Sidney D. Gamble
Encyclopedia
Sidney D. Gamble was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to David Berry and Mary Huggins Gamble; grandson of James Gamble, who, with William Procter, founded Procter & Gamble
in 1837. in 1912 he graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University
with a Bachelor of Literature degree and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He visited China for four extended periods, 1908, 1917–1919, 1924–27, and 1931–1932, doing Christian social work for the Y.M.C.A and conducting social surveys. He is now best known for his remarkable and extensive photographs of Peking and North China.
At his death he left his widow, the former Elizabeth Lowe, four children, Catherine, Louise, David, and Anne, and ten grandchildren. His daughter, Catherine G. Curran, in 1986 established the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation, and the Sidney D. Gamble Lectures are given annually in Pasadena, California.
, spending six months on a fellowship working at a reform school for delinquent boys. At this time, he built the house which became known as the Sidney D. Gamble House.
In 1917, he joined the work of Princeton-in-Peking
and the Peking YMCA
where his Princeton friend John Stewart Burgess invited him to do the surveys which resulted in Peking: A Social Survey, which included more than fifty photographs. In 1919 Gamble was on hand to capture dramatic photographs of the May Fourth
demonstrations. The motto of the May Fourth Movement, "To save China through science and democracy," and the missionary ideal of "Saving China through Christianity" for a time seemed to be united. When he returned with his bride, Elizabeth Lowe, to China in 1924, he used his family resources to hire a team of Chinese researchers to survey 283 families. The book was published in 1933 as How Chinese Families Live in Peiping (as Peking was then called). In 1926, Gamble traveled for three weeks in the Soviet Union with Sherwood Eddy
, a long time mentor.
As China became more and more inflamed by patriotic agitation and warlord fighting, he found hope in the Ting Hsien Experiment in Rural Reconstruction conducted by James Yen’s Mass Education Movement. In 1931-32 Gamble traveled to China for the fourth and final time to organize the surveys which he used for three more detailed volumes, Ting Hsien: A North China Rural Community (1954) and North China Villages (1963). Chinese Village Plays, published in 1970, after his death, give translations based on unique transcriptions of now lost village yang ko plays, which differ from the later dances.
Jonathan Spence
concludes of Gamble that his "findings were open-minded, clear headed, methodologically intelligent (though not always beyond criticism by scholars of different views), startlingly imaginative, and -- when presented in photographic form -- vigorous, ebullient, unsentimental, and starkly, yet never cruelly, illustrative of the deep and real suffering that lay at the heart of China's long revolution."
; Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
; President and Honorary Chairman of Princeton-in-Asia
.
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
in 1837. in 1912 he graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
with a Bachelor of Literature degree and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He visited China for four extended periods, 1908, 1917–1919, 1924–27, and 1931–1932, doing Christian social work for the Y.M.C.A and conducting social surveys. He is now best known for his remarkable and extensive photographs of Peking and North China.
At his death he left his widow, the former Elizabeth Lowe, four children, Catherine, Louise, David, and Anne, and ten grandchildren. His daughter, Catherine G. Curran, in 1986 established the Sidney D. Gamble Foundation, and the Sidney D. Gamble Lectures are given annually in Pasadena, California.
Social survey and photography in China
Gamble first toured in 1908 accompanying his parents, then after graduating from Princeton in 1912, studied labor and industrial economics at University of California, BerkeleyUniversity of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, spending six months on a fellowship working at a reform school for delinquent boys. At this time, he built the house which became known as the Sidney D. Gamble House.
In 1917, he joined the work of Princeton-in-Peking
Princeton-in-Asia
Princeton in Asia is a nonprofit organization that helps recent college graduates obtain yearlong jobs with educational institutions, businesses, media organizations, and NGOs throughout Asia...
and the Peking YMCA
YMCA
The Young Men's Christian Association is a worldwide organization of more than 45 million members from 125 national federations affiliated through the World Alliance of YMCAs...
where his Princeton friend John Stewart Burgess invited him to do the surveys which resulted in Peking: A Social Survey, which included more than fifty photographs. In 1919 Gamble was on hand to capture dramatic photographs of the May Fourth
May Fourth
May Fourth may refer to:*May 4*May Fourth Movement*May Fourth Square*Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970...
demonstrations. The motto of the May Fourth Movement, "To save China through science and democracy," and the missionary ideal of "Saving China through Christianity" for a time seemed to be united. When he returned with his bride, Elizabeth Lowe, to China in 1924, he used his family resources to hire a team of Chinese researchers to survey 283 families. The book was published in 1933 as How Chinese Families Live in Peiping (as Peking was then called). In 1926, Gamble traveled for three weeks in the Soviet Union with Sherwood Eddy
Sherwood Eddy
Sherwood Eddy was an American Protestant missionary, author, administrator and educator. He was born George Sherwood Eddy on January 19, 1871 to George Alfred Eddy and Margaret Louise Nolan at Leavenworth, Kansas. He attended Phillips Andover Academy, graduated from Yale University in 1891 and...
, a long time mentor.
As China became more and more inflamed by patriotic agitation and warlord fighting, he found hope in the Ting Hsien Experiment in Rural Reconstruction conducted by James Yen’s Mass Education Movement. In 1931-32 Gamble traveled to China for the fourth and final time to organize the surveys which he used for three more detailed volumes, Ting Hsien: A North China Rural Community (1954) and North China Villages (1963). Chinese Village Plays, published in 1970, after his death, give translations based on unique transcriptions of now lost village yang ko plays, which differ from the later dances.
Jonathan Spence
Jonathan Spence
Jonathan D. Spence is a British-born historian and public intellectual specializing in Chinese history. He was Sterling Professor of History at Yale University from 1993 to 2008. His most famous book is The Search for Modern China, which has become one of the standard texts on the last several...
concludes of Gamble that his "findings were open-minded, clear headed, methodologically intelligent (though not always beyond criticism by scholars of different views), startlingly imaginative, and -- when presented in photographic form -- vigorous, ebullient, unsentimental, and starkly, yet never cruelly, illustrative of the deep and real suffering that lay at the heart of China's long revolution."
Later career
After his return to the United States, was elected member of the National Council of the YMCA, became Treasurer, Vice Chairman, Chairman, and President Emeritus of Church World ServiceChurch World Service
Founded in 1946, Church World Service is a cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations and communions in the United States, providing sustainable self-help, development, disaster relief, and refugee assistance around the world...
; Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation is a philanthropic foundation founded in 1930 by Kate Macy Ladd in honor of her father Josiah W. Macy, Jr. The Foundation became internationally known for the support of the Macy conferences starting late 1940s : a series of interdisciplinary meetings of scientists...
; President and Honorary Chairman of Princeton-in-Asia
Princeton-in-Asia
Princeton in Asia is a nonprofit organization that helps recent college graduates obtain yearlong jobs with educational institutions, businesses, media organizations, and NGOs throughout Asia...
.
Works
- Sidney D. Gamble, with the assistance of John Stewart Burgess, Peking, a Social Survey Conducted under the Auspices of the Princeton University Center in China and the Peking Young Men's Christian Association (London: H. Milford, 1921). 538p. Foreword by G. Sherwood Eddy and Robert A. Woods.
- Sidney D. Gamble, Ho-chên Wang, Jên-ho Liang, How Chinese Families Live in Peiping; a Study of the Income and Expenditure of 283 Chinese Families (New York, London: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1933). 348 pp 33025920. Field work in charge of Wang Ho-ch*en and Liang Jen-ho.
- S. D. Gamble, "The Disappearance of Foot-Binding in Tinghsien," The American Journal of Sociology 49.2 (1943).
- Sidney D. Gamble, Foreword by Y.C. James Yen. Field work directed by Franklin Ching-han Lee. Ting Hsien, a North China Rural Community (New York: International Secretariat Institute of Pacific Relations, 1954; rpr Stanford University Press, 1968). xxv, 472p. 54009009
- Sidney D. Gamble,North China Villages; Social, Political, and Economic Activities before 1933 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963). x, 352p. ISBN 63021616.
- Sidney D. Gamble, Chinese Village Plays from the Ting Hsien Region (Yang Ke Hsüan); a Collection of Forty-Eight Chinese Rural Plays as Staged by Villagers from Ting Hsien in Northern China (Amsterdam,: Philo Press, 1970). xxix, 762 p.p. ISBN 72134043. Translated from the Chinese by various scholars after the original recordings and edited with a critical introd. and explanatory notes by Sidney D. Gamble.
Later publications, exhibits
- 'China Between Revolutions: Photographs by Sidney D. Gamble, 1917-1927 (Sidney D. Gamble Foundation )Introduction by Jonathan D Spence, May Wu, Editor. ISBN13: 9780962282607
- Sidney D. Gamble's China, 1917-1932: Photographs of the Land and Its People (Washington, D.C.: Alvin Rosenbaum Projects, Inc., 1988). 191 pp. ISBN 88022211 forewords by John Hersey and L. Carrington Goodrich; introduction by Jonathan D. Spence.
External links
- "A Pilgrimage to Miaofeng Shan" -- Gamble's 1920s film of pilgrimage to Miaofengshan, now housed at Duke University Library. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFtpjR6uYnI
- Duke University Digital Archives: The site currently features photographs dated between 1917 and 1932; the 1908 photographs will be digitized and uploaded as part of future additions to the site.http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/gamble/