David Fairchild
Encyclopedia
David Grandison Fairchild (April 7, 1869 - August 6, 1954) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 into the United States, including soybean
Soybean
The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean which has numerous uses...

s, pistachio
Pistachio
The pistachio, Pistacia vera in the Anacardiaceae family, is a small tree originally from Persia , which now can also be found in regions of Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Sicily and possibly Afghanistan , as well as in the United States,...

s, mangos, nectarines, dates
Date Palm
The date palm is a palm in the genus Phoenix, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around the Persian Gulf. It is a medium-sized plant, 15–25 m tall, growing singly or forming a clump with...

, bamboos, and flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

ing cherries. Certain varieties of wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...

, cotton, and rice became especially economically important.

Background

Fairchild was born in Lansing, Michigan
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...

, and was raised in Manhattan
Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan is a city located in the northeastern part of the state of Kansas in the United States, at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. It is the county seat of Riley County and the city extends into Pottawatomie County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 52,281...

, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

. He was a member of the Fairchild family
Fairchild family
The Fairchild family has long roots in New England, United States. They descend from Thomas Fairchild who came from England in 1639 and settled in Stratford, Connecticut, a part of the fledgling New Haven Colony.-Genealogy:...

, descendants of Thomas Fairchild of Stratford
Stratford, Connecticut
Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639....

, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

. He graduated from Kansas State College of Agriculture
Kansas State University
Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...

  (B.A. 1888, M.S. 1889) where his father, George Fairchild
George Fairchild
George Thompson Fairchild was an American educator and university president.Fairchild was the son of Grandison Fairchild...

, was president. He continued his studies at Iowa State
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...

 and at Rutgers
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 with his uncle, Byron Halsted
Byron Halsted
Byron David Halsted was a noted American biologist and educator.Halsted was born at Venice, New York. He studied at Michigan State University and at Harvard ....

, a noted biologist. He received an honorary
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...

 D.Sc. degree from Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 in 1915.

Barbour Lathrop
Barbour Lathrop
Thomas Barbour Lathrop was an American philanthropist and world traveler. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia.Lathrop was a grandson of Governor James Barbour of Virginia. He studied at the University of Bonn and Harvard University...

, a wealthy world traveler, persuaded Fairchild to become a plant explorer for the US Department of Agriculture. Lathrop and another wealthy patron, Allison Armour, financed some of Fairchild's many explorations for new plants to be introduced into the U.S. Fairchild was the author of a number of popular books on his plant collecting expeditions. Of those early travels, Fairchild wrote, "I am glad that I saw a few of the quiet places of the world before the coming of automobiles ...".

For many years Fairchild managed the Department of Plant Introduction program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., where among other accomplishments, he brought the cherry trees from Japan to Washington. In 1898 he established the introduction garden for tropical plants
Chapman Field (Miami)
Chapman Field is a facility of the US government in South Miami-Dade county. Dating from 1898, it is one of the oldest entities in South Florida. Its official title is the Subtropical Horticulture Research Station of the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture...

 in Miami, Florida. In 1905 he married Marian, younger daughter of Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....

. Fairchild was a member of the board of trustees of the National Geographic Society and an officer in what is now called the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, also known as AG Bell, is a resource, support network and advocate for listening, learning, talking and living independently with hearing loss...

.

In 1926, the Fairchilds built a home on an 8 acres (32,374.9 m²) parcel on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove, Florida
Coconut Grove, Florida
Coconut Grove is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami, Florida in Miami-Dade County, United States. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, South Dixie Highway and Rickenbacker Causeway to the north, and Biscayne Bay to...

. They named it "The Kampong
The Kampong
The Kampong is an 11-acre tropical garden in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida United States. It is one of the five gardens of the non-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden , and is open to visitors. An admission fee is charged.-History:The Kampong was bought as their winter...

", after similar family compounds in Java, Indonesia, where Fairchild had spent so many happy days collecting plants. He covered this property with an extraordinary collection of rare tropical trees and plants and eventually wrote a book about the place, entitled "The World Grows Round my Door". In 1986, The Kampong
The Kampong
The Kampong is an 11-acre tropical garden in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida United States. It is one of the five gardens of the non-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden , and is open to visitors. An admission fee is charged.-History:The Kampong was bought as their winter...

 became part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden
National Tropical Botanical Garden
The National Tropical Botanical Garden is a group that sponors preservation of plants native to the tropics in a network of botanical gardens and preserves.-History:...

. In 1938, he was honored by having the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is a botanic garden, with extensive collections of rare tropical plants including palms, cycads, flowering trees and vines. It is located in metropolitan Miami, just south of Coral Gables, Florida, United States, surrounded at the south and west by Matheson...

 in Coral Gables named after him.

Fairchild was a member of the board of regents of the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

 from 1929 to 1933. For three of those years he was chairman of the board. In 1933 he was awarded the Public Welfare Medal
Public Welfare Medal
The Public Welfare Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "in recognition of distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." It is the most prestigious honor conferred by the Academy...

 from the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...

.

His son, Alexander Graham Bell Fairchild
Graham Fairchild
Alexander Graham Bell Fairchild was an American entomologist, and a member of the Fairchild family, descendants of Thomas Fairchild of Stratford, Connecticut....

 lived and worked as a research entomologist for 33 years at the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in the Republic of Panama. A daughter, Nancy Bell, married another entomologist, Marston Bates
Marston Bates
Marston Bates was an American zoologist. Bates' studies on mosquitoes contributed to the understanding of the epidemiology of yellow fever in northern South America....

, author of many books on natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

. She herself wrote a book about living in rural Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 during the 1940s: "East of the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 and West of Nowhere".

Writings

Fairchild wrote four books that describe his extensive world travels and activities in introducing new plant species to the United States. In addition to sharing some of his legendary tropical botanical expertise, Fairchild provided graphic accounts of long-gone native cultures he was able to see before being "modernized". Fairchild was an accomplished photographer and illustrated these books himself. Those books include:
  • The World Was my Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer. (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1938)
  • Garden Islands of the Great East: Collecting Seeds from the Philippines and Netherlands India in the Junk 'Chêng ho. (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1943)
  • The World Grows Round My Door; The Story of The Kampong, a Home on The Edge of the Tropics. (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1947)
  • Exploring for Plants. (New York: Macmillan, 1930).


In addition Fairchild and his wife, Marian, wrote an early work on macro photography
Macro photography
Macrophotography is close-up photography, usually of very small subjects. Classically a macrophotograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative is greater than life size. However in modern use it refers to a finished photograph of a subject at greater than life size...

 of insects titled Book of Monsters(Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1914). Fairchild also wrote many monographs about plants, plant exploring, and the transportation and cultivation of new plants in the United States.

See also

  • The Kampong
    The Kampong
    The Kampong is an 11-acre tropical garden in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida United States. It is one of the five gardens of the non-profit National Tropical Botanical Garden , and is open to visitors. An admission fee is charged.-History:The Kampong was bought as their winter...

    , the home and personal introduction garden of David Grandison Fairchild

Other references

  • Douglas, Marjory Stoneman
    Marjory Stoneman Douglas
    Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development...

    . Adventures in a Green World: the Story of David Fairchild and Barbour Lathrop. (Coconut Grove, Florida: Field Research Projects, 1973)
  • "Fairchild, David (Grandison)", Current Biography, 1953: 190-193.
  • "Fairchild, David (Grandison)" (obituary), Current Biography, 1954: 266.
  • "Fairchild, David Grandison." American National Biography (1999). 7:680-681.
  • "Fairchild, David Grandison." National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1930). C:253-254

External links

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