Waterlines

Discover and Explore Seattle's Past Landscapes

Project Team

Waterlines Project Leadership:

  • Peter Lape works as an archaeologist, professor and museum curator at the University of Washington's Burke Museum and Department of Anthropology. His research interests include investigating the role of landscape and climate change on colonial history, conflict and trade; he has been working for the past ten years on these topics in Island Southeast Asia. In the Puget Sound area, he has developed education projects centered on archaeology, including an urban archaeological excavation in the Rainier Valley (with Donald Fels), as well as K-12 programs in the Cedar River Watershed and at West Point in Discovery Park.
  • Amir Sheikh is a staff member on the Puget Sound River History Project and a graduate student in the Environmental Anthropology Program at UW, with interests in urban studies & planning, environmental & spatial histories, and visual methodologies. He is interested in collaborative projects that bridge academia and the public sphere.
  • Donald Fels works as a researching artist. For over two decades he has been looking into and making art about the local landscape, here and much further away. As lead artist on the Alki/Duwamish Culture Trail, he conceived of and designed the Alki viewers. He organized Seattle's first urban archaeology dig in the Rainier Valley (with Peter Lape, mentioned above). With USGS geologist Brian Atwater he created the Geoslice, a sculpture along the Duwamish Waterway which interprets the extraordinary geology of the Duwamish basin.

Web Site Development:

  • if/then, an award-winning Web design consultancy – Web site design, Flash programming, and Web development
  • Cassy Jarvis, Web Services Manager, Burke Museum – Project coordination and Web development

Thanks to our other project contributors:

  • Brian Collins, Research Scientist in the UW Department of Earth and Space Sciences – Historical ecology mapping and advice on geomorphology content
  • Coll Thrush, Assistant Professor of History at the University of British Columbia – Excerpts from his 2007 book, Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-Over Place
  • Brian Atwater, U.S. Geological Survey geologist and a Research Professor at the University of Washington – Information about the Seattle fault and earthquake history
  • Burke Museum Tribal Advisory Board, with representatives from several Washington State Tribes – Native American content
  • Lorraine McConaghy, Historian at the Museum of History & Industry – Historical research and images of early Seattle
  • Holly Taylor, Principal of Past Forward – General project advice and the name "Waterlines"