Grace H. Knapp (21 November 1870 – 14 March 1953) was an American Christian missionary and teacher who served in the Ottoman Empire.

In April 1883, at the age of twelve, Knapp moved to the United States to receive an education in Massachusetts, Vermont and Illinois.

She then returned to the Ottoman Empire in October of that year where she taught at the Mount Holyoke Seminary of Kurdistan, located in Bitlis.

[4] In the First Balkan War of 1912–13, the Ottoman Empire had lost its Balkan possessions to Christian uprisings, intensifying fears in the Turkish homeland that the Empire's increasingly restive Armenian Christian minority—with the assistance or encouragement of Western governments—might also attempt to establish an independent state, resulting in the breakup of Turkey itself.

[5][6] As a result of the wars, at least half a million Muslim Ottomans from the former Balkan possessions of the Empire sought refuge in Turkey,[7] sparking a desire for revenge among many Turks.

[9] Armenian soldiers conscripted in the Ottoman army were subjugated to maltreatment and were forced to do manual labor under harsh conditions.

[9] Prior to the conscription, the arms of the Armenians were confiscated and the population was left in a vulnerable state at a time of war.

[9] In February 1915, missionary Clarence Ussher, who was stationed in the American hospital in Van, relates in his memoir An American Physician in Turkey: A Narrative of Adventures in Peace and War, that the "strong and liberal-minded"[13] governor or vali of the province was replaced with Cevdet Bey,[a] brother-in-law of the Turkish Commander-in-Chief, Enver Pasha.

The new vali was unable to travel to Van until late March, when he arrived "accompanied by several thousand soldiers and Kurdish and Circassian irregulars".

[16] On 16 April, Cevdet had a community leader in the town of Shadakh arrested, but the townspeople, acting on a rumour of his impending murder, surrounded the police station demanding his release.

Ussher relates in his memoir that Cevdet then invited a small group of Armenian leaders to visit Shadakh on a peace mission, but had them assassinated en route.

[26] Grace Knapp states that the Armenians were not planning a "rebellion" as the governor claims, but trying to find a peaceful way to resolve the conflict.

Knapp then recounts that Cevdet Bey demanded that fifty Turkish soldiers be stationed in the American missionary compound in Van, but this was rejected by the Armenians on the grounds that it would compromise their defensive positions.

[31] According to Knapp, the attack on Van was sparked when a group of Turkish soldiers attempted to seize an Armenian girl.

[33] A scuffle then broke out which quickly developed into "a general fusillade" followed by an artillery barrage by the Turks in the morning of 20 April.

[35] Knapp likewise writes that a man from the village of Arjish told her that on 19 April, the Armenians were gathered and then "mowed down" by Cevdet's soldiers.

[33] The Armenians also held disciplinary rules to restrain themselves from unlawful conduct and to engage in proper ethics during the siege.

She writes in detail: While he [Cevdet Bey] was having no work and much fun his soldiers and their wild allies, the Kurds, were sweeping the countryside, massacring men, women, and children and burning their homes.

Babies were shot in their mothers' arms, small children were horribly mutilated, women were stripped and beaten.

But this period was also marked by the spread of disease, which claimed the lives of several missionaries including Ussher's wife, Elizabeth.

[61][62] On June 25, the ongoing massacres were further assisted by Cevdet Bey who arrived in Bitlis from Van accompanied with 8,000 reinforcement troops known as "human butchers.

The cries that rang out through the darkness of the night were even more heartrending.After occupying Van, the Russian army approached Bitlis in mid July.

[68] However, by July 15 and prior to the arrival of the Russian army, the elimination of the Armenian population of Bitlis was already "virtually complete".

[63] After a short stay, the Russian army retreated on July 24 and Turkish forces reestablished their presence in Bitlis.

[3] When Grace Knapp returned to the United States, she relocated to New York City where she began to work as a staff writer for the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (ACASR; now known as the Near East Foundation) from 1918 to 1923.

After relocating to Boston, Massachusetts, Knapp continued working as an editor for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from 1923 to 1940.

She had published her experiences while working in the Ottoman Empire in several books entitled "The mission at Van in Turkey in war time" (1916) and "The Tragedy of Bitlis" (1917), the latter being a collection of eyewitness accounts as noted above.

Knapp has donated her personal photographs, letters, and documents related to her experiences in Bitlis, Erzerum, and Van to the Mount Holyoke College Archives & Special Collections.