Bernard Fillip Jacobsen

Courtesy of Northwest Anthropological Research Notes

In the late 1800s, as the world was more and more rapidly falling under Western influence, there was a rush by European and American scholars to collect everything of Native cultures before it all vanished. One of the collectors, working more or less independently, was Bernard Fillip Jacobsen. Jacobsen, a Norwegian, arrived on the Northwest Coast of North America in 1884 where he remained for the remainder of his life. There he encouraged settlement of the region, collected Native artifacts that he sold to museums, and wrote and published articles on the region and on his exploits. His articles included travelogues, descriptions of Native dances, and Native legends.