Douglas Cole (historian)

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Douglas Lowell Cole (b. December 9, 1938, d. August 7, 1998) was a Canadian historian specializing in art and cultural history, particularly the cultures of Northwest Pacific Coast.

Douglas Cole was born near Spokane, Washington, the son of a labor union activist. He obtained a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington and, in 1966, started teaching history at Simon Fraser University near Vancouver, British Columbia, where he ultimately became Chair of the History Department from 1978 to 1980 and President of the Faculty Association from 1986 to 1988.

Originally, Cole specialized in diplomatic and political history, but later became fascinated by the cultural history of the Northwest Pacific coast. He was among the first scholars to write on the history of art, literature, and intellectual thought in settler society. He also wrote seminal, often highly critical, studies of the impact of European values and institutions on the indigenous cultures of the Pacific Northwest coast that are widely acknowledged as exemplary texts for their painstaking research, clarity of exposition, and provocative insights. Cole died suddenly of from heart failure while gardening in his North Vancouver home.

Cole's best known publications were Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts, which dealt with the acquisition, sometimes unscrupulously, of Northwest Coast native art by world-renowned museums, An Iron Hand Upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast, [with Ira Chaikin] a study of the legislation outlawing the traditional native giving away ceremonies, and Franz Boas: The Early Years, perhaps the first in-depth biography examining the development, influences, and early struggles of the man commonly referred to as the father of modern anthropology.

[edit] Bibliography

Cole, Douglas (1985) Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts. Seattle: University of Washington Press.

Cole, Douglas, and Ira Chaikin (1990) An Iron Hand upon the People: The Law against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press.