Pacific Northwest Historian Dorothy O. Johansen
Dorothy O. Johansen was not a prolific historian of the Pacific Northwest -- probably because she got it right the first time. Her textbook, Empire of the Columbia: A History of the Pacific Northwest , written with Charles M. Gates of the University of Washington in 1957, became the “standard text on the subject,” according to Richard Engerman in his profile of Johansen for the OregonEncyclopedia.org . Ten years later, four years after Gates’ death in 1963, Johansen published an extensively-revised edition of the text, and the “popular and well-written survey” remains an authoritative resource to this day. (Engerman, 1) In addition to her scholarship, Johansen also excelled as an educator, administrator, and archivist – all without venturing out of her native Pacific Northwest. Born on May 10, 1904, in Seaside, Oregon, Johansen graduated from Astoria High School in 1922 and went on to earn a teaching certificate in 1925 from the Oregon Normal School, now Western Oregon Universit...