David Crockett Graham (Chinese name: 葛維漢, pinyin: Ge Weihan; Wade–Giles: Kê Wei-han; 21 March 1884 – 15 September 1961) was a polymath American Baptist minister and missionary, educator, author, archaeologist, anthropologist, naturalist and field collector in the Province of Sichuan (formerly spelled Szechwan) during the Chinese Republican Era, from 1911 to 1948. He was a 32nd degree Mason, and a past master of the Szechwan Lodge No. 112. 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 (see below). From 1932 to 1942 he was curator of the Museum of Art, Archaeology and Ethnology at the West China Union University, which still stands as part of Sichuan University, in Chengdu. There, he taught comparative religions at the theological college, and archaeology 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. A fourth manuscript lay in the Whitman College and Northwest Archives until it was discovered by Hartmut Walravens, who edited it and published it in 2018. 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."

Graham was born in Green Forest, Arkansas on March 21, 1884 to William Edward Graham (20 February 1841 – 28 March 1904) and Elizabeth Belinda (Atchley) Graham (14 August 1844 – 28 August 1888). 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 (13 August 1876 – 4 July 1962), who had just turned 12, raised him. Elmina was a strong believer in education and supported David through his education (she herself received a B.A. from Whitman College, 1908, an M.A. from University of Washington, 1921, and became an Associate Professor and Dean of Kansas State Teachers College). 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 (whom he had married in 1910). 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 archaeology 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 Xuzhou (Suifu) to Chengdu (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 where he taught until his retirement in 1948. He also taught comparative religions at the Theological Seminary.

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 (see Xinhai Revolution) 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.

Sichuan (Szechuan) in West China was remote from the central government (normally in Nanjing), and required a two-month trip up the Yangtze River to reach Xuzhou. 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 Sichuan. Xuzhou (where Graham was stationed) 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. Civil war between the Nationalists and Communists began in 1927, 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 Chongqing (Chungking) in Sichuan, 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 Indo-China 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.