Thomas A. Greene

Thomas Arnold Greene (November 2, 1827 – September 7, 1894) was an American pharmacist and amateur geologist. He is known for his collection of fossils and minerals which were preserved by his family in a museum known as the Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum.

Biography Thomas A. Greene was born Providence, Rhode Island, in November 1827. His parents were Quakers, and after his mother's death in 1835, he was sent to a Quaker boarding school, where he remained for eight years. From there, he went to a collegiate school in Point Hill, Rhode Island, where he remained until age 17. That year, he went to work at the retail drug store of Chapin & Thurber in Providence, where he decided to follow that career. He received a thorough education in the pharmacy business, and, in 1848, he went off on his own to start a drug store in the west. Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum on the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee campus. He died at his home in Milwaukee in 1894. After his death, his heirs erected a fireproof building in 1913 to house his collection. Known as the Thomas A. Greene Memorial Museum, the building and collection were collectively designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993. The collection was later removed from the building, and is now maintained at Lapham Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus in a compactor storage system and on display in a small museum area.