Caroline “Carrie” Ethel McGilvra Burke was born in 1857 to parents John J. and Elizabeth Hills McGilvra. She had two siblings, Lillian and Oliver (who was often known as “Max”), who lived to adulthood, and two other siblings, Floyd and Minnie, who died when they were children. Her father was a prominent lawyer and judge whose office in Illinois was located next to Abraham Lincoln’s. In 1861, then-President Lincoln appointed McGilvra to serve as the United States Attorney for the Territory of Washington. After first moving to Olympia, the McGilvras settled in Seattle in 1864. John J. McGilvra declined a reappointment as United States Attorney, and thereafter worked as Seattle’s first resident attorney. The McGilvra family settled on 420 acres of land along Lake Washington in the area now known as Madison Park.

On October 5, 1879, Caroline married Thomas Burke, who was a successful judge, businessman, and activist who had once been law partners with her father. The Burkes lived in a home on Boylston Street on First Hill and in a cottage on Lake Washington. Caroline had a number of civic and cultural interests, and was involved with a food conservation campaign during World War I, the Red Cross, the Ladies’ Relief Society, Camp Fire Girls, Seattle Garden Club, Lighthouse for the Blind, the Seattle Historical Society, Seattle Tennis Club, Seattle Golf Club, and the Garden Club. Additionally, she was one of the founding members of the Sunset Club. Caroline also traveled extensively and particularly enjoyed Paris, where she lived for much of 1889 and 1890.

One of Caroline and Thomas’ shared interests was Native American culture, and they were avid collectors of Northwest native art and artifacts. Much of their collection is now housed at the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus, which was named in honor of Thomas Burke in 1962, following a bequest from Caroline’s estate.

Caroline McGilvra Burke died at the age of seventy-five on May 11, 1932.