{{short description|American botanist (1869–1954)}} {{About|the botanist|the politician|David Fairchild (California politician)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | name = David G. Fairchild | image = David Fairchild.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1869|4|7}} | birth_place = [[Lansing, Michigan]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1954|8|6|1869|4|7}} | death_place = [[Coconut Grove]], Miami, Florida, U.S. | field = [[Botany]] | work_institutions = [[United States Department of Agriculture|U.S. Department of Agriculture]]<br>[[University of Miami]] | education = [[Kansas State University|Kansas State College of Agriculture]], [[Iowa State University]], [[Rutgers University]] | patrons = [[Barbour Lathrop]], Allison Armour | known_for = Incorporating non-native food and other commercial plants into American agriculture | awards = Honorary D.Sc. from [[Oberlin College]], [[Public Welfare Medal]] (1933) | spouse = Marian Hubbard Bell (daughter of [[Alexander Graham Bell]]) | father = [[George Fairchild]] | children = [[Alexander Graham Bell Fairchild]], Nancy Bell (who married [[Marston Bates]]) | author_abbrev_bot = '''D.Fairchild''' }}
'''David Grandison Fairchild''' (April 7, 1869 – August 6, 1954) was an American [[botany|botanist]] and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 [[exotic plants]]<ref>Williams 1963. p. 185.</ref> and varieties of established [[agriculture|crops]] into the United States, including [[soybean]]s,<ref>Fairchild 1938. p. 259.</ref> [[pistachio]]s,<ref>Fairchild 1938. p. 174.</ref> [[mangos]], [[nectarine]]s, [[date palm|dates]], [[bamboos]], and [[Prunus serrulata|flowering cherries]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/featurecontent/cherryblossom/history-of-the-cherry-trees.html|title=History of the Cherry Trees |website=National Park Service|access-date=May 20, 2022}}</ref> Certain varieties of wheat,<ref>Barbour 1943. p. 145.</ref> cotton, and rice became especially economically important.
==Early life and education== Fairchild was born in [[Lansing, Michigan]] and was raised in [[Manhattan, Kansas|Manhattan]], Kansas. He was a member of the [[Fairchild family]], descendants of Thomas Fairchild of [[Stratford, Connecticut|Stratford]], Connecticut. He graduated from [[Kansas State College of Agriculture]] (B.A. 1888, M.S. 1889) where his father, [[George Fairchild]], was president. He continued his studies at [[Iowa State University|Iowa State]] and at [[Rutgers University|Rutgers]] with his uncle, [[Byron Halsted]], a noted biologist. He received an [[Honorary degree|honorary]] [[D.Sc.]] degree from [[Oberlin College]] in 1915.
==Career== [[Barbour Lathrop]], a wealthy world traveler, persuaded Fairchild to become a plant explorer for the [[United States 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...".<ref>Fairchild 1938. p. 103.</ref>
For many years Fairchild managed the [[Office of Seed and Plant Introduction]] of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. One accomplishment was to help introduce flowering cherry trees from Japan to Washington.<ref>National Park Service</ref> He is also credited with introducing [[kale]], [[quinoa]] and [[avocado]]s to Americans.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Diamond|first1=Anna|title=America's First "Food Spy" Traveled the World Hunting for Exotic Crops|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/smalltalk_fairchild-180967508/|access-date=January 6, 2018|work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|date=January 2018}}</ref> In 1898, he established the [[Chapman Field (Miami)|introduction garden for tropical plants]] in [[Miami]], Florida.<ref>Fairchild 1947. p. 19.</ref> In 1905 he married Marian Bell, the younger daughter of [[Alexander Graham Bell]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats|last=Stone, Daniel (Daniel Evan), 1985-|year=2018|isbn=978-1-101-99058-2|location=New York City|pages=204–219|oclc=988851760}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=George H. M. Lawrence Papers, 1850-1982 |url=https://www.riamco.org/render?eadid=US-RUn-msg49&view=inventory#c304 |website=www.riamco.org |access-date=July 14, 2021}}</ref> Fairchild was a member of the board of trustees of the [[National Geographic Society]],<ref>Poole 2004. p. 133.</ref> and an officer in what is now called the [[Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing]].<ref>Fairchild 1938. p. 380.</ref> In 1926, the Fairchilds built a home on an {{convert|8|acre|m2|adj=on}} parcel on Biscayne Bay in [[Coconut Grove, Florida]]. They named it "[[The Kampong]]", 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 1984, The Kampong became part of the [[National Tropical Botanical Garden]]. In 1938, he was honored by having the [[Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden]] in [[Coral Gables, Florida|Coral Gables]] named after him. He was also the namesake of David Fairchild Elementary in [[South Miami]].
===University of Miami=== Fairchild was a member of the board of regents of the [[University of Miami]] from 1929 to 1933. For three of those years he was chairman of the board.<ref>Tebeau 1976. p. 43</ref> In 1933, he was awarded the [[Public Welfare Medal]] from the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]].<ref name=PublicWelfare>{{cite web|title=Public Welfare Award|url=http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/public-welfare-medal.html|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=February 14, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130809104231/http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/public-welfare-medal.html|archive-date=August 9, 2013}}</ref> His son, [[Graham Fairchild|Alexander Graham Bell Fairchild]], lived and worked as a research [[Entomology|entomologist]] for 33 years at the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in [[Republic of Panama|Panama]]. His daughter, Nancy Bell, married another entomologist, [[Marston Bates]], author of many books on [[natural history]]. She herself wrote a book, ''East of the [[Andes]] and West of Nowhere'', about living in rural [[Colombia]] during the 1940s.
Fairchild is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, ''[[List of Anolis lizards|Anolis fairchildi]]''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Fairchild", p. 88).</ref> Several plants were named after Fairchild, including ''Indigofera heudelotii'' var. ''fairchildii'' (Baker f.) J.B.Gillett, ''Elaeocarpus fairchildii'' Merr., ''Actinidia'' × ''fairchildii'' Rehder, and ''Ficus'' ''fairchildii'' Backer.<ref>Zona, S. 1995. The immortal Fairchilds. Garden News [Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden] 50(4): 11, 12.</ref>
== Plant introductions ==
=== Southwestern (Pima) cotton === David Fairchild played an important role in introducing cotton to the southwestern United States. Circa 1900, the United States led the world in cotton production, with its large production of “upland” cotton in the southeastern part of the country, and its high quality [[Gossypium barbadense#Sea Island cotton|sea island]] along the Atlantic coast. At the time, the southwestern United States did not produce commercial quantities of cotton. Egypt then led the world with a class of cotton higher quality than "upland" and more economical than "sea island". [[Herbert John Webber|H. J. Webber]] and others in the United States Department of Agriculture believed [[Gossypium barbadense#Egyptian|Egyptian cultivars]] would thrive, under irrigation, in the deserts of the southwestern United States. On behalf of the USDA, David Fairchild visited Egypt in 1902 and brought back a few cultivars. A USDA team led by [[Thomas Henry Kearney|Thomas H. Kearney]] selected among these cultivars, and after a decade of refinement, released the first cultivar successful in the southwestern United States.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Porcher|first1=Richard Dwight|title=The Story of Sea Island Cotton|last2=Fick|first2=Sarah|publisher=Wyrick|year=2005|isbn=0-941711-73-0|location=Charleston, South Carolina|pages=xxxii, 82–83}}</ref> This particularly high quality cotton eventually came to be known as [[Gossypium barbadense#Pima|Pima]].
==Works== Fairchild wrote four books that describe his extensive world travels and his work introducing new plant species to the United States. Beside sharing his legendary tropical botanical expertise, Fairchild provided graphic accounts of native cultures he was able to see before their modernization. He was an accomplished photographer and illustrated these books himself. * ''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)
''The World Was My Garden'' won a [[List of National Book Award winners#1935 to 1941|National Book Award]] as the Bookseller Discovery of 1938, voted by members of the [[American Booksellers Association]]. The discovery was "the most deserving book which failed to receive adequate sales and recognition."<ref name=nyt1939> "Book About Plants Receives Award: Dr. Fairchild's 'Garden' Work Cited by Booksellers", ''The New York Times'' 1939-02-15, page 20. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851–2007).</ref>
In addition Fairchild and his wife Marian wrote an early book on [[macro photography]] of insects titled ''Book of Monsters'' (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1914). Fairchild also wrote numerous monographs about plants, plant exploring, and the transportation and cultivation of new plants in the United States.{{Botanist|D.Fairchild|David Fairchild}}<!-- He citationed plants and trees -->
==See also== *[[The Kampong]], the home and personal introduction garden of David Grandison Fairchild
==References== ;Notes
{{Reflist|2}}
;Bibliography {{wikisource|works=or}} {{Refbegin}} *[[Thomas Barbour|Barbour, Thomas]]. ''Naturalist at Large''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1943. *{{Cite web | last = Clement | first = Gail | title = Reclaiming the Everglades / David Grandison Fairchild | publisher = [[Florida International University]] | url = http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/bios/fairchild.htm | access-date = February 28, 2011 | archive-date = June 6, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140606230359/http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/bios/fairchild.htm | url-status = dead }} *Fairchild, David. ''The World Was My Garden''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938. *{{Cite book | last = Fairchild | first = David | title = The World Grows Round My Door | publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons | date = 1947 | location = New York | pages = 347 }} *{{cite web | url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/index.htm | title=HISTORY OF THE CHERRY TREES | publisher=National Park Service | access-date=November 13, 2013 }} *Poole, Robert M. ''Explorers House''. New York: Penguin Press, 2004. *Tebeau, Charlton W. ''The University of Miami''. Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1976. *Williams, Beryl and Epstein, Samuel. ''Plant Explorer''. New York: Julian Messner, 1963. {{Refend}}
==Further reading== *Harris, Amanda. ''The Fruits of Eden: David Fairchild and America's Plant Hunters''. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0-8130-6061-3. *[[Marjory Stoneman Douglas|Douglas, Marjory Stoneman]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=6PpGAAAAYAAJ& ''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." ''[[The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography|National Cyclopaedia of American Biography]]'' (1930). C:253-254 *Stone, Daniel. ''The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats''. New York City: Dutton, 2018. {{ISBN|978-1-101-99058-2}}. [[OCLC]] 988851760.
==External links== {{commons category}} {{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=20430545}} *[http://www.grovebook.com/GA31.htm Complete bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828181555/http://grovebook.com/GA31.htm |date=August 28, 2008 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120104014618/http://www.ntbg.org/gardens/kampong-history.php David Grandison Fairchild and The Kampong] *{{Gutenberg author | id=Fairchild,+David | name=David Fairchild}} *{{Internet Archive author |name=David Grandison Fairchild}} * {{Librivox author|id=19349}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairchild, David}} [[Category:1869 births]] [[Category:1954 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American botanists]] [[Category:19th-century American male writers]] [[Category:19th-century American science writers]] [[Category:19th-century people from Florida]] [[Category:19th-century people from Kansas]] [[Category:19th-century people from Michigan]] [[Category:20th-century American botanists]] [[Category:20th-century American male writers]] [[Category:20th-century American science writers]] [[Category:20th-century people from Florida]] [[Category:20th-century people from Kansas]] [[Category:20th-century people from Michigan]] [[Category:American botanical writers]] [[Category:American civil servants]] [[Category:American founders]] <!-- of Chapman Field (Miami) --> [[Category:American male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Alexander Graham Bell]] [[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]] [[Category:Chairpersons of organizations]] [[Category:Coconut Grove (Miami)]] [[Category:Fairchild family|David]] [[Category:Iowa State University alumni]] [[Category:Kansas State University alumni]] [[Category:National Book Award winners]] [[Category:National Geographic Society]] [[Category:Rutgers University alumni]] [[Category:Scientists from Manhattan, Kansas]] [[Category:Scientists from Miami]] [[Category:Scientists from Michigan]] [[Category:Scientists from Washington, D.C.]] [[Category:Trustees of universities and colleges in the United States]] [[Category:United States Department of Agriculture people]] [[Category:University of Miami people]] [[Category:Writers from Lansing, Michigan]] [[Category:Writers from Manhattan, Kansas]] [[Category:Writers from Miami]] [[Category:Writers from Washington, D.C.]]