closing exhibits and sending its Torosaurus skeleton to Canada for cleaning before the new museum opens.
MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Public Museum is about to enter a pivotal stage in its transition to a new home, with crews preparing to relocate millions of artifacts – including its only mounted dinosaur.
What we know:
Starting Monday, Feb. 9, the museum begins shutting down its Torosaurus display as leaders prepare the collection for the future Nature and Culture Museum of Wisconsin, expected to open in the second quarter of next year.
For curator of paleontology Jon Hendricks, it marks a first in his career and the see-you-later moment for a 65-million-year-old fossil that has greeted generations of visitors.
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"It's being packed up by a partner company called Research Casting International, they're located close to Toronto," Hendricks said. "They're coming down, they're going to help us disassemble the torosaurus skeleton and what they're going to do is take it back to Toronto and clean every bone and make repairs when necessary."
The dinosaur is only a fraction of the scale. The geology department alone houses roughly 500,000 specimens, all bound for the museum’s new location just down the street.
"We've got to take care to make sure everything is carefully packed up and tracked to make sure every single specimen that we have makes its way to the new museum safely," Hendricks said.
The careful work is emotional for many in a community that has grown up with the institution’s familiar halls and exhibits.
What they're saying:
"i hope that whatever is new keeps that sense of the old history and the way we used to look at things and keeping track of things," said Tish Hicks, museum visitor.
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"The building itself isn't particularly warm, it's the people who built the exhibits and that's where the humanity is," said Angela Zar, museum visitor.
The Torosaurus is one of several exhibits scheduled to close in the coming weeks as the countdown to the move continues. For more information on exhibit closures, visit the Milwaukee Public Museum’s website.
What's next:
The museum’s final day at its current site is Jan. 3 of next year.
The Source: The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.