Everyone loves a good haiku

Posted by: Julia Swan

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Hoh River, one of the nation’s last untouched rivers. This week I’m writing to announce that Fast Moving Water: The Hoh River Story is now on view at the Burke. I was really impressed by Keith Lazelle’s photographs and was easily able to find a moment of zen in a busy work day by sitting in the exhibit space and listening to the accompanying nature sounds by Emmy-winning recordist Gordon Hempton. I recommend you come check it out—it’s a small, but extremely calming and pleasant photo show.

Keith Lazelle was inspired to become a photographer through a book of photographic translations of Japanese haiku poetry. In the spirit of haiku-loving, I propose a Burke Blog Haiku Contest! Feel free to leave a comment with your own favorite haiku—if you need a prompt, try writing about your favorite outdoor location. I’ll start it off with a brief ode to the Hoh River:

Deep in the mountains
A small river flows—untouched
Makes its way to sea

Ok—your turn!

- Julia

P.S. The talented Karyn Gregory has once again recorded a great podcast. This time it's with Keith Lazelle, talking about his experiences in the Olympics. Click here to listen.

100 Burke Blog posts!

Posted by: Rebecca (Durkin) Whitham


This is the 100th post to Burke Blog! That's a big accomplishment for this little blog that could.

See you at 101,
Rebecca

Vote Now

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin


It's Super Tuesday and many of us have voting on the mind.

So we added a simple poll on the right-hand side of the blog home page to capture your vote. No, the presidency isn't at stake with this vote -- just the Burke Blog.

We want to know what you most like to see on Burke Blog. Is it stories from behind-the-scenes? Posts from the field? Exhibit sneak-peeks? Natural history news?

Vote now and let us know. We want what you want, and if what you want isn't what we're giving you, well, now is your chance to speak up!

Oh, and if your vote is "Other," I'd appreciate if you commented here and elaborated for us on what your "Other" is.

To the polls!

- Rebecca

Burke Museum Members' Holiday Sale

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Burke Blog is taking a short holiday break. This last post of 2007 should be just in time for any last minute holiday shoppers…

The Burke Museum Members' Shop Sale is on now through December 31, 2007. Members get an additional 10% off all purchases, taking their total discount up to 20%.

Not a Burke Museum Member? Join or give the gift of a membership through our Waste Free Holidays promotion with King County and your family membership is just $45 ($10 off regular price).

Until next year…

Rebecca

Maybe the Dingo Ate Your Blogger

Posted by: Karyn Gregory

Hi everyone! It's Karyn, back from a fairly lengthy hiatus (or as I like to call it, summer vacation). As I set out to write an entry for this week, I found that the natural science news was not very forthcoming. Oh sure, there are new planets and giant rockets but nothing in the natural history or science realm has really jumped out at me lately (with the exception of the albino ratfish, which has now joined the Burke’s fish collections).

This caused me to look internally for an interesting update. One of my biggest personal accomplishments lately has been figuring out how to create a database. After a few hours of tutorials I managed to develop a very simple object tracking program. This experience made me truly appreciate one of the most important yet often unnoticed aspects of the Burke's main website: the collections databases. If you follow that link, you can select from any of the Burke's research divisions and search our internal database for artifact and specimen images and info (including those not currently on display). Who knows what sorts of things you might find?

Happy hunting!

- Karyn

Even bloggers take vacations

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Your Burke Blog editors are taking (well earned) vacations this July, so Burke Blog will be quiet for a few weeks. We’ll be back in August with new stories to tell as we feverishly work on all sorts of fun projects, including the upcoming In Search of Giant Squid exhibit and brand new education and outreach programs.

Until then,

Rebecca

Image: Bathing Suit, 1913. Fashion plate courtesy of the University of Washington’s awesome Fashion Plate Digital Collection.

New Possibilities for Burke Blog

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Last week I presented Burke Blog to other museum professionals as a panelist on the Museums and Technology session at the Rethinking Museums conference.

We were flooded with great ideas and new directions for Burke Blog in our discussions during and after the panel. Feeling excited and inspired, we’ll be creating some new features, adding additional writers, and testing out creative ways to interact with our readers.

Here are some experiments you can look forward to from Burke Blog:

You Asked It! – A new feature that tackles your queries about natural history and culture at the Burke Museum and beyond. Every day we get thoughtful and challenging questions from visitors to our main Web site, but if you want to send a question straight to Burke Blog, drop us an email.

Whatd’ya Wanna See? – We’re constantly creating programs and exhibits at the Burke that respond to our community’s interests and experiences. What do you want to see? Burke Blog will give you the chance to give us feedback as we build exhibits, pick new exhibit topics, and develop events and activities.

Everyone’s a Critic – Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could blog about your museum visit live in the galleries of the Burke Museum in real time? You could share your thoughts, good and bad, with readers around the world. We’re looking into making this a reality.

Keep a look out for these new features and more. Don’t want to wait? If you’ve got something you’d like to see on Burke Blog, just send us an email or comment here.

- Rebecca

Intro!

Posted by: Rebecca Durkin

Welcome to the Burke Museum's blog (it's new!). We've been writing educational blogs about our exhibits for a few months now on our main Web site (www.burkemuseum.org), but we're excited to have started this new blog as a way to get more personal. There's so much going on behind the scenes all the time here. As Burke staff we get to spend every day geeking out about the cool things that surround us: Nellie the mummy lives quietly in her chamber, new fossils are always being coaxed from their rock encasing in the basement, and right now there are two exhibits being installed behind closed doors (well, closed gallery walls at least). This blog is your chance to see a whole new side of the Burke - the insider's view.

We'll be doing our best to bring you new information about the cool research we're doing behind the scenes, some exclusive peaks at the artifacts and specimens that make up our collection of over 5 million objects (only a small fraction of which ever make it to the galleries), access to our staff members, and updates on our exhibits and events, so bookmark this page and check back often.

See you around!

-Rebecca