New podcast features stories in stone

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

A new podcast was added to the Burke's Interactive Web site this morning. It features David Williams, a geologist and an educator at the Burke, who recently published the book Stories in Stone: Travels Through Urban Geology and who will be presenting about that book at the museum on July 29.

I really enjoyed listening to David talk about how building stone, which can be found in nearly all urban environments (certainly Seattle!), can be indicative of so much: regional geologic history, fashion trends, the relative affluence of a city, etc. In recording this podcast with David, I learned that there are buildings in downtown Seattle made out of stone that is literally more than 1 billion years old. That's pretty amazing!

Listen to David's stories and learn more for yourself about Seattle's urban geology here.

Are you a fossil fanatic?

We just announced the final major exhibit to open in 2009: Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway! If you love fossils, be sure not to miss this one, opening on December 19.
Fossils have long been a subject of fascination and are used by paleontologists to help answer questions about early life on Earth. But how much can the fossil record tell us about evolution, extinction, and geologic time?

We are partnering with celebrated artist Ray Troll and Seattle-born paleontologist Kirk Johnson to present this new exhibit exploring the abundance of fossils in our midst and how and why fossils shed light on Earth's past. Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway will feature a dozen large-scale paintings of Troll's whimsical artwork, all of which were created for a book of the same title, published by Troll and Johnson in 2007. The book records the "epoch tale" of the duo's 5,000-mile road trip through the American West as they sought to explore the fossil record. The museum exhibit combines visuals and stories from the book with real fossil specimens from the Burke's own paleontology collection. Also on view will be a video of a more recent "fossil roadtrip" with Troll and Johnson at the wheel.

More to come as the exhibit develops, but mark your calendars for some fossil fun this winter!

Q: How does one go about moving 650 pieces of ceramic pottery from the Burke Museum to a new storage facility?

A: Very, very carefully!

As the Ethnology Department staff prepare to move the pottery collection to a new storage facility, one student looks back on the project with fond memories.

Posted by: Sarah Bishop, Ethnology

The packing project took our staff 4 months to complete, over 40 HUGE bags of biodegradable packing peanuts and resulted in a nearly 10-foot-high "box mountain" in the Ethnology storage area.

So, out of all the artifacts we have here in Ethnology, why move the pottery collection to this new storage space? The ceramic and pottery collections are not prone to insect damage and are relatively stable to small environmental changes (temperature and relative humidity). But it is also easier to care for similar types of objects when they are all stored in the same area, so a decision was made to put all of the pottery together. This will make it easier for researchers, students, artists and scholars to access and study the collections, and make comparative analysis between pottery styles.

Improper handling is the number one cause of damage to ceramics and pottery, so proper packaging for transport is extremely important. We tightly packed each ceramic object in biodegradable packing peanuts and sheets of Ethafoam (polyethylene foam). Each pot was wrapped in tissue paper to keep all of its pieces together in case of physical damage during transport. Extremely fragile ceramic objects needed to be stabilized before moving to prevent further damage. After each pot was packed, we wrote down the box number on inventory sheets so we could track which pots are in each of the boxes. This inventory is very important to ensure no artifacts are lost during the big move.

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After sealing each box with packing tape, we stacked them in the Ethnology Collection to await transport to the storage facility. After several games of Tetris at the video arcade the previous weekend, I was inspired to create "box mountain." The tower is secured (and protected from damage from earthquakes) with copious amounts of packing tape and is raised above the floor by two-by-fours to protect the ceramics in case of flooding. This stack of boxes saves invaluable collections space for us in the Ethnology Division. Now that the pottery collection is all packed up, it is currently awaiting transport to its new home!

Meanwhile, the collections manager and curator had to secure some necessary funding to purchase storage equipment for the pottery collections to be housed in. It is important to have strong equipment for the heavy pots to sit on, and large storage cabinets with closed doors to reduce dust. And of course, having been through minor earthquakes in the Seattle area, we need to make individual storage mounts for each piece of pottery so it doesn't roll or shake around too much.


Photos: Burke Museum collections staff and student assistants take great care in moving the museum's pottery collection to another storage facility. Sarah Bishop (bottom right) thinks creatively about how to store all of the boxed pottery pieces while they await transport.

What happens when a new archaeological site is found?

Every so often, an unsuspecting developer breaks ground on a new building project and stumbles upon artifacts or remains that connect us to people of the past. It happened in Port Angeles in 2003 when the state Department of Transportation uncovered Tse-whit-zen, a 2,700-year-old ancient village of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe. And it happened again in 2007, when a developer in Snohomish County unearthed thousands of spear points, stone knives, scrapers, and other artifacts that date to the Olcott period (4,500 – 9,000 years ago).

Unlike the 2003 discovery of Tse-whit-zen (after which the Burke Museum was designated as the safest place to temporarily hold the collection in trust), the Burke Museum has no actual involvement with the new Snohomish County site. Much of the site is still yet to be excavated, and of what has been collected, the museum has not been called upon to help care for the artifacts. However, the archaeologists on our staff have been called upon by the local media to help provide some context for understanding the Olcott period and the potential significance of this discovery.

This week, the Everett Herald and KING 5 News reported on the site and looked to the Burke’s team of archaeology experts to help with the reports. Stephanie Jolivette, who handles archaeology-related outreach at the museum, stepped up and shared what she knows about the Olcott period. Read the newspaper article here or watch the news report here.

The collective knowledge of our curators, collections managers, and researchers is really quite amazing. As a public institution, the Burke is a useful resource for anyone in Washington State looking for answers to questions involving the state’s natural and cultural heritage. Next time a new archaeological site is unexpectedly discovered, I’m sure the Burke’s archaeology division will be getting a phone call to help figure out what’s what.

Photo: An array of points from the Olcott period housed in the Burke Museum collection.

Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) photos

This past Saturday, the Seattle Branch of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana was at the Burke Museum demonstrating Ikebana, or the Japanese art of flower arrangement. These photos from the afternoon show off some of the beautiful work done by Aiko Ii, who has been teaching Ikebana in Seattle since 1956. A representative from the local Japanese Consulate were also here most of the day, watching the demonstrations.

Pacific Voices -- Valued Objects: Northwest Coast Wolf Headdress

Posted by: Nicole Robert

George David is an internationally known Northwest Coast Native artist who participated in the development of the Burke Museum exhibit Pacific Voices, as well as the content of the accompanying book. The book, Pacific Voices: Keeping our Cultures Alive, is a collection of cultural objects with personal significance to members of the communities of the Pacific.

George David chose the wolf headdress. Pictured above is one example, from the Burke’s Ethnology Collection.

“The wolf headdress represents who we are. Our winter ceremony is a wolf ceremony called Tlookwana. That identifies my people, meaning not just the Nuu-chah-nulth tribe, but my family. You might hear other people say, ‘We are Raven, we are Eagle, we are Killer Whale clan.’ Me, I’m Tlookwana, that’s the house I come from. It’s not just a family crest, it’s who we are. It’s our power, our identity with nature and everything that’s around us. The wolf is our closest brother. We have songs that call the wolves down from the hills—not just physically, but their spiritual presence. When we sing those songs, the wolves come. They are with us, whether we’re here in Seattle or in our homeland on the west coast of Vancouver Island.”
-- George David

This text is excerpted from Chapter 16 of Pacific Voices: Keeping our Cultures Alive.

Big Announcement!

Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects Selected for Pre-design Study of Burke Museum

Exciting news!! The University of Washington Board of Regents has approved a recommendation to contract with Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects on a pre-design study for the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Washington.

The pre-design is the precursor to a major expansion of the museum, which currently occupies a 1962 campus building. The study will clarify facility needs and evaluate options for improvements that could involve renovation, expansion, or a brand new facility at the current campus. The pre-design will begin in July and be completed by the end of December 2009.

Seattle-based Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects is the 2009 winner of the American Institute of Architects' National AIA Firm Award. This annual award – often referred to as the “Firm of the Year” award – is the highest honor the national AIA bestows on an architectural firm and recognizes a firm that has consistently produced distinguished architecture for at least ten years. Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen also has experience designing Seattle-area museums, including the Wing Luke Asian Museum (2008) and the Frye Art Museum (1997). For more about the firm, visit: www.oskaarchitects.com

International award-winning architect Tom Kundig will be lead designer for the Burke Museum project. Kundig is the recipient of the 2008 "National Design Award in Architecture Design" from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the 2007 Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has won seven National AIA Institute Honor Awards. Kundig holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Washington.

Burke Director Dr. Julie Stein notes, “The pre-design study will begin a process that will ultimately ensure that all residents and visitors to the Pacific Northwest enjoy access to Washington State’s premier collection of natural history and cultural heritage.”