David Crockett Graham


David Crockett Graham was a polymath American Baptist minister and missionary, educator, author, archeologist, anthropologist, naturalist and field collector in Szechuan Province, West China from 1911 to 1948. From 1921 to 1942, Graham collected and sent to the Smithsonian Institution nearly 400,000 zoological specimens, including more than 230 new species and 9 new genera, of which 29 were named after him. From 1932 to 1942 he was curator of the Museum of Art, Archeology and Ethnology at the West China Union University, which still stands as part of Sichuan University, in Chengtu. There, he taught comparative religions at the Theological College, and archeology and anthropology at the University. He wrote extensively and spent his retirement years, from 1950 to 1961, in Englewood, Colorado compiling his writings and research into three books that were published by the Smithsonian Institution. McKhann refers to Graham as "One of a handful of Western missionaries whose scientific work was respected by other scientists—and of even fewer scientists whose religious work was respected by other missionaries."

Early life and education

Graham was born in Green Forest, Arkansas on March 21, 1884 to William Edward Graham and Elizabeth Belinda Graham. His family moved to Walla Walla, Washington when he was a small child, and he grew up there. When he was 4 years old, his mother died of TB, and his older sister Elmina Elizabeth Graham, who had just turned 12, raised him. Elmina was a strong believer in education and supported David through his education. Graham entered Whitman College in 1904 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1908. He then entered Rochester Theological Seminary where he studied under and was influenced by Walter Rauschenbusch. He completed his studies for the Bachelor of Divinity in 1911.
Graham was ordained at the First Baptist Church in Fairport, New York, joined the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, and sailed for China in September 1911 with his wife Alicia Morey Graham. He spent the next 37 years in China with periodic returns to the U.S. on furlough to further his education. On his return from 1918 to 1919, he entered the School of Divinity at the University of Chicago and completed a Master of Arts. His thesis reflected his growing interest in the Chinese and their religions and was influenced by Eustace Haydon who was head of the Department of Comparative Religions. It was also during this trip that he began correspondence with, and then visited, the United States National Museum. There he received training and made arrangements to collect natural history specimens for them. Graham returned to the U.S. again from 1926 to 1927 to complete a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. This time his dissertation reflected his ongoing research and studies in China and was subsequently published by the Smithsonian Institution. Graham returned to the U.S. again at the end of 1930. He spent 1931 studying archeology with Fay-Cooper Cole at the University of Chicago and in the same year received an honorary Doctor of Science from Whitman College. He then went on to Harvard University where he studied anthropology and archaeology theory under Alfred Tozzer and Earnest Hooton as well as linguistics under R.B. Dixon.
On his return to China in September, 1932, Graham moved from Suifu to Chengtu and joined the faculty of the West China Union University. There he taught anthropology and archaeology and served as curator of the Museum of Archaeology, Art, and Ethnology. He also taught comparative religions at the Theological Seminary.

China, 1911-1948

The years that Graham was in China, 1911-1948, were marked by instability and turbulence. They began with the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 while Graham was in transit from the United States and ended with the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 following the Chinese Communist Revolution, which concluded less than a year after Graham retired and returned to the United States.
Szechwan Province in West China was remote from the central government, and required a two-month trip up the Yangtze River to reach Suifu. The Western Provinces were ruled by warlords and were rife with bandits in the countryside. There were revolts in the West when Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor in 1915, and Yunnan Province invaded Szechwan. Suifu is on the Yangtze river near the border of Yunnan and was occupied by Yunnan troops.
Throughout most of this period of time, there were conflicts with the Japanese. The Japanese declared war on Germany early in World War I and had a large contingent in Versailles to participate in treaty negotiations. The resulting Treaty of Versailles in 1919 awarded Germany's holdings in the Pacific, North of the equator, including Shandong, China, to Japan. This led to outrage among the Chinese and to the May Fourth Movement protesting imperialism and instigating violence against westerners. The 1920s was an ongoing period of instability and warlordism. Both Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai died. Chiang Kai-shek consolidated power through the Northern Expedition against warlords in 1926 to 1928, but never really controlled all of China. The Nanking Incident in 1927 again demonstrated Chinese hostility toward imperialist powers. The Chinese Communist Revolution was underway in the late 1920s, and the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1931. Both of these hostilities continued, and Japan declared all out war on China in 1937. The Chinese Nationalist government was relocated to Chungking in Szechwan Province, and many students and faculty evacuated from Eastern Universities were relocated to Chengdu, where Graham was from 1932 to 1948. Chengdu itself was bombed by the Japanese as early as 1938. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was engaged in military action in Xinjiang. Around 1942, Japan had taken over IndoChina and Burma, completely cutting off western China, except for flights over the Himalayas.
As World War II was coming to a close, the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria. In the aftermath of the War, Chiang Kai-shek was severely weakened, the Chinese economy was ruined, inflation was rampant, and the Communist Revolution was gaining strength. The era of the Republic of China ended on the mainland, and the era of the People's Republic of China began in 1949.
During the years that Graham was in China, there were numerous incidents in which foreigners, and sometimes missionaries or Christians in particular, were the targets of violence. The May Fourth Movement and the Nanking Incident were prominent examples. The Communist's animosity toward Christianity also resulted in killings. Graham himself was held captive by Communist troops in 1933, but managed to talk his way out. There was also widespread violence in the countryside by bandits and brigands. Graham typically had to hire military guards on his field trips and nevertheless had many narrow escapes.

Ministry and mission

Graham came from humble and difficult beginnings, but also from a long line of devout Christians with many Baptist ministers among his forebears. He was active in the Baptist Church as a young person and, while he was an undergraduate at Whitman College, decided to become a missionary. He then attended Rochester Theological Seminary where he was influenced by Walter Rauschenbusch. His mission in life was that of a Christian Humanist. He was determined not just to spread the word of God, but to help others wherever possible. While missionary work was the reason Graham went to China, it is the least well documented of the many facets of his contributions. There are some letters published in the Fairport County Mail, and there are some references from authors who had access to his unpublished memoirs.
1911-1918 Graham spent a year in the western districts of Shaoshing learning the language and customs of China. He was then assigned to Suifu, a two-month journey up the Yangtze River, where he was stationed until 1918. During this time... Because of his heroic actions in the field of fire, treating wounded soldiers and negotiating for peace, he was awarded both the Red Cross Medal by the Chinese Red Cross and a Decoration of the First Order for Bravery by the Governor of Yunnan Province.
Second term in Suifu 1919-1926
Third term in Suifu alone 1927-1931
First term in Chengtu 1932-1939
Second term in Chengtu 1940-1948
In his retirement years in Englewood, Colorado, Graham was a member of the First Baptist Church of Denver and was a leader in the Social Action Committee. Among other things, he was one of the first to encourage exchanges between the black and white Churches of Denver.
Later on, Graham worked with William Reginald Morse to pool donations together for the medical anthropology at the Peabody.

Chinese Name

Graham was given the Chinese name 葛維漢, which is a translation of Graham. However, there are a number of different ways Graham could have been translated. The specific choice of a Chinese name is influenced by the additional meanings of the symbols. In this case, with has the meaning: Protector of the Han, or Protector of the Chinese People. While there doesn't appear to be any record of the origin of this choice, it seems to fit with his first term in Suifu and his humanitarian efforts during the civil war between Yunnan and Szechwan, for which he received the Red Cross Medal from the Chinese Red Cross and later received a decoration of the first order from the governor of Yunnan for bravery.

Natural history collections

Graham first made formal arrangements with the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian on his furlough to the U.S. during 1918 and 1919. While in China, from then until 1948, he spent his vacations and summers traveling and collecting zoological specimens for the Smithsonian.

Anthropology, ethnology and archeology

Species named after D.C. Graham

D.C. Graham began collecting zoological specimens for the United States National Museum after 1919 and continued collecting in Szechuan Province and Tibet on his vacations and summers until he left China in 1948. Around the time of his death in 1961, several sources stated that Graham had collected nearly 400,000 specimens from which were identified over 230 new species and 9 new genera. Of those, 29 were named after him. While the number of specimens he collected remains fixed, the other numbers have changed over time. The specimens Graham collected are still being studied, and new species have been named at least as recently as 2009. The Smithsonian's digitized collection catalog, while by no means complete, is the best overall source. Specimens Graham collected are tagged "D.C. Graham." Entering that for the Smithsonian's search term currently turns up 540 taxonomic type specimens of which 348 are holotypes. Careful searches turn up 60 species and a genus named after Graham. But even this is not up to date. Ahrens, in a review of the genus Serica, found 4 new species among Graham's specimens and named one of them after Graham grahami|Serica. In a subsequent analysis, Ahrens named 4 more species of Serica'' based on Graham's specimens. These latter 4 have yet to show up in the Smithsonian collection catalog.
D.C. Graham collected primarily in Szechwan Province, around Suifu, Chengtu, and on trips to the Szechuan highlands, the West China borderlands, and into Tibet. There was a Rev. John Graham who collected at least from 1900 to 1920 primarily from Yunnan Province, with specimens cited as being from Yunnanfu and Wutingchow District. There are a number of species that were named after John Graham. To say that a species is named after D.C. Graham, the type specimen should have been collected by him, from the areas he collected, during the dates he collected, and be in the Smithsonian. Otherwise, there should be an explicit statement in the publication in which it was named. There are also instances in which specimens are reclassified, resulting in changes in names.
The following are ordered alphabetically by taxonomic classification. For example, Animalia Arthropoda comes before Animalia Chordata. Links to Wikispecies and to the Smithsonian should show full classification and references as well as historical synonyms resulting from reclassifications.
Fox —

Fox —

Fox —

Hoffman —

Keeton —

Wittmer —

Mandl, 1975 —

Gressitt & Kimoto —

Gressitt & Kimoto —

Gressitt & Kimoto —

Chapin —

Barber, 1941 —

Ahrens, 2005 —

Aldrich, 1930 —

Camras, 1960 —

Hackman, 1959 —

Bequaert —

Malloch —

Alexander, 1931 —

Alexander, 1927 —

Alexander, 1935 —

Alexander, 1933 —

Chillcott, 1961 —

Malloch —

Malloch —

Shannon —

Villeneuve —

Aldrich —

Alexander, 1933 —

Metcalf & Horton, 1934 —

Frison, 1933 —

Malaise —

Cockerell, 1922 —

Wahis —

Van Lith —

Malaise —

Malaise —

Yarrow —

Schaus, 1928 —

Carpenter, 1938 —

Banks, 1940 —

Banks, 1940 —

Needham, 1930 —

Tinkham, 1942 —

Wu & Claassen, 1934 —

Banks, 1940 —

Ross, 1956 —

Banks, 1940 —

Martynov, 1931 —

Banks, 1940 —

Martynov, 1931 —

Rathbun, 1931 —

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—

—

—

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Chen, 1937 —

Chen, 1945 —

Selected publications

Walravens listed 178 publications by David Crockett Graham. Following are just a select few. Two of the journals in which some of these were published are the Chinese Recorder and the Journal of the West China Border Research Society.
There have been a few notable publications about Graham in recent years. McKhann and Waxman; Kyong-McClain and Jing; and Walravens; have all been cited elsewhere in this article and appear [|below] in the References section. Additional publications include:

Additional Resources