page_title: Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
section_title: Carousel of buildings
hierarchical_section_title: Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture / History / Carousel of buildings
caption_attribution_description: English: From John Cobb field notebook: Old Forestry Building now housing State Museum, Univ. of Wash. 1922 Built for the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition as the Forestry Building in 1909. Subjects (LCTGM): Galleries &amp; museums--Washington (State)--Seattle; Water towers--Washington (State)--Seattle Subjects (LCSH): University of Washington. Museum; Log buildings--Washington (State)--Seattle; Museum buildings--Washington (State)--Seattle; Museums--Washington (State)--Seattle
context_page_description: The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is a natural history museum in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, it traces its origins to a high school naturalist club formed in 1879. The museum is the oldest in Washington state and boasts a collection of more than 16 million artifacts, including the world's largest collection of spread bird wings. Located on the campus of the University of Washington, the Burke Museum is the official state museum of Washington.
context_section_description: The 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition (AYP Expo) brought a boon of construction to the University of Washington's campus. When the fair ended, the Washington State Museum moved into its first dedicated building, the fair's former California Building.
   
  Persistent leaks in that facility caused it to later relocate to the fair's former Forestry Building which, it was soon discovered, was infested with bark beetles. For four years, from 1923 to 1927, the museum's collections were disbursed around campus.
  The situation was finally resolved in 1927 when the museum moved into what had originally been constructed as the Washington State Building for the AYP Expo.
   In 1929, Erna Gunther became the museum's director, a post she would hold for more than 25 years.
  The museum found itself, once again, displaced in 1957 after its AYP Expo-era building was condemned.
caption: Washington State Museum in the former Forestry Building in 1922. The building was constructed for the AYPE Exposition
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