Dryden Phelps Holding a Panda

Item

Title
Dryden Phelps Holding a Panda
Caption
"Professor Dryden Phelps found the panda quite tame when it arrived in Chengtu, West China, before it started on its long journey to America. He named it Pandamonium!"
Identifier
WFC_113
Description
Dryden Phelps is standing in the Graham's yard holding Pandah, who is on a leash. Dryden has clips around his trousers, which suggests he was riding a bicycle. A thatched-roof pavilion can be seen in the background.
Commentary
Pandah was the smaller and the friendlier of the two pandas that David Crockett Graham captured for Mme. Chiang Kaishek in the fall of 1941. Dryden Phelps was an American Baptist missionary who was staying with the Willmotts on "Canadian Row" while his wife taught at the Canadian School in West China, which had moved to Renshou to keep the children safe from the Japanese bombs that targeted Chengdu. On this day, Dryden, with Earl and Bill Willmott, probably rode bicycles across campus to "Baptist Row" to visit the pandas.
Creator
Leslie Earl Willmott
Date Created
Between 1941-09-30 and 1941-11-6
Original Format
Photographic Print
Source
Cory Willmott
Provenance
Leslie Earl and Mary Katharine Willmott, to Richard Edward Willmott; scanned by Elizabeth Willmott.
Publisher
SIUE
Record Date
2026-01-10
Contributor
Cory Willmott; Elizabeth Willmott
Type
Still Image
References
Davis, D. Dwight. The Giant Panda: A Morphological Study of Evolutionary Mechanisms, Fieldiana Zoological Memoirs, Vol. 3. Chicago Natural History Museum, 1964, p. 32.
Earl Willmott News Note #181, Chengdu, Nov. 12, 1941 (Willmott Family Archives)
Published In
David Crockett Graham. "The Panda Comes to America." Missions 33, no. 3 (1942), p. 149.
Subject
Giant Panda

Linked resources

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Title Class
Bill Willmott Petting a Panda Image
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Resource class
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