Visit to the Burke

In my four years as an undergraduate, not once did I ever set foot within the magnificent university museum that stood in the middle of campus.  Nor in the years since, after many returns to the campus in California as an alumnus, have I ever ventured within its sacred doors.

Even more remarkable, during my interminable years of graduate school and then law school at the University of Washington,  I never visited the Burke Museum, also known as the State Museum of Natural History and Culture, just inside the main entrance to the school.  Nor, during decades living near the university -- and, since my retirement, walking through the campus almost daily -- have I ever made that effort. 

When plans were made to tear down the old building, and construct a larger building nearby, I vowed to visit the Burke before its demise.  Again, I failed.  Down came the old building, and finally, in October, the new larger building -- fronting on Fifteenth Avenue N.E. -- opened to the public.

And today -- at long last -- I visited it.

I was a little disappointed in some ways -- I'm not sure exactly what I expected -- but in other ways also pleasantly surprised.  The building has three floors, with a couple of classrooms in the basement.  As the alternative name suggests, the focus of the museum is strongly on first the geologic and biological history of the Pacific Northwest -- from the time the continents were first taking shape, through the various paleozoic, mesozoic, and cenozoic eras, up until the present day; and secondly on the lives and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Northwest.

Expect dinosaurs!  Huge skeletons!  And expect Salish and Tlingit peoples' artifacts -- from totem poles to jewelry and clothing.

The museum building is dedicated partly to public display of exhibits, and includes the mandatory coffee shop and gift shop, but a large portion of the building is set aside for actual work and study by students of archeology.  Work areas are scattered throughout the building, separated from public access only by large windows through which the public can watch the meticulous work in which archeologists and students engage.  This is a fascinating approach, although it requires that exhibit areas be somewhat separated from each other.  I suspect that the windows require students to remember that they're "on stage" at all times -- no putting your feet up on the desk and reading the paper.

A large percentage of the public present this morning, while I was there, consisted of school children, bused in for field trips.  The museum has many alcoves where kids can sit on the floor and listen to docents explain what they are about to see.  The kids -- today, at least, mainly in the early grades -- seemed both excited and attentive to the discussions.

There does appear quite a bit of display space available for future exhibits.  I probably will return in about a year to see whether and how the museum displays have enlarged.