Foster Island

I took this picture on a nice summer day near the Museum of History and Industry. For many years, the museum has enjoyed their excellent location right on the shore of Lake Washington. The building is also a stone's throw from the 520 freeway, and that's the problem. I've mentioned that the museum will move in 2012 to make way for the floating bridge expansion project. Moving an entire museum is an enormous challenge, but also a fine opportunity to reinvent yourself in a new location. In the meantime, I can still take short walks before I head down to the museum basement.

Of course it isn't so beautiful on a cold January day, but still a good place for birdwatching on the Foster Island "floating" path, off in the distance in this photo I took yesterday.

And speaking of that, it was exciting to see the museum published my latest finding aid about Donald Foster's Seattle World's Fair collection. Foster is an old Seattle family, and Donald's dad donated land near Lake Washington to the city so the island was named in his honor. Son Donald was the Director of Exhibits during the 1962 fair. He went on to establish the landmark Foster/White Art Gallery, helping to revitalize Pioneer Square and becoming one of the first to recognize the great glass genius, Dale Chihuly.

Click here for a link to the finding aid.