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  • Civil War Times

    ARCHAEOLOGIST TO AUCTIONEER

    May 21, 2019 4 minutes
    with Wes Cowan

    WES COWAN worked as professor and museum curator before starting Cowan’s Auctions in 1995. A boyhood love of collecting arrowheads led to a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Michigan, and all the while he nurtured an interest in collecting that would lead to his auction business. The native Kentuckian is well known for his work as an appraiser for “Antiques Road Show” and “History Detectives,” where he tracks down the elusive stories behind amazing artifacts. Cowan’s great-great-grandfather was captured with John Hunt Morgan and spent a year in a federal prison.

    CWT: Describe your academic background.

    I have a PhD in anthropology from the University of Michigan.

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