Whimsy, history and whatnot: How a Milwaukee woman is creating her own museum

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

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March 9, 2026

Meredith Melland, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Morning bracelet featuring two images of Black men — Among the museum’s collections are artifacts of Black cuture such as this morning bracelet featuring two men (Whatnot Museum)

Maria Cunningham loves doing detective work.

The Milwaukee librarian and artist founded The Whatnot Museum, a collection of historical and cultural curiosities that includes medical models, art, toys, advertisements and other items.

“I like to focus on the smaller things that people don’t necessarily think about but are important to our culture and are great pieces of evidence in our culture,” Cunningham said.

Some of the collection’s historical Black hair and beauty products were displayed in an exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Library Atkinson Branch, 1960 W. Atkinson Ave., in February.

“There’s just a subset of things I call ‘whatnot’ because it doesn’t really fit into anything else,” Cunningham said of the museum’s namesake.

Read more about what led Cunningham to create the museum.

Check out the Whatnot Museum.

Stop by ABHM’s virtual galleries to learn more about Black history.

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