Museums Receive $10,000 Wisconsin Humanities Grant

PLATTEVILLE, Wis., March 24, 2021 — The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums are excited to announce that we have received a Major Grant from Wisconsin Humanities.  Our project, Native American Lithics at The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums: Identification and Interpretation will develop a new narrative in the exhibits and programming at the Museums — the history of Native American pioneering in our part of the Driftless Area from the last Ice Age until European contact. The new exhibit is part of the celebration of a trifecta of anniversaries at the Museums: the 50th of the completion of the Mining Museum, the 45th of the opening of the Bevans Mine, and the 40th of the opening of the Rollo Jamison Museum. 

Rollo Jamison collected various Native American lithic projectiles on his parents’ Grant County farm as a boy, starting his life’s passion of collecting. However, to-date, the Museums have focused very little on the artifacts themselves and the Native American stories associated with them. The exhibit and interpretation will connect the static objects in the collage and the human stories they tell — shedding light on the lives of Wisconsin’s first inhabitants, the prehistoric flora and fauna of the region, and the way of life of multiple traditions of indigenous inhabitants of the Driftless Area over the last 13,000 years. 

The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums are located on Main Street in Platteville, Wisconsin, in the heart of the historic Upper Mississippi Valley lead-zinc mining region. Founded in 1964, the museum is a nearly three-acre campus with scenic greenspace, an underground 1845 Bevans Mine, and a 1930s-era narrow-gauge mine railroad pulled by a 1931 Whitcomb locomotive. The mission of the Museums is to continue in the pursuit of excellence in the areas of regional and mining history. To achieve that purpose, the Museums are commissioned to be custodians of the past; to interpret the rich lead and zinc mining heritage of the region, as well as to preserve, interpret, and display the artifacts that define Southwest Wisconsin. The Museums open daily from May to October 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cultural programs and special events are offered year-round. Follow The Mining & Rollo Jamison Museums on Facebook @MiningJamisonMuseum and visit our website at www.mining.jamison.museum for more information on current and upcoming programs.

Wisconsin Humanities supports projects that strengthen the roots of community life through educational and cultural programs that inspire civic participation and individual imagination. Established in 1972 as an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization governed by a volunteer board of directors who come from across the state.