One hundred years after the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, this exhibit examines the representation of indigenous peoples at the fair, explains how the fair shaped the history of the Burke Museum, and provides a forum for indigenous voices to reply, challenging us all to consider how we have changed and/or stayed the same after 100 years.

After the fair, the George T. Emmons collection of Tlingit objects that had been exhibited in the Alaska building was purchased for the young Washington State Museum (now the Burke Museum). This collection, combined with the collections assembled for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 (the James G. Swan and Myron Eells collections) and the earlier collections of the Young Naturalist Society, are the founding ethnology collections of the Burke Museum.

The exhibit features some of the objects that were exhibited at the fair along with historical photographs and contemporary work and comments by indigenous people responding to cultural representation at the A-Y-P.

Launch: 'Alaska Yukon Pacific: Indigenous Voices Reply' exhibit Web site

Join us for a concert and symposium in November:

Tribute to the Spirit - Little Big Band
Fri., Nov. 20, 2009
7:30 pm
Meany Hall, on UW campus
Artists from seven first nations gather on stage to mark the closing of the 100th A-Y-P Anniversary Year

A-Y-P Symposium
Sat., Nov. 21, 2009
9:30 am – 4:15 pm
Kane Hall, Room 110, on UW campus
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Robert Rydell

You can view online resources and links that provide further information on the content of the 1909 A-Y-P Exposition and events related to it being planned for 2009 at the following Internet sites:

• AYP Exposition Community (4Culture, HistoryLink): http://www.aype.org
• Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs: http://www.ayp100.org
• Chinese in North America Research Committee, Symposium on Asian-Pacific Peoples at the AYP: http://www.cinarc.org/AYPE.html

Browse the Burke Museum AYP Collections