Arthur William Hummel Sr. (March 6, 1884 – March 10, 1975) was an American Christian missionary to China, head of the Asian Division of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, noted

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

, and editor of '' Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period'', a biographical dictionary. He was the first president of the

Association for Asian Studies The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the study of Asia. It is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The Association provides members with an Ann ...

, in 1948. Hummel's son, Arthur W. Hummel Jr., was a career diplomat and U.S. Ambassador to China.

Early life

Hummel was born in

Warrenton, Missouri Warrenton is a city and county seat of Warren County, Missouri, United States. The population was 7,880 according to the 2010 Census. Warrenton is an exurb of St. Louis, and is located in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. Warrenton's ...

, and graduated from the Morgan Park Academy in 1905. He received a bachelor's degree in 1909, a master's degree in 1911, and a

Bachelor of Divinity In Western universities, a Bachelor of Divinity or Baccalaureate in Divinity (BD, DB, or BDiv; ) is an academic degree awarded for a course taken in the study of divinity or related disciplines, such as theology or, rarely, religious studies. ...

in 1914, all from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. While studying at the

, he was attracted by the Student Volunteer Movement, and went to Japan to teach in Kobe, though not as a missionary. In the summers of 1913 and 1914, he visited his brother, who taught history and religious education at the University of Nanking and became intrigued with the country from which Japan had learned so much.

Career in Library of Congress and Sinology

He returned to the United States in 1914, married, and in November the couple went to China as missionaries of the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...

. Over the following decade, Hummel taught school in Fenzhou,

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

and pursued language studies. He also began to amass a collection of Chinese maps and coins bought in the local markets; his coin collection eventually included 2,000 varieties. In 1924 the Hummels moved to Peking to teach at the newly formed school of Chinese studies at

Yenching University Yenching University () was a Private university, private research university in Beijing, China, from 1919 to 1952. The university was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" come ...

. Along with many of the foreign residents, the Hummels left during the unrest of 1927 following the

Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT) against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The purpose of the campaign was to reunify China prop ...

. Soon after arriving in the States, Hummel agreed to join the staff of the

. He intended to stay for a short period before returning to China but instead served until his retirement in 1954. As the first Chief of the Orientalia Division. Hummel built the collection into one of the largest and best organized in the country. In the early 1930s, he became a friend and colleague of Mortimer Graves, of the

American Council of Learned Societies The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

. Graves and Hummel worked not only to build the Library of Congress collection but to promote the study of Asia in colleges and universities across the country.

J.J.L. Duyvendak Jan Julius Lodewijk Duyvendak (28 June 18899 July 1954) was a Dutch Sinologist and professor of Chinese language, Chinese at Leiden University. He is known for his translation of ''The Book of Lord Shang'' and his studies of the ''Dao De Jing''. ...

, of

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, met Hummel and encouraged him to turn his longtime interest in the Chinese scholar

Gu Jiegang , module = , workplaces = Peking University, Xiamen University, Sun Yat-sen University, Yenching University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Gu Jiegang (8 May 1893 – 25 December 1980) was a Chinese historia ...

into a serious study of the

New Culture Movement The New Culture Movement was a progressivism, progressive sociopolitical movement in China during the 1910s and 1920s. Participants criticized many aspects of traditional Chinese society, in favor of new formulations of Chinese culture inform ...

's revisionist scholarship on ancient Chinese history. Hummel did so, and his dissertation, ''The Autobiography of a Chinese Historian'' earned him the PhD degree from the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

on September 23, 1931. Graves arranged funding for Hummel's work on the Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, which began in 1934 and was published by the

United States Government Printing Office The United States Government Publishing Office (USGPO or GPO), formerly the United States Government Printing Office, is an agency of the Legislature, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal gove ...

in 1943. Hummel was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1950.

Publications

*Hummel, Arthur W., '' Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644–1912)'', (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943).

References

Citations

Sources

, The Autobiography of a Chinese Historian Being the Preface to a Symposium on Ancient Chinese History (Ku Shih Pien),"'' Arthur W. Hummel, editor, translator, Issued also as thesis, Leyden, of the editor and translator E.J. Brill ltd., 1931. * E.G. Beal, "Arthur W. Hummel and the Chinese Collection at the Library of Congress," ''Journal of East Asian Libraries ''74.1 (1984): 7–15

* Edwin G. Beal and Janet F. Beal, "Obituary: Arthur W. Hummel (1884–1975)," ''The Journal of Asian Studies ''35.2 (1976): 265–276.

External links

Arthur William Hummel papers, MSS 3841
a
L. Tom Perry Special Collections

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hummel, Arthur W. Sr. American sinologists 1884 births 1975 deaths Morgan Park Academy alumni University of Chicago alumni Protestant missionaries in China Presidents of the Association for Asian Studies Librarians at the Library of Congress American Protestant missionaries American missionaries in China People from Warrenton, Missouri Leiden University alumni Members of the American Philosophical Society