Historical Géography in Canada

Cole Harris's formidable scholarly promise was evident early. In an invited paper for a special centenary issue of The Canadian Geographerhis first in this journal-in 1967, he described Canadian historical geography as a sparsely tilled field (Harris, 1967). Barely thirty years old, already writing a now familiar spare, crystalline prose intended (he often said) to achieve maximum clarity with minimum words, Cole claimed that "the land" was geography's central object of inquiry. He also identified potential research topics deemed "worthy" by the interest that they would arouse. That took chutzpah. Cole was always supremely confident in his intellectual judgement, though never given to arrogance, pretension, or self-promotion. He was a scholar's scholar, driven by ideas. When you told him something he listened with almost frightening intensity. Bending his head slightly towards you, eyes off to the distance, he focussed on your every word. It often seemed that whatever you said fell short of what his concentrated effort demanded.Richard Colebrook (Cole) Harris was born in Vancouver on the 4 th of July, 1936. This was a cause of mild chagrin for a proud Canadian.Though he was never a thoughtless nationalist, it would surely have been more appropriate for him to share a "natal day" with the country he held dear. Cole's father, Richard (Dick) Harris, was a high school teacher, and his mother, Ellen (nee Code) Harris, a CBC radio show host. After taking a BA in Geography and History from the University of British Columbia (UBC) (1954)(1955)(1956)(1957)(1958), where he was also president of the United Nations Club and ran track, Cole spent the better part of a year in Montpellier, improving his French. In autumn 1959 he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. There he completed a PhD under the supervision of the Canadian historical geographer Andrew H. Clark, who steered him to work on early (French) Canada on the strength of his recently polished language skills. After a temporary lectureship in Geography at UBC (1963)(1964), during which he and Muriel Watney were married in Vancouver, Cole was appointed Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto. In 1971, he and Muriel, a medical geneticist with a doctorate from Toronto, returned to Vancouver, largely for family reasons. Thirty years later, Cole retired Professor Emeritus. He died at home on September 26, 2022. His mind and his concern for Canada never flagged. His son, Douglas, wrote that even on his last morning when he lost the ability to speak, "the hand gestures he was making in bed … [suggested] he was in full flight again, helping us to see and understand the country." Quebec, the subject of Cole's first book, was fundamental to that understanding. Published in 1966, The seigneurial system in early Canada (Harris, 1966) was a bold, even brash, revisionist study. It argued that everyday life along the St Lawrence had been less influenced by the seigneurial system than historians generally believed. French feudalism was old and effete...

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Cole Harris: Geographer of Canada

Wynn

Barnes

2023

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

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“…On the strength of this first book and two invited articles (one of which reviewed what he took to be the somewhat parlous state of historical geography in Canada and outlined an agenda for its future), Harris was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1968-69 (Harris 1967). Other awards followed in relatively short order.…”

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Richard Colebrook (Cole) Harris, OC. FRSC. LL.DHonoris causa, PhD (1936–2022)

Wynn

2023

FACETS

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Cole Harris bestrode the field of historical geography in Canada, and his renown as a scholar spread far beyond. In retrospect, his course in life might seem to have been pre-destined. Born in Vancouver, on 4 July 1936, he spent many childhood summer months at the "ranch" his grandparents developed after 1896 on a bench above Slocan Lake in the West Kootenay mountains of British Columbia. This bounded patch of land, carved from the forest, full of possibilities, but offering no certainties, nurtured his sense of lives lived as mediations between people and place. An undergraduate degree in History and Geography at the University of British Columbia strengthened this perception and led him to graduate study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to be supervised by

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Geography and History

Baker

2003

162

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Geography and History is the first book for more than a century to examine comprehensively the interdependence of the two disciplines. Alan Baker, an internationally honoured historical geographer, focuses upon the work of North American, British and French historians and geographers but takes a global and interdisciplinary perspective upon the theory and practice of historical geography and geographical history. He analyses the views of historians on the relationship of their discipline to geography, and geographers on the relationship of theirs to history. He considers in turn locational geographies and spatial histories, environmental geographies and histories, landscape geographies and histories, and regional geographies and histories. Seeking to bridge the 'Great Divide' between history and geography, Dr Baker identifies some basic principles relating historical geography not only to history but also to geography, a reworking which signifies a 'new beginning' for this scholarly hybrid.

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Historical Géography in Canada

Cited by 14 publications

References 42 publications

Cole Harris: Geographer of Canada

Cole Harris: Geographer of Canada

Richard Colebrook (Cole) Harris, OC. FRSC. LL.DHonoris causa, PhD (1936–2022)

Geography and History

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