Andrew Graham

Andrew Graham (1733 – 8 September 1815) was a Scottish naturalist and a chief factor with the Hudson's Bay Company.

Life Andrew Graham was born in 1733, probably in the vicinity of Edinburgh.

He emigrated to Canada and worked for the Hudson's Bay Company from 1749 to 1775. His first assignment was to the company's most northerly trading station at Prince of Wales's Fort, now known as Churchill, Manitoba. There he served on three summer expeditions on board the sloop Churchill

As a naturalist, his principal contribution was a series of manuscript called “Observations” penned by Graham from 1767 onwards. These may have been a continuation of notes made by Isham in the 1740s. Among the subjects covered are stories of life at the company's posts on Hudson's Bay, trade lists, meteorological and astronomical observations, some transcripts of diaries written by explorers hired by the company explorers, and the first known vocabularies of local First Nations languages. Although, these short vocabularies were obtained second hand from other company men, as Graham never travelled into the interior. Altculture at this time. Most importantly, Graham's writings have lengthy sections on the natural history of the bay region, with the greatest details about birds.

From 1770, he collected many specimens, mainly birds, which he sent to London, many of them being described by Johann Reinhold Forster. Graham was assisted at times by fur trader and company surgeon Thomas Hutchins, who also worked on meteorological problems who may have plagiarised much of Graham's work.