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Founded in 1885, the Burke Museum is Washington state's oldest museum.
The Pacific Northwest's natural history and culture museum - The Burke Museum.


Members of the Young Naturalists Society.

Members of the Young Naturalists Society founded the museum upon their own initiative and erected a museum building on the university campus to house their growing collection of natural history artifacts.

In 1899, the state legislature designated the museum as the Washington State Museum. In the following 100+ years, the museum continued to grow and flourish in collections and research, garnering worldwide recognition as a museum of natural history and culture.

The Burke acquired its current name and building in 1962, through a bequest from the Caroline McGilvra Burke estate in honor of her husband, Judge Thomas Burke.

Caroline McGilvra Burke, philanthropist and collector of Native American materials.
Jurist and forward-looking pioneer Thomas Burke, in whose memory the museum was renamed.






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All Rights Reserved. Box 353010, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA 98195-3010, Phone: 206-543-5590.
On the UW campus at 17th Avenue NE and NE 45th Street.