Memorials › Albert Munsell Brooking
Albert Munsell Brooking
12 Jan 1880 – 24 Jan 1946
| Birth | 12 Jan 1880 |
| Death | 24 Jan 1946 |
| Added by | M.D. Hartman on 11 Jan 2017 |
| FaG | https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/175074345 |
Bio
Founder of the largest municipal museum between Chicago and Denver, Albert started Hastings Museum in 1926 with his own collections. According to the Nebraska GenWeb Project, "Who's Who in Nebraska", he was "in 1937 supervisor of construction [of a] modern museum; has done much research & exploratory work in archaeology & ornithology; in early life a big game hunter & traveler, added largest private collection of mounted birds in US to Hastings Museum 1926; this, with his Indian relics, mammals & fossils probably the largest museum display ever assembled by one man . . . " Born in Illinois, Albert began working early in life. From the age of 10 until he was 20, he was employed by his father at a grain elevator in Funk, Nebraska. Afterward he ventured into several careers, including jewelry sales in Holdrege, cattleman in Colorado, conductor for the Pullman company in Colorado and Oregon, and as proprietor of several grain operations, including elevators in Trumbull and Inland, Nebraska. He married Bertha Eleanor Foreman on 6 Oct 1903 in Grand Junction, Colorado according to the 1910 U.S. Census. Again, according to "Who's Who . . . ", his most "outstanding achievement was discovering [a] fossil mammoth, new to science and one of largest ever found; with it was a stone arrowhead of Folsom type, first evidence that man roamed Neb plains when these huge beasts lived; he has also discovered at Dorchester, type of prehistoric buffalo whose horns had a spread of more than 6 ft . . . " There is perhaps no memorial more fitting to Mr. Brooking than the museum itself, which received a great deal of support from the city of Hastings. Made possible by funding from the Works Project Administration (WPA) in 1937, a permanent building was constructed to house the collections that had quickly outgrown two previous locations. Not entirely unique in the history of museums, Albert's remains were interred in the museum itself. From the [Lincoln] Nebraska State Journal, 27 Jan 1946: "HASTINGS, Neb.(AP) Albert M. Brooking will be buried in the center of the institution that is the culmination of a lifetime of effort in the work he loved. "In deeding all his collections and works to the city, Mr. Brooking made the last request that he be interred in the Hastings museum. City councilmen and Mayor Roy Carter, meeting in special session Saturday, unanimously granted the final request . . . "Burial will be in a marble vault underground in the middle of the basement floor area directly below the main floor well in the center of the museum building - "The House of Yesterday" - a monument to his lifelong efforts and the cooperation he received from his friends and the City of Hastings. A marble slab, flush with the floor, will cover the vault. . . . " Albert had one daughter with Bertha, Eleanor B. Brooking (1907-1993); she reportedly died in Sun City, Arizona. On June 14, 1913, he married Catherine M. Schneider (1876-1970). She died either in Hastings or Sun City, according to various sources.
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FOUNDER OF THIS MUSEUM IF YOU SEEK MY MONUMENT LOOK ABOUT
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