Top 10 of the Burke Museum in 2009

2009 was a busy year for the Burke Museum. In some ways it was a challenging year, as the museum was certainly not immune to the consequences of a national economic crisis, but the staff, board, and volunteers at the museum worked hard to accomplish a number of exciting things. Below, in no particular order, is a list of the top 10 moments at the Burke Museum from the past 12 months. Looking forward to an equally exciting 2010!

Curator discovers new fish species: “Psychedelica”Curator of fishes Ted Pietsch and UW master’s student Rachel Arnold discovered a fish unlike any other and named it “Psychadelica” for its wild and colorful patterns.





Education staff launch Burkemobile program
For the first time ever, Burke Museum educators traveled across the state to present programs to K-12 students in a new education outreach program called Burkemobile.





Museum starts natural history-themed trivia night at local pub
In a new effort to share knowledge about the museum’s exhibit, events, and collections, the Burke Museum communications staff started a monthly trivia night at the College Inn Pub, quizzing contestants about the natural and cultural world. Each trivia night exceeded our expectations, filling the College Inn to maximum capacity and creating an environment filled with lively competition.

Over 30 local coffee vendors help present Coffee: The World In Your Cup exhibit
Coffee: The World in Your Cup was an exhibit at the Burke Museum from January through September of this year that shared the stories behind global coffee production and consumption. Nearly each weekend during the run of the exhibit, coffee vendors from around the Puget Sound shared their knowledge of and passion for coffee at free tasting events.

Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway members’ preview draws record-breaking attendance
Two Fridays ago, over 550 members and friends of the Burke gathered at the museum to celebrate the opening of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, an exhibit featuring the art of Ray Troll and fossils from the Burke’s paleontology collection.

Olson Kundig Architects are selected to conduct a pre-design for a new Burke Museum building
Working alongside Olson Kundig Architects, Burke Museum staff and board members entered the first phase of expansion planning – a pre-design study to determine future building needs.



Paleontology curator studies new species
Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum, was in the news a number of times this past year for his research on prehistoric mammals and mammal relatives, such as Kombuisia antarctica, a pre-mammal recently discovered in Antarctica.



David Boxley pole from Burke collection installed on UW campus
In September, a totem pole carved by Tsimshian artist David Boxley was raised at the UW Tower. Burke Museum staff and curators organized a dedication ceremony for the pole that was well attended.



Olympic Marmot designated as official state endemic mammal of Washington State
Curator of mammalogy Dr. Jim Kenagy spent many months advising a group of students from Wedgwood Elementary School as they prepared to testify to the Washington State legislature about the important of the Olympic Marmot to Washington’s heritage. The result? A new state endemic mammal!

UW student finds projectile point on campus
When a UW freshman stumbled upon a stone artifact while digging outside the Botany Greenhouse on campus, she called the archaeology experts at the Burke Museum who identified a 4,000-7,000 year old projectile point.

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

Seattle PI Readers "Ask the Burke"

The SeattlePI.com recently began a new online column on their popular Big Blog called “Ask the Burke.” The column is modeled after the successful “Ask MOHAI,” in which questions about local history are answered by experts at the Museum of History and Industry. Ask the Burke addresses common questions about the natural or cultural history of this region. I think the column is an exciting way to use local media to share the wealth of knowledge of local cultural institutions.

The most recent installment of Ask the Burke posed the question “What is the most abundant fish in Puget Sound?” So what is the answer? Curator of fishes Ted Pietsch’s response might surprise you!

(hint: it's not salmon!)

Do you have questions you’d like to ask the Burke? Leave a comment on this blog post!

Paleontology meets art

A couple of weeks ago, we posted this video showcasing Ray Troll’s artistic process as he prepared for the new Burke exhibit, Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway, which opens this Saturday. Ray collaborated with Kirk Johnson, curator of paleontology at the Denver National History Museum, and the staff at the Burke, to organize this exhibit about evolution, extinction, and early life on Earth. In the video about Ray, he discusses how science influences his art, so it seemed fitting to get Kirk’s perspective, as a scientist, on why art and science are complementary. He has some interesting points about how this collaboration helps us all understand the past. Take a look:



The video was filmed this summer during a road trip Ray and Kirk took around Washington, exploring the fossilized prehistory of this state. To view other videos of their trip as well as Ray Troll’s discussion of science and art, click here.

See for yourself how science and art influence each other at the opening day of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway this Saturday. Tours of the exhibit will start at 10:30 and happen on the hour throughout the day.

Posted by: Andrea Barber, Communications

Ainu delegates visit Burke for cultural exchange

This week, the Burke Museum welcomed a delegation of 10 members of the Ainu Association of Hokkaido for the first of three visits between Japan and the Pacific Northwest that will take place over the next 9 months as part of an exciting project called “Carrying Traditions Across the Waters of Time: Ainu and Pacific Northwest Cultural Collaborations.”

The central focus of this cultural exchange project is the shared efforts between indigenous people in Japan and the Pacific Northwest to revive ancient relationships to the sea and the canoe. The participants include members of the Suquamish, Duwamish, Tulalip, Makah, and Squaxin Island tribes of Washington State and the Hokkaido Ainu Association of Japan. Together, the participants will share cultural knowledge, broaden public awareness of environmental and social issues faced globally by Native peoples, and gain insight into museum practices in a tribal or inter-tribal setting.


This week’s visit by the Ainu delegation, whose 10 members range in age from 19 to 70 years old, marks the first time all of the participants in this cultural exchange have meet one another. The Ainu delegation will spend the week visiting tribal museums and cultural centers of the 5 partnering tribes from Washington. In March 2010, a group of representatives from the Pacific Northwest will travel to Japan to make similar visits to Ainu museums and cultural centers. Then, in July 2010, the Ainu delegation will return to Washington to participate in an annual tribal canoe journey, hosted by the Makah Tribe in Neah Bay.


Over the next 9 months, the Burke Blog will record the progress of the Ainu and Pacific Northwest Cultural Collaboration, but for the most current updates, follow the project on Facebook.

This exchange has been funded by Museums & Communities Collaboration Abroad (MCCA), which is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State in partnership with the American Association of Museums.

Photos: Visiting delegates from the Ainu Association of Hokkaido visited the Burke Museum on Monday morning for a welcome breakfast and a tour of the museum.

Burke curator studies new species from Antarctica

A new species that is a distant relative of mammals has been identified by Christian A. Sidor, Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology, along with Jörg Fröbisch and Kenneth D. Angielczyk of the Field Museum. Kombuisia antarctica, a plant eater about the size of housecat, is part of a group of extinct mammal relatives called anomodonts. The Kombuisia antarctica’s name is tribute to where the pre-mammal lived, and by inhabiting Antarctica, the species was able to survive one of the most treacherous times on Earth.

The illustration shows the geographic location of Kombuisia antarctica in Antarctica with a reconstruction of how the animal probably looked like in life. (Credit: Jörg Fröbisch, Kenneth D. Angielczyk, and Christian A. Sidor)

About 252 million years ago, at the end of the Permian Period, the world went through the largest known mass extinction in history. Scientists are debating what exactly caused the mass extinction to occur, but one of the likely causes is global warming as a result of major volcanic activity in Siberia. During this tumultuous time for the Earth’s living creatures, Antarctica was actually one of the safest places to be.

It may seem odd to think of Antarctica as a good place to live, but during the Permian Period, the continent was vastly different from the way it is today. The continent was further north, and therefore was warmer and did not have glaciers.

Although Antarctica may have been an inhabitable place for Kombuisia antarctica millions of years ago, scientists today face extreme weather conditions. However, scientific findings and discoveries like Kombuisia antarctica are well worth the expeditions. Sidor’s discovery fills gaps in the fossil record and gives us a better understanding of vertebrate survival throughout Earth’s history.

To learn more about Kombuisia antarctica, click here.

Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications

Projectile point found on UW campus

This week, the Burke released a press release about a stone projectile point found buried in the ground near the UW Botany Greenhouse last month. The point (pictured at right) was found by a UW freshmen, who uncovered it while working on a small garden near the greenhouse, and was brought to the Burke Museum for identification and analysis.

Archaeology staff at the Burke estimate the point is at least 4,000 years old, and may be up to 7,000 years old. The discovery of the point is consistent with other archaeological data from around campus that show that Native American people lived on what are now the grounds of the University of Washington. An "Indian Trail," documented by maps from the Historic General Land Office (below), at one point bisected the UW campus area, and ran not far from where the projectile point was found.

(click to enlarge image)

While other archaeological materials have been discovered on and around the UW campus, this is the first find in many years. Modern archaeological practices require diligence when recording and documenting archaeological sites, so the information gathered about this site is much more specific and useful to understanding the history of the landscape on which the UW is built than other finds have been. Burke director Julie Stein, an archaeologist herself, pointed out that other artifacts from around campus have a very vague provenance, such as "near the fountain." The University has now promised to survey that area and other parts of campus with pending construction projects for other potential sites.

The student who found the point, and the greenhouse staff who advised her, were definitely right to contact the professional archaeologists at the Burke Museum. It is illegal to knowingly disturb an archaeological site, and if you think you have found something, the archaeology department here can advise you how to handle the situation.

The Science of Art

If you read our blog regularly or follow the Burke Museum in the news, you most likely have heard about our upcoming exhibit, Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway. The exhibit, opening on December 19th, features the collaboration of paleontology and art and includes fossils from the Burke’s collections that will be on public view for the first time. Intriguingly familiar, artist Ray Troll and paleontologist Kirk Johnson see the past as a continuous process that shapes the world today.

For a sneak peek at some of Cruisin’ the Fossil Freeway’s artwork, and to hear Ray Troll’s comments about his artistic process throughout the exhibit’s development, watch the video below.



There are also several other videos of Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll as they explore the prehistoric past of Washington State. To view them, click here.

Stay tuned to our blog for more previews and information on our newest exhibit, and don’t forget to come see it for yourself!

Posted By: Andrea Barber, Communications