Our Museum History
The Story of Burpee Museum
The Burpee Museum of Natural History wasn’t always located at 737 North Main, nor was it originally called the Burpee Museum. Its story begins during the U.S. Depression era, with a 1935 federal initiative known as the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Established to provide jobs during the economic downturn of the 1930s, the WPA launched two key projects in Rockford in 1939 that would shape the museum’s future.
WPA: The Museum Project
The WPA created a “museum project” to establish a natural history museum in Rockford, IL. Milton Mahlburg was appointed as the project supervisor. The Rockford Park District offered the top two floors of their administration building, located in the old Barnes Mansion at 813 North Main Street, for this new museum. This property was adjacent to the site that would later become Burpee Museum’s permanent home at 737 North Main Street.
WPA: The Rockford Armory Project
Around the same time, the WPA also offered to assist the Illinois National Guard in building an armory at 737 North Main Street. However, local residents strongly opposed the armory being built in their neighborhood, despite the Rockford City Council voting in favor of the location. To resolve the conflict, several residents urged Harry Burpee to purchase the property, which he did with plans to establish a funeral home. This decision again upset the community, prompting Mr. Burpee to relocate his funeral home elsewhere. Instead, he repurposed the site to showcase art, while the Illinois National Guard moved their armory project to 605 North Main Street.
Shaping Burpee’s Future
By the 1940s, two key properties would become central to Burpee Museum’s history: the old Manny Mansion at 737 North Main Street, owned by the Burpee family, and the old Barnes Mansion at 813 North Main Street, owned by the Rockford Park District. These locations laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the Burpee Museum of Natural History. Today Burpee’s Main Museum is located in the Solemn Wing, an addition made to the 737 Mansion in the 1990’s. The building at 813 N. Main is used for rentals, and is being rehabbed to showcase the Burpee Museum of Natural History in its 1950-1960’s era.
813 N. Main as Photographed prior to 1930. The house was built on the Rock River in 1893 by W.F. Barnes for his wife Julia and their family. When W.F. Barnes passed in 1930, the home was left to daughter Amy Barnes who sold the home to the Park District in 1937.
737 N. Main as photographed and printed in Register-Republic Newspaper on May 26, 1935. Newspaper caption states: “Members of the City Council last night voted to spend $25,000 for the purchase of the Nelson property, 737 North Main street as a site for the proposed Rockford armory…”
Rockford’s First Museums
Burpee Museum was founded on the shoulders of smaller Rockford Museums, and today respectfully houses those collections.
In March of 1904, in the Rockford Public Library the Velie Museum opened its doors showcasing a “fine collection of Birds, Mammals, and Shells” (Rockford Daily Republic, March 9, 1904). Curated by Dr. Velie who traveled to Rockford for this task, the collection was purchased by an unknown donor. The museum was praised in the newspapers as: “remarkably complete for its size. It contains almost every bird in North America and in some species it is without an equal.” (RDR, 1904)
The Donor of the Velie Museum: Beattie
According to the Rockford Daily Republic (5/14/1904), it had been “whispered about some days that donors of the Velie natural history specimens in the public library were soon to be revealed by the placing of a tablet on the wall.” Hundreds of birds and natural curiosities were installed by Dr. Velie. Unfortunately the naming of the donor was delayed due to “site wars” about where to place the new public library.
In May of 1904, the Beattie family was announced as the donors, and a memorial to Mr. John Beattie was created at the library with this collection now known at the Beattie Museum of Natural History at the Rockford Public Library. This entire collection was moved to the new WPA project museum in the 1930s, today’s Burpee Museum Collections.
A Nature Study Society Museum
In 1917, the Rockford Nature Study Society established a museum collection. Their first location was in Mandeville house in Montegue Park. Their entire collection is now in the Burpee Museum of Natural History.
Mahlburg at the Helm
Starting in 1930, Milton Mahlburg was hired as the sole employee of the museum project, Mr. Mahlburg grew up on the west side of Rockford in the Central and Oakwood Avenues area. Milt described himself as a “Daniel Boone type, preferring trapping to sports and the outdoors to any indoor activity. I stuffed my first animal, a gopher, at age 12–it wasn’t a very good job.” (Milton Mahlburg, 1969, Rockford Register Republic).
Combining donated collections, Milt pushed ahead to create a museum in the top two floors of the Park District’s 813 N. Main Street facility. Unfortunately WPA funding ran out in 1940, and the museum was not complete. Milt Mahlburg pushed ahead, and opened the museum, free to the public, in 1941.
During the first year of the Museum, Milt Mahlburg was busy “completing exhibits at the museum, which has become a place of interest and scientific value not only to science students in Rockford schools, but to club groups and the city’s many out-of-town visitors.” (Rockford Morning Star, May 18, 1943). The Rockford Natural History Museum was a tenant, for free, in this building.
The original museum was considered “basic” in the words of Milton Mahlburg himself, but Milt was full of ideas to grow his museum. In the first years, “numerous gifts and collections have been received”, (Milton Mahlburg, General History and Information Letter, 1956).
The museum not only encouraged visitors to view exhibits, it welcomed inquiries pertaining to identification and explanation of objects of nature, and opened the collection for students to reference. Mr. Mahlburg created all the exhibits and dioramas himself painting backrounds in closets and turning them into beautiful diaoramas.
A Critical Relationship
In 1883 Harry Burpee, who entered business with his father as a furniture seller and undertaker, married Della Trufant, his world traveling partner and a great influence in their purchasing 737 N. Main for their Art Collection.
As Mr. Burpee’s art collection museum was next to the growing natural history collection, Mr. Burpee spent a lot of time at the Natural History Museum talking with Milt Mahlburg. The two became close friends. According to Milt, Harry told him on one visit: “Now THIS is the kind of Museum I had in mind!” Mr. Burpee’s current occupation was an undertaker, he was the first certified embalmer in the Rockford region, and the 45th licensed, professional embalmer in the United States.
One might speculate that Mr. Burpee’s embalming and Mr. Mahlburg’s taxidermy allowed for a lot of interesting conversations!
When the WPA project money ran out in 1940, Milton Mahlburg continued to work at the natural history museum, unpaid. When Harry Burpee found out, he paid Mr. Mahlburg for is salary in arrears as well as continued to personally support the operating costs of the natural history museum.
It was Della Burpee, Harry B. Burpee’s wife, that was most convinced Rockford needed museums. After a trip to Europe in 1922, full of visits to art galleries and museums, the Burpees decided Rockford needed something similar.
A Photo of Harry Burpee (source, Milton Mahlburg Collection)
Rockford Morning Star Article, January 1, 1967.
