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Social Science Native American Studies

Captured Heritage

The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts

by (author) Douglas Cole

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jan 1995
Category
Native American Studies, Cultural
Recommended Age
16
Recommended Grade
11
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774844505
    Publish Date
    Nov 2011
    List Price
    $99.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774805377
    Publish Date
    Jan 1995
    List Price
    $39.95

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Description

The heyday of anthropological collecting on the Northwest Coast took place between 1875 and the Great Depression. The scramble for skulls and skeletons, poles, canoes, baskets, feast bowls, and masks went on until it seemed that almost everything not nailed down or hidden was gone. The period of most intense collecting on the coast coincided with the growth of anthropological museums, which reflected the realization that time was running out and that civilization was pushing the indigenous people to the wall, destroying their material culture and even extinguishing the native stock itself.

 

Douglas Cole examines the process of collecting in the context of the development of museums and anthropology. The main North American museums with Northwest Coast collections – the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, the Royal British Columbia Museum, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa – were intense rivals in the race against time.

 

For the new edition of Captured Heritage, Douglas Cole has written a preface in which he outlines developments since the book’s first publication in 1985. Since that time, for example, the Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Center on Quadra Island and the U'Mista Museum and Cultural Center at Alert Bay have been successful in having some of their artifacts repatriated.

About the author

Douglas Cole (1938-1997) was professor of history at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and a leading scholar on the history and culture of the Native peoples of the northwest Pacific coast. He was known for his writings on the history of art, literature, and intellectual thought in early British Columbia society, and he also wrote seminal studies about the impact of European values and institutions on the region's Native cultures. His ground-breaking books, Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts (1985) and An Iron Hand Upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast (1990; coauthored with Ira Chaikin) remain exemplary works for their painstaking research, provocative insights, and clarity of exposition.

Douglas Cole's profile page

Editorial Reviews

Captured Heritage is a major contribution to museum history and to an understanding of the nature of collecting on the Northwest Coast prior to 1930. As museums work out new management and ownership relationships with First nations, reference to the complex historical relationships outlined by Cole will arise over and over again.

The Midden

A new door has been opened by Douglas Cole on the scramble. The rivalry of the “collectors.” As I visit the museums of the world this book will haunt my steps.

What’s Happening?

Librarian Reviews

Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts

First published in 1985, Captured Heritage describes the acquisition of Northwest Coast First Nations’ artifacts over several centuries. It discusses not only European and American acquisitions but also the role of Aboriginal peoples in selling their wares. Also included is the involvement of least twenty-five museums in the procuring, gathering and displaying of these artifacts. The fact that possession does not equal ownership or rights to own but does not automatically mean theft is also discussed.

Douglas Cole is a member of the History Department at Simon Fraser University.

Caution: References to Aboriginal peoples as “savages” occur in historical documents and in historical context.

Source: The Association of Book Publishers of BC. Canadian Aboriginal Books for Schools. 2007-2008.