Grohmann Museum, Milwaukee (must see)

The Grohmann Museum, located on the campus of the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), is a one-of-a-kind institution dedicated to the art of work. Opened in 2007, the museum grew out of a transformative gift from businessman Eckhart Grohmann, who donated his extensive collection of artwork-along with funding for the museum itself. Housed in a renovated 1924 auto dealership near the historic German-English Academy, the museum celebrates the evolution of human labor across four centuries.

With more than 2,000 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, the collection traces the history of work from the 17th century to the present. Its themes range from pre-industrial farming and craft trades to modern manufacturing scenes, vividly portraying blacksmiths, glassblowers, foundry workers, and machinists. These artworks capture not just the physicality of labor, but also its cultural and technological shifts-from muscle power to machinery, from rural fields to factory floors.

The museum features pieces by European and American artists including Carl Spitzweg (the largest collection in the U.S.), Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Max Liebermann, Julien Dupré, Norman Rockwell, and Frederic Remington. A dramatic ceiling painting and floor mural by German artist Hans Dieter Tylle welcome visitors to the museum’s entrance, setting the tone for an immersive visual journey through labor history.

The Grohmann Museum is a rare space where fine art meets the working world-offering both aesthetic and historical insights into how humanity has shaped, and been shaped by, the act of work.