Coffee talk

Posted by Karin Hoffman, Communications

Coffee is grown all over the world and where it is grown affects the character of the bean. Coffee requires mild temperatures, no frost and moderate amounts of rain to flourish. Growing conditions such as elevation, climate, soil and water shape the overall taste of the coffee. There are three main coffee growing regions:

• Central and South America coffees generally have medium to high acidity with well balanced flavor and light body.
• Africa and Arabian peninsula coffees are described as having medium acidity and body with hints of citrus, cocoa and spicy flavors.
• Asia and the Pacific rim coffees are low in acidity with a bold, heavy body and a robust earthy flavor.

This Saturday, January 31st, Victrola Coffee Roasters will be sampling 3-4 varieties of coffee from Guatemala and Colombia and discussing the differences between growing regions and processing methods. Based on the coffees’ acidity, body, aroma and flavor come see if you can identify the “growing region” of the coffee being sample.

Orca Bowl

Posted by Karin Hoffman, Communications

The 2009 Orca Bowl is almost here. What is Orca Bowl you may ask? Orca Bowl (also known as the Washington State Ocean Sciences Bowl) is an annual competition where teams of high school students from across the state tackle questions in areas of earth and social sciences related to the oceans and ocean technology, which means that students have to be knowledgeable about physics, chemistry, geology and biology. The winning team from Washington will go on to compete at the national competition in Washington, D.C. This year the Burke is proud to be a sponsor of this event and will be hosting the awards ceremony

Where: South Campus Center, University of Washington Seattle campus
When: Saturday, February 7, 2009

So, how would I do if I entered the Orca Bowl? Well, after attempting to answer several practice questions, not very well. Granted, I didn’t study and I learned most of this information in high school (which was a long time ago), but I am very impressed at the level of knowledge these students need to have to compete in this event.

Here are a couple sample questions taken from the National Ocean Sciences Bowl website. Let’s see how you do (you can find the answers by clicking on More.) I’ll start with an easy one (according to the NOSB website it’s easy.)

1. Strong currents that occur along the eastern coasts of the United States and Japan are:

a. Eastern boundary currents
b. Western boundary currents
c. Southern boundary currents
d. Northern boundary currents

Now that you’re warmed up, here’s a harder question from the chemistry section.

2. Which sea is most supersaturated with oxygen?

a. Bering Sea
b. Okhotsk Sea
c. Barents Sea
d. Norwegian Sea

More...

Answers:
1. Western boundary currents
2. Barents Sea

The Ethnology Detectives

Posted by: Karin Hoffman, P.I

Let me set the scene.

It’s a cold, foggy night. A confident yet distraught woman dressed in a black knee-length wool coat, broad-brimmed hat and delicate heels walks slowly up a set of wooden stairs to the second floor. Smoking a cigarette she approaches a closed door. She knocks, then enters the office of Karin Hoffman, P.I.

I always thought it would be fascinating to be a private investigator – digging up secrets from the past, anticipating a person’s next moves, or working to discover the story behind a statue of a falcon reputed to contain priceless jewels. I guess that’s why I was drawn to museums. Every day collections managers and curators are challenged to uncover the history of an object, often times relying on little prior knowledge of the artifact.

Our ethnology division recently faced such a challenge. A set of antique rifles was donated to the Burke and right away the collections team knew the rifles were keeping a secret. Take a look at what they discovered:

What is all this buzz about Coffee?

Posted by: Karin Hoffman, Communications

I am so hyped about the new exhibit that’s opening here at the Burke this weekend! Maybe it has something to do with the amount of coffee I’ve been drinking lately (which is hard to resist when it’s everywhere and it’s free) but I think it has more to do with the amazing job the exhibition design crew (and for that matter everyone else who has had a hand in making this exhibit a reality) has done with creating this remarkable exhibit.

Coffee: The World in Your Cup presents the story of one of the world's most widely- traded commodities and how it has affected cultures, economies, and environments across the globe. As you enter the exhibit, burlap coffee bags tower over you, as you learn about coffee's early controversial reputation as a "revolutionary drink.” Live coffee plants and beautifully composed videos walk you through the biology of the coffee plant and the different stages and techniques of processing. The exhibit leads you through an exploration of the environmental and social impacts of the coffee industry and recommends ways for consumers to make socially and environmentally responsible coffee purchases. There’s even an espresso cart in the exhibit where vendors from around the Northwest will be on-hand throughout the run of the exhibit to provide information on brewing methods, roasting techniques, social and environmental impacts on farms around the world, and much more.

Coffee opens Saturday, January 24th at 10 am. We’ve got a great program planned for this weekend including exhibit tours, talks with Edwin Martinez, a third-generation Guatemalan coffee grower with ONYX Coffee; David Griswold, the founder of Sustainable Harvest; and Max Savishinsky, leader of numerous UW student Exploration Seminar courses to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Oh, and don’t forget the coffee – formal cuppings and informal tastings are happening all weekend long. Check out the full schedule for details.

I just have to share

Posted by: Karin Hoffman, Communications

For the last month my partner has been suggesting that I take a listen to NPR's series on museums. I kept saying, "Sounds great, I'll check it out," only to find myself putting it off until I had time – something that can be hard to find as a graduate student. Well, last night I finally went onto the NPR website and found myself listening to just about all of the segments that have been posted over the last few months - segments on the FBI's art crime team, the history of museums in the U.S., and examples of how museums are coping with the downturn in the economy, which really worries me, as I will be graduating in June, and looking for a job. So now I suggest that all you museum-lovers, if you haven't already, check out their series "Museums in the 21st Century: An NPR series explores the history of the nation's museums and looks ahead to the future."

Also, check out the Archaeology Field School in Indonesia blog which features entries written by several UW graduate students as well as our very own Dr. Peter Lape, curator of archaeology, and Laura Philips, archaeology collections manager. Twenty-five students and senior scholars from five nations are working together in the Banda Islands of Indonesia to learn archaeological field methods and explore Indonesia's deep past.

Artifact ID Day photos

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

This past Saturday, I attended Artifact ID Day in the Burke Room. Curators, collections managers, and volunteers from our ethnology, geology, and archaeology divisions gathered for the afternoon to respond to some 200 people looking to have their unknown artifacts identified.

I took photos of some of the most interesting objects I saw, including a bone mug, an Alaskan mask, and lots of baskets and pottery.

Did you miss Artifact ID Day this year? Read this blog entry with tips for getting your object identified by our staff.

Lucy Talks, And So Do Conservators...

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

Dr. Patricia Kramer, a University of Washington anthropologist, speaks at the Pacific Science Center tonight in the penultimate lecture of the "Lucy Talks" lecture series. Dr. Kramer will discuss how anthropologists decipher clues from fossils to discover how and why our earliest hominid ancestors walked upright.

Last month, when Drs. Vicki Cassman and Nancy Odegaard, both conservators, came to Seattle to present at the Lucy Talks series, I had the pleasure of sitting down with them for an interview about the role of conservators and the challenges they faced as they advised the Ethiopian government on the preservation and shipping of Lucy’s bones. Watch the video here:

Who Owns Antiquities?

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

It's an oft-raised question in museums: who owns antiquities? Do the states in which the antiquities were found own them? Do the museums who care for them own them? Are they "owned" internationally, as pieces of global heritage? The answer is anything but straightforward, and Dr. James Cuno, Director of the Art Institute of Chicago will be quick to point that out.

Dr. Cuno will be presenting his views on these questions at the Seattle Art Museum next Tuesday, January 13 at 7 pm. Get your tickets here. His presentation will be sure to change the way you think next time you visit a museum that displays ancient objects.

Museum cultural object returned for celebration

Guest Writer: Rebecca Andrews, Collections Manager, Ethnology

Last month, I was honored to be a witness at an historic celebration in Wrangell, Alaska, and to be the courier for a cultural object lent to the event by the Burke Museum. Dr. Robin Wright and I travelled to Alaska to attend the koo.eex’ ceremony held by the Naanya.aayi Clan to celebrate the return of the Chief Shakes Killer Whale Flotilla Chilkat Robe, repatriated from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Because the Burke Museum is committed to making the collections held at the museum available to Native Americans, when we received the request to have the Keet S’aaxw (Killerwhale Hat, catalogue # 1-1436) attend the celebration, we determined that we would do our best to make this request become a reality.

There were a number of tasks I had to take care of before we could step onto the plane with the crest hat, so I got busy! The crest hat was on display in the Burke Museum’s ‘Treasures Case’ in the lobby, so it needed to be removed from exhibit by our exhibit staff.

Then, since we knew the hat would be handled, we needed to test it for contaminants (arsenic, mercury or lead), and make sure it could safely be handled. I had to check the stability and condition of the hat, and make sure that it was not too fragile to travel. Since the crest hat needed some protection from the elements, and the shock of travel, I created a travelling box to keep it safe.

Our staff Registrar Hollye, made sure that the box would fit in the plane seat, and confirmed that we could take it into the cabin with us. Since it would go into the cabin with us, Dr. Wright had to make extra travel arrangements for Mr. Art Work, who had ‘his’ own ticket. The three of us, Dr. Wright, Mr. Art Work, and I, set out for the airport on Saturday, November 8th. Our first hurdle was passing through the security gates at Sea-Tac: not an easy task!

As we entered the cabin, we were told we would need to check the box for the cargo hold, until we produced the ticket! With an extra seat belt, Mr. Art Work was safely fastened into the window seat, and we headed off to Alaska.

The koo.eex’ (meaning “invitation to a feast”) celebration started at 11 am on Sunday, and lasted until 2 am early Sunday morning. The kick off was a dance performance by a troupe of young dancers from Kake, Alaska at the Chief Shakes house, and then we all headed toward the new Nolan Museum and Cultural Center, right on the water, where killer whales had been seen swimming the week before.

The celebration lasted 13 hours, and witnessed the display of Eagle and Raven moiety clan treasures (at.oow), including the crest hat, the unveiling of the Chief Shakes Killer Whale Flotilla Chilkat Robe, speeches, dancing, food, laughter, and the distribution of gifts, money, and fruit. There were wonderful moments, when the crest hat was carried around the room, as if it were a killer whale, swimming around its family, and held over the head of a member of the Naanya.aayi Clan while he danced underneath. The crest hat held the money collected during the celebration, while it was ceremonially ‘killed’ and then distributed to the guests who witnessed the event.

This was the first koo.eex’ to be held in nearly 68 years, and we were honored to be in attendance, and to provide the crest hat for the celebration. As I buckled Mr. Art Work back into its seat on the plane, I realized that, as a caretaker of the ethnographic collections at the Burke Museum, these are the best moments of my job, when the circle comes to fullness.

I will be honored to travel with Mr. Art Work or other cultural objects again, whenever and wherever needed.

Photos: (top right) Keet S’aaxw killerwhale hat; (top left) Rebecca Andrews shows off the hats' traveling box; (bottom right) the crest hat being carried around the room during the koo.eex’ celebration.

Stories in Stone

Posted by: Julia Swan, Communications

Many people love living in Seattle for its proximity to the Great Outdoors. You don't have to travel far to find yourself surrounded by the natural world. But what about those of us urban dwellers who don't make it outside the city limits quite often enough?

David Williams, an educator at the Burke Museum and a freelance writer, reminds us that even in an urban landscape, "you don't need to travel far to find interesting natural history stories." In his blog, Stories in Stone, David cites many examples of how people connect to geology through the use of stone as a building material.

For example: did you know the limestone walls of Sea-Tac airport's Concourse A food court are covered in Jurassic era fossils? Next time you're stuck waiting for a flight, go see what you can find!