Peter Parker (June 18, 1804 – January 10, 1888) was an American physician and a missionary who introduced Western medical techniques into Qing dynasty China, at the city of Canton.

[2] In February 1834, Parker (phoneticized in Cantonese: 伯駕)[3] traveled to Canton, where he had the distinction of being the first full-time Protestant medical missionary to China.

Parker often preached to the patients, and trained several Chinese students in the arts of medicine and surgery, some of whom attained considerable skill.

In 1844, Parker worked as Caleb Cushing's main interpreter during the negotiations of the Treaty of Wanghia with the Qing Empire.

Parker commissioned Lam Qua to paint patients at the Canton Hospital with large tumors or other major deformities.

From here the couple regularly hosted notable figures in Washington, including Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, and President Abraham Lincoln.

[8] Parker became a regent of the Smithsonian Institution in 1868, a corporate member of the American Board in 1871, and was a delegate of the Evangelical Alliance to Russia the same year to memorialize Tsar Alexander II on behalf of religious liberty in the Baltic provinces.