Ethnology is the branch of anthropology concerned with living cultures. The Burke Museum is particularly renowned for its collections of Native American art and artifacts.

The Burke Museum's Ethnology Division cares for objects of cultural heritage from living cultures of the Americas, the Pacific Islands, and Asia. A portion of these collections are on display in the museum galleries. You can also explore the collections online.

Read the November 2009 Ethnology Newsletter.

Totem Poles FAQs What do the totem poles outside the Burke represent? How can I learn more about totem poles? Show me photos of totem poles. Bill Holm Center The center seeks to promote research and foster appreciation and understanding of the Native arts of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Collections See masks, clothing, pottery, sculpture, baskets, and more. Regional strengths include Northwest Coast, Alaskan Arctic and Western sub-Arctic, as well as Plains, Plateau, Southwest, and Pacific Islands. People The Ethnology Division staff. Faculty are associated with UW's departments of Anthropology and Art History.

Past and Online Exhibits Native American Basketry Totem Pole photos, by Adelaide de Menil Contemporary prints by Susan Point Southeast Asian textile art China's Cultural Revolution Reverent Remembrance Chinese Students at UW: 1905–2005 Ethnology Forms Downloadable PDFs: loan policy, photo policy, photo order form, etc. FAQs Information about Northwest Coast art and culture: Native languages, art, totem poles, canoes, baskets, Chief Seattle, and more. Tribes of Washington A directory of WA state tribes: Web sites, cultural centers, and schools.

The ethnology division of the Burke Museum is currently acquiring portions of an important textile collection from local collector and textile expert Leslie Grace. Ms. Grace was the former owner of the La Tienda Folk Art Gallery, in Seattle. In her role as owner of La Tienda, she traveled extensively through Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, and South America for over 40 years, collecting and researching ethnic textiles and local folk arts.

Her collection is comprehensive, covering Mexico and Guatemala, and includes men's, women's, and children's clothing from a wide range of villages. Until now, the Burke ethnology collection has had few examples from this area of the Pacific Rim. Museum staff are extremely delighted to have the opportunity to acquire representative pieces to fill in the existing gaps.

Ms. Grace has worked closely with ethnology staff for several months, providing proper identification and provenance for pieces already in the collections, while also assisting staff in determining which textiles from her collections would be important acquisitions for the Burke.

In addition, the Grace collection includes a number of important textiles from Southeast Asia and China which would add significantly to the Asian ethnology textile collection already at the Burke Museum. Curator Steve Harrell is working with Ms. Grace to fill gaps in the Asian ethnology collection from these particular areas. Part of this Asian art collection is featured on the Burke Museum website for Southeast Asian textiles and can be seen at: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/satextiles/index.html.

The ethnology staff has, to date, purchased over 530 pieces from the Grace collection with funding from private donors and the Ethnology Collections Fund. Staff will continue to work with Ms. Grace over the next months to secure additional representative textiles from Central and South America, and Asia.

This is an exciting time for the ethnology division - and a wonderful opportunity to expand while acquiring significant collections which will further achieve the Burke Museum's educational, research, and exhibit goals.

Tribal Cultural Object Pesticide Testing and Mitigation Project

Through a National Park Service special grant award, the Burke Museum Ethnology Division recently completed x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy testing of tribally owned cultural object collections in both Washington and Oregon. These tests determine the presence of arsenic and mercury pesticide contamination and assess both health risks and possibilities for mitigation. This is especially important for sacred materials that might be ceremonially used or for educational materials intended for instructional purposes.

This process is the only non-destructive and accurate testing of its kind available in the Northwest and one of only a few in the nation. Special tribal staff training has been provided by Burke Museum staff to assist tribes in safety issues, planning access, and developing use guidelines.

As part of this program, the Burke Museum Ethnology Division recently trained tribal representatives from western and eastern Washington and Oregon on how to handle arsenic and mercury found in cultural objects in a workshop.

In 2002, Dr. James Nason was awarded one of the highly competitive National Park Service National NAGPRA grants for a 2-year project to further groundbreaking research on the use of portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometers in detecting deadly residues of arsenic and mercury pesticides on cultural objects, such as masks, clothing, and tapestries.

As part of the program, the Burke has pioneered the use of special equipment for testing hazardous materials and led the way for other organizations in planning and educating the communities about potential health hazards related to handling risky materials. The Burke program is comprehensive and includes testing, documenting, and follow-up evaluation on identified collections.

Whether objects are used in rituals or placed in tribal museum collections, some objects with very high levels of contamination can pose a toxic hazard to those who use or handle them. Often applied by collectors, dealers, and museum staff since the late 1800s, arsenic and mercury pesticides, and the lead accompanying many of the arsenic compounds, do not go away with time and are among the most dangerous of dozens of pesticides used over the decades to prevent insect damage to cultural objects.

To date, the Burke has tested every Native American collection in the Pacific Northwest that has requested testing.