Douglas Cole (historian)

Cole specialized in the art and culture of the Northwest Pacific Coast, and from 1966 until 1997 served as a professor in the history department at Simon Fraser University.

Cole 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'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.

In 1971 Cole married Canadian historian Maria Tippett, who also specialized in the history, culture, and art of British Columbia.