George F. MacDonald, CM, PhD, LLd, FRSA, FRSC (July 4, 1938 – January 22, 2020)[1] was a Canadian anthropologist and museum director who pioneered archaeological and ethnohistorical research on the Tsimshian and Gitksan and was the director of the Canadian Museum of Civilization from 1983 to 1998.
MacDonald was born in Cambridge, Ontario. A graduate of the University of Toronto (1961: B.A. (Honours) in Anthropology) and of Yale University (Ph.D. in Anthropology), he is the author of several scholarly publications. He joined what was then called the Canadian Museum of Man in 1960 as Atlantic Provinces Archaeologist.
MacDonald oversaw the transition of the museum to its new facility in Gatineau, Quebec, and its reorientation to a more modern, populist form of exhibit. Inspired as much by the ideas of Marshall Mcluhan and Disney's Epcot Center as by other museums like the Smithsonian Institution, MacDonald's version of the museum included interactive displays, replicas, and an IMAX theatre.[2]