Biographical Note
Arthur Hummel Sr. and his spouse, Ruth Bookwalter Hummel, lived as missionaries in the remote rural area of Fenzhou, Shanxi China where they taught English and Arthur developed his deep interest in every aspect of Chinese civilization. In 1924, William Bacon Pettus invited Arthur Hummel, Sr. to Peking to teach Chinese customs and culture to westerners at the Yenching School of Chinese Studies In 1927, the Hummel family were forced out of China by the Great Expedition attempts to unify northern and southern China. They returned to the United States where Arthur Sr. was invited to lecture at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. While there, he was offered a position at the Library of Congress as the first Chief of the Orientalia Division. The Hummel family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1928. Hummel's career spanned 27 years, during which he assembled the largest and most comprehensive Asian studies collection in the world.