Garland Ethel photograph collection, 1898-1975

Garland Ethel was born in Okanogan, County, Washington 1899, and educated at University of Washington where he taught in the English Department for 42 years before retiring in 1969. His principle research interest was Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was the assistant editor of the "Moscow News," 1932; and secretary of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 401 (U.W.); and active with the State's Joint Legislative Fact-Finding Committee on Un-American Activities. He died in 1980. He made headlines in 1948 when he was caught up in the so-called "Canwell investigation," a Joe McCarthy-style hunt for Communists. Ethel was cited for contempt by a state legislative committee for refusing to name other UW faculty members who reportedly attended Communist meetings with him. As result of the hearings, the UW Board of Regents put him and two other faculty members on probation.