Amateur naturalists played a crucial role in the development of 19th-century science by assembling extensive collections of natural history specimens. From 1878 to 1894, Thomas A. Greene assembled a comprehensive collection of minerals from around the world, as well as an unparalleled collection of fossils from the classic ancient reefs of the Milwaukee-Chicago, stimulating further research on these structures by eminent geologists of the day and providing abundant material for future paleontological research. The entire collection was originally donated to Milwaukee-Downer College, a women's college, where Greene's heirs built a fireproof museum building to house it in 1913. The museum, along with the rest of the campus, was later sold to the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Information provided by the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service.