author
John M. Douglass
d. 1951
A museum historian with a close interest in Wisconsin's past, he left behind a concise account of the state's Indigenous history that continued to reach readers after his death. His best-known work reflects both regional scholarship and a mid-20th-century effort to make history accessible to general audiences.
1 Audiobook
The Indians in Wisconsin's History
by John M. Douglass
About the author
John M. Douglass was a member of the History Division of the Milwaukee Public Museum. The available sources connected with his work identify him as the author of The Indians in Wisconsin's History, a study of Native peoples in the region and their long history before and during European settlement.
That book appears to have been the work for which he is best remembered. Contemporary notes attached to later editions and public-domain releases say he died on January 26, 1951, shortly after completing the manuscript, and the book was later published by order of the museum's Board of Trustees in 1954.
Because so little biographical material is easily confirmed, the surviving picture is modest but clear: Douglass was a museum-based historian whose writing helped preserve and share Wisconsin history with a broad readership.