WHALES, CAMPS & TRAILS

J. McKenzie Young ~ Shocking, Shell Shocking Indeed

2011-07-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

Watertown, New York, Daily News. December 22, 1923

I found this newspaper article this morning while searching the excellent site: Fulton History, operated by Thomas M. Tryniski.

Obviously yet another version of Mac's story, involving Shell Shock, or what is in modern parlance referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Not to make light of Shell Shock, but I find it hard to believe that the Northwest Mounted Police would have taken Mac in if he was so disoriented. In addition, his United States Marine Corps file shows that on application to the force Mac knew exactly who his parents were and where they were living.

Truly, fact is stranger than fiction.

John McKenzie Young: Gobi Explorer [ Part 4 of a series ]

2011-07-23T12:04:00.000-07:00

'Mac' Young standing with a Chinese officer of the Trail Guard, Chap Ser, Outer Mongolia

As recounted in "This Business Of Exploring" by Roy Chapman Andrews. 1935.

[After being robbed in Seattle] "Mac was hungry, his head ached like the devil, his spirits were far, far below zero. He passed a Marine Corps recruiting station "Join the Marines and see the world." "Well," thought Mac, "I can always go back to the army." "What's your experience?" asked the recruiting officer. "Four years of the war. Big guns. Six-inch howitzers." "Sure, we want you." "What post is farthest from the U. S. A.?" asked Mac. "Peking, China, the Legation Guard." "All right. I'll join if you send me there. But you've got to promise. China for me." So as an enlisted man for three years Mac joined the U. S. Marine Corps. But he didn't get to China at once. A station on the Pacific coast, training men to handle artillery, was where he landed first. As usual, he was too valuable; they didn't want to let him go. But Mac held them to their promise and one brilliant day in autumn he arrived in Peking. Colonel (later Gen- eral) Hal Dunlap was in command. Hal was one of my most intimate friends. We shared a temple together, which rejoiced in the name of "The Temple of the High Spirited Insects." Colonel Dunlap soon discovered that Mac was an expert motor mechanic, promoted him to Corporal and put him in charge of all the Legation Guard automobiles and trucks. I saw Mac often at the Insects temple. I needed a man to take charge of our cars on the second expedition to the Gobi Desert. Colonel Dun- lap suggested Mac as I hoped he would. We got him assigned on detached duty to the Expedition and thus began our friendship."

One would think that Mac kept his family informed of his comings and goings. From what I have read, his parents were good people, and well liked by their community. Yet, it appears that Mac did not tell his parents where he was, as is evident by this article from the Jefferson County Journal, Weds. January 2, 1924.

Having worked with the media myself, I know that they are sometimes prone to muddying a story by getting the facts wrong, or by conflating facts; thus the reference to working for the government and the American Museum. Or, was Mac given to telling tall tales on a regular basis?

What prompted Mac to suddenly get in contact with his parents? A search of my collection reveals that in the January 1924 issue of Asia Magazine, in the article by Roy Chapman Andrews "Where The Dinosaur Hid Its Eggs" is a large group portrait of the expedition crew. J. McKenzie Young is dead center, and is clearly named in the caption.

I have no idea if Young's parents read Asia Magazine. It was a well written, wholesome publication that had a large circulation in the 1920's. If Mac's parents would not have seen it, likely one of his Father's congregation would have. In addition, having returned from Mongolia, Roy Chapman Andrews would be giving public lectures to raise funds, lectures that included lantern slides and film.

Certainly, if Mac intended some level of anonymity by going to China, it was not going to last long.

In an article published after his death, September 4, 1931, in the Humboldt Standard, Eureka California, Mac's Father, a Presbyterian Minister remember, provides some information to the reporter:

"Mr. Young was born in Toronto and served in the Canadian Army during the World War. Afterward he joined the Northwest Mounted Police. Later he was sent to Texas by an Oil company and there he joined the United States Secret Service and was sent to China."

Is this possibly the 'government' referred to in the earlier article? A fellow enthusiast, Don Arp Jr., contacted me some years back and we exchanged letters and e-mails regarding Mac Young's mysterious Suicide/Death. Don did some investigating into the 'Secret Service' story and found that each state once had a Secret Service, but New York and Texas had no records of Mac Young. Nor did the Secret Service who we all associate with dark sunglasses, ear pieces, and protecting the American Presidents.

An interesting sidelight to my search of Newspapers involved the incident when Mac froze his hands driving in Mongolia and had to have the ends of some fingers amputated due to severe frostbite.

"As a result of this incident Young became the first explorer ever to receive an award from the Labour Department under the compensation Act in this state [New York]"

A likely event, but again, not something I have been able to substantiate.

An endorsement for the Exide Battery. Fulton Patriot, October 30, 1929

1930 was the last year that key expedition members would be together on an expedition into the Gobi. While Andrews tried to negotiate new terms with Chinese authorities, the museum staff members were sent back to New York, while contract staff such as John McKenzie Young were let go.

Andrews was not about to turn his back on Mac Young, and wrote to several potential employers on Mac's behalf, recommending him as an excellent worker and all round reliable under the most trying of conditions.

I have in my collection an original letter that Mac wrote to Andrews on November 25th, 1929, prior to the last expedition of 1930. The return address is in Chelsea, London, England, an exclusive neighborhood even today. In thanking Andrews for a copy of his recent book Ends of the Earth [published September 1929] Mac writes that his own book was due for publication in January.

I have found no record of anything authored and published by Young. I expect that Andrews would have mentioned it in one of the biographies he wrote about Mac Young.

At the time, Mac was living?, involved with? a woman named Violet. No last name given, and although he refers to they did this, and they visited so and so, he mentions her by name only once. I have encountered no other mention of Violet in over thirty years of collecting and research.

J. McKenzie Young. Part Three: "Mac Of The Mounted"

2011-05-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

Roy Chapman Andrews tells the following version of Mac Young's life between the end of the First World War, and Young joining the United States Marine Corps:

[Excerpt from This Business of Exploring. G. P. Putnam's Sons., 1935. pp. 104 - 106]

So he wandered northward to Canada, lured by the legends of the Northwest Mounted Police. But it wasn't what he hoped it would be. He was too valuable at headquarters. For several years he was a "mountie" but did not reenlist.

There at the edge of the great country stretching northward to the Arctic Ocean tales came down of

trappers and fur traders in the Mackenzie River region. Mac and two of his buddies decided to seek their fortunes in the north. None of them knew much about trapping but they could learn. They did learn too and it was a bitter experience during a long winter.

They got plenty of furs, but Indians stole a cache of food. They struggled to a trading post just on the verge of complete starvation. The trader did not run true to the traditions of the north. In return for enough food to take them out he made them give him their best furs. At last they arrived in Seattle and the remaining skins were sold. Eight hundred dollars apiece was the net profit.

Of course they had a night of celebration. Until I had been on a long cruise myself and away from civilization for many months I never could understand why sailors at the end of a voyage want to raise Cain and spend every cent of money they have worked so hard to make. I found out because that was just what I wanted to do. Every shop looked enticing; every girl was beautiful; all music was intoxicating. The contrast and the sudden change upsets one's sense of values. You are happy to be back and you have to show it or burst. It is a natural human outlet, just as a volcano explodes when too much steam has accumulated.

Mac awoke next morning in a hotel with all his money gone. He never knew just what happened or how he got there but the fact remained that he did not have a nickel. It was one of Seattle's grayest days, than which nothing can be grayer. Mac was hungry, his head ached like the devil, his spirits were far, far below zero. He passed a Marine Corps recruiting station "Join the Marines and see the world."

[It is a great story - but only that, a story. But who told it? Did Mac Young spin this yarn over Gobi campfires?, or did Andrews conflate events with other tales he had heard from other men of adventure?]

R.N.W.M.P. 1919 - 1920

Unfortunately due to a type of institutional insanity, the Original Personnel Records for the Royal North West Mounted Police [a precursor of our modern Royal Canadian Mounted Police] were destroyed in accordance with government regulations.

In 1986, I received a reply from S. W. Horrall, Historian at the RCMP in response to my request for any information on Young. I was told that from 'scattered sources' at the Public Archives he could tell me that Young had enlisted in at Toronto in August 1919, was transferred to the training Depot at Regina, and after basic training was employed on office duties until he purchased his discharge on August 5th, 1920. No photographs existed of Young in Royal North West Mounted Police archives.

In 2004, I was introduced to Don Klancher, a retired RCMP officer, and major private collector of the Forces' history, documents, photographs, and uniforms. I learned that not all information had been destroyed, and that there was an ongoing effort to compile as much information on all the force's personnel from day one onwards. A daunting task indeed.

Don Klancher had known a fragment of Young's story, and I traded him what I knew for what he could access from the project's files.

Young had joined the RNWMP / RCMP service on August 11, 1919, was assigned Regimental Number 8592, as a Sgt., and purchased his discharge from a 5 year stint, on August 5, 1920. His burial place was given as Fortuna, California. However, as I will reveal, that is not where he is buried.

Undated photo of Mac Young in the Gobi

From this point on, the story told about John McKenzie Young, or the story he put around about himself, begin to have large and small inconsistencies.

I have a photocopy of Young's complete Marine Corps service record. In the file it shows that Mac Young applied in person to join the USMC, in Seattle, Wash., on August 31, 1920.

This allows a scant twenty-six days between leaving the Mounted Police Depot in Regina, Saskatchewan and arriving in Seattle. Certainly not enough time to spend a winter trapping furs in Canada's Arctic.....

I do not know what it would have cost Young to buy out his remaining four year contract with the RNWMP, but I expect he did not have much money put aside, and that after visiting family and friends, Mac Young was looking for gainful employment that needed the skills of a former soldier and Mounted Police officer. The Marine Corps was likely more enticing than returning to being a bank clerk.

Or, did Mac Young actually join the Secret Service?

Stay tuned.....

John McKenzie Young 1894 - 1931 Part Two.

2011-05-15T18:14:00.000-07:00

"Mac" [John McKenzie] Young. 1930.

In Part One I presented the story of John McKenzie Young as published by Roy Chapman Andrews. There is no doubt that Young's death deeply affected Andrews, and members of the Central Asiatic Expeditions, Marine Corps, and one suspects, many of the female members of the Peking Foreign Legation social circle.

For longer versions of Young's life and assorted adventures see Andrews: J. McKenzie Young - Explorer, in: This Business of Exploring, 1932. Chapter 7, pp. 102 - 118; and Bravest Man I Ever Knew, In: American Magazine June 1955. I also have a lengthy manuscript by Andrews which is titled "He Danced With Death A Dozen Times" It has Andrews' handwritten notation that it was sent to Argosy sometime in the 1950's but I can not read the date clearly. If anybody knows I would be grateful to hear from you.

I have contacted all of the agencies that Young was said to have been a member of.

I have a copy of his Canadian Military Service Record, his Service Record in the United States Marine Corps., and what little information remains available from the incredibly short-sighted archives and records of the North-West Mounted Police, now known as The Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

S. S. JUSTICIA 1917

S. S. JUSTICIA Dazzle paint, headed for U Boat infested crossings of North Atlantic. 1917

Young volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, Siege Artillery Draft, at McGill University, on May 21, 1917. He states that at that time he was a member of the McGill Canadian Officers Training Corps. He gave his place of Birth as Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His parents at that time were listed as living in Pittsburgh, PA.

Along with approximately 3, 999 other troops, Mac climbed onboard S. S. Justicia at Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada on June 25, 1917, and disembarked at Liverpool, England on July 17, 1917.
Initially placed in reserve Artillery stationed at Shorncliffe, Kent; in less than a few weeks Young was absorbed into the 13th Siege Battery, which itself was later absorbed into the second 10th Canadian Siege Battery.

His AFB records that about August 21, 1917 a Field Warrant was issued against him, but why is not specified. CANCELLED was written through it, and Young is still Bombadier Private 2nd class the next day. It appears that Young did spend a lot of time at various Camps in England, as his record shows arriving in France for the first time on March 15, 1918.

9.2 inch howitzers of a Siege Battery in action on the Western Front.

In a letter to The Major General Commandant, United States Marine Corps., Washington, D.C. dated May 17th, 1926, Young states that he was Twenty-two months overseas, and took part in major engagements at Paaschaendale, Vimy Ridge, Arras, Amiens, Cambrai, and several minor ones.

Major engagements occurred at:
- Paaschaendale: July and November, 1917
- Vimy Ridge: April 9 to 12, 1917
- Arras: April 9th to May 16 1917
- Cambrai: 20 November to December 7 1917
- Amiens: August 8th 1918

While Young's official military record is difficult to translate; there is a lot of acronyms. it is clear to me that Young was not wounded, and would not have been in any of the 'big' engagements, with the possible exception of Amiens.

Young was field promoted to sergeant on August 5th, 1918 on the advice of a Sgt. Marshall, but reduced to ranks on August 29th, 1918; no explanation why.

Young did in fact apply to join the Royal Air Force on October 27th, 1918, and did make it back to England, and was about to start training when the War ended. His record does not show that he ever received any instruction on flying, or was ever in an aeroplane during war time.

Mac Young was demobilized at Toronto in May 1919. He was given an honourable discharge, ranked as a Sergeant, and awarded the British War Medal, and The Victory Medal.

I conclude that the World War One portion of Mac's story is mostly correct, save for any true involvement in the 'big' battles, and probably never did learn to fly. It would appear that as told, Mac spent a great deal of time at training depots itching to see the war.

If somebody reading this has expertise in reading military personnel records from World War One, I would be more than happy to put Mac's Records at their disposal for analysis.

Personalities ~ John McKenzie Young. Part One.

2011-05-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Earliest verifiable image of John McKenzie Young.

Identity photograph from his USMC Service Record.

Photograph taken October 1, 1920.

Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.

Possibly the most enigmatic member of the Central Asiatic Expeditions was John McKenzie Young, 1894 - 1931. Despite nearly 30 years of research, I am still unable to determine what parts of Young's life are real, what are outright fabrications by Young and or others, and what may have been intentional obfuscation by agencies as yet unknown, for reasons as yet also unknown.

In Part One, I present a brief overview of Mac's life as it was popularly presented during and shortly after his lifetime. I have included the entire text of an article written by Roy Chapman Andrews published shortly after Young's mysterious death in 1931. In Part Two I will point out inconsistencies in the popular mythos, and present what I do know, and what remains to be verified.

____________________________________________________

Central Asian Explorer - John McKenzie Young.

The Arctic explorer, Admiral Peary, said : "The three most important qualities which an explorer must have are loyalty, unselfishness and dependability." Peary might also have been describing members of the United States Marine Corps., in particular John McKenzie Young.

"Mac", as his friends called him, was a veteran of France, and a former member of Canada's famed Northwest Mounted Police. After W.W. I Young became uncomfortable in civilian life and enlisted in the Marine Corps. However, Young had an unusual request; the Marines must send him to the furthest posting possible from America, the Legation Guard in Peking, China.

Unbeknownst to Young, his desire to escape would propel him into an extraordinary, but little known chapter of Marine Corps history. Within a few short months, Young found himself playing a role in the largest non-military expedition to ever leave America at that time, the Central Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History, bound for the barren wastes of Northern China and Outer Mongolia.

Officially the expedition's chief mechanic, Young also had secret orders from his commanding officer to make a reconnaissance of the area traversed by the expedition, the first ever conducted by U.S. military personnel in the area. Young became the confidant of the expedition leader, Roy Chapman Andrews, and because of his abilities, was placed in charge of the entire expedition during the winter of 1925 - 1926.

Young was present during numerous important scientific discoveries that included: discovery of the first dinosaurs east of the Himalayas, the first dinosaur eggs, and the first evidence of ancient man in Central Asia.

Young returned to America in 1931, a Captain in the Marine Corps Reserve, at Mare's Island. Mysteriously, one year later, Young was found dead on a lonely road in Northern California. The official cause was suicide, but Young's friends and family would not believe it.

J. McKenzie Young Just After The Great Blizzard in Mongolia.

J. McKenzie Young

A Gallant Comrade in the Field of Exploration - A Resourceful Worker - A Steadfast Friend.

By Roy Chapman Andrews. Natural History Magazine. 1932

Mac Young is dead. It is difficult for me to realize that, for he was ever filled with joie de vivre. Mac always laughed at life, taking the good with the bad, the thick with the thin, never complaining when Fate played him a scurvy trick. Kind-hearted, generous to a fault, loyal, affectionate, sympathetic, faithful to his friendships, — that was McKenzie Young. I shall not write a formal biography of Mac. He would not want that. He was overmodest and if I said anything at all, he would infinitely prefer that I spoke of him as I knew him in the life we lived together.

Our friendship meant a great deal to us both. It was the kind of friendship that never hesitates to ask a sacrifice each of the other, knowing that it will be given gladly. For six years we were companions in the field and out of it. We shared the joys and disappointments, the pleasures and the hardships of life in the desert. In Peking he had a courtyard in the Expedition's beautiful old Manchu palace. We lived there together, Mac and I, in harmony and happiness. Therefore we knew each other as few men ever get to know their fellows.

Mac's life was always full of color and romance. He was a typical rolling stone, gathering no moss, but as he often said; "Who wants moss, anyway?" He had been in school in Canada and during the first year of the World War he joined the Canadian forces. Hardly did he land in France before his unit went to the front. Wounded almost immediately, he was sent back to England to recover. Twice more he stopped pieces of shell, for he was a gunner in a battery of six-inch howitzers. Those experiences were interesting and he told them well. On our long trips together across the desert, he kept me fascinated for hours with accounts of his big guns and how they fought them in historic battles.

At The Expedition's Headquarters.
Mac Young with his dog "Pat" in Peking.

After the war, life in a city was flat and stale. Like so many others, he sought excitement again. This time he turned to the Royal Northwest Mounted Police, that splendid patrol "who always get their man." From there a fur hunting expedition took him into the tundras of the Arctic where he learned to know the hazards of a trapper's life. Back in Seattle, robbed in a hotel of his hard won share of the sale of furs, he turned again to the Service. In the U. S. Marine Corps, he went to China and there I met him.

The Colonel of his detachment, my old friend Hal Dunlap, who as a Brigadier-General recently met a tragic death in France, knew and liked him. Colonel Dunlap arranged his detail to the Central Asiatic Expedition when he found that we needed a motor expert. This work is the most arduous of any job on the expedition. At the end of the day's run, when the other men can rest and make themselves comfortable, the motor experts must fill all the tanks with gasoline and inspect every car minutely. If any- thing is wrong it must be repaired that night. A motor man must accompany every reconnaissance trip. If a car is mired he is the one who gets it out. Always the hardest and the most disagreeable work falls to his lot. Mac did it cheerfully and with skill, never complaining. In the later years I depended upon him more and more for every conceivable task.

During the winter of 1926-7, I was in America. Word came down from the frozen reaches of the Mongolian plateau that our camel herd had been taken by a brigand. Mac knew that the bandit chief was a friend of mine; that he never would have driven off our camels if he had known that they belonged to the Expedition. So into the Gobi he went. It was forty below zero and he found the bandit's yurt. The chief said it was all a mistake and that he would return the camels at once. Mac started back but a blizzard caught him before he was half way to Kalgan. While he was driving in the bitter cold and snow, all the fingers of both hands were frozen. The Wan Chuan Pass, where the trail drops 3000 feet to the lowlands, was a hell of driftcd snow and ice. Suffering tortures, Mac somehow got down the Pass and into Kalgan. The frozen bodies of eight Chinese who were caught in the blizzard on the trail were found some days later. Only a man with a magnificent physique and indomitable courage could have got through alive.

Halfway to Kalgan.
Caught in a Blizzard, Young's car stalled in the Snow drifts.

At Kalgan Mac waited twenty-four hours for a train. Then in an open steel ear packed with Chinese herded like sheep he rode fourteen hours in below zero weather to Peking. By that time he was half delirious with pain. Before he could be persuaded to go to the hospital, he insisted upon sending me a cable that our camels were safe. Devotion to the Expedition and loyalty to me were ever the most important factors in his life. At the hospital the doctors believed it necessary to amputate all the fingers of both hands. Gangrene and certain death would follow if the dead black stumps were left. Mac said "No." He would rather die than go through life with only his two thumbs left.

Dr. Harold Loucks, the Expedition's surgeon, examined him carefully. His blood was pure, his body as hard and fit as a trained athlete. Doctor Loucks reported that there was just a chance of saving his fingers but that it would mean weeks of pain.

"Let's go," said Mac with a grin.

He did not escape the pain. Night after night I would find him pacing the courtyard. Together we would walk in the moonlight until from sheer exhaustion he could sleep. Thus it was for weary months but no one ever heard Mac complain.

"I'm better," was the invariable reply to his legion of sympathizers.

All Peking paid homage to his splendid courage. Seven months later, when the last operation had been performed, only the ends of four fingers were taken away, and he could use his hands almost as well as ever.

Mac had physical, as well as moral, courage. We had many experiences together which made me feel that he and Walter Granger were the two men of all the world I'd like to have at my side in a serious row.

Young's Car Breaking Through The Ice.

In 1930 we were coming down from Mongolia alone in two cars. We had been warned that the trail swarmed with bandits. When we passed the Mongol village belonging to our caravan men, Bato's brother ran out to signal us. He said that the previous night thirty brigands had killed two Chinese and robbed their cars only ten miles south on the road. They might still be there; he did not know. Mac and I went on with our rifles and revolvers ready for action. We were not asking for trouble, but we did not intend to be driven off the road by thirty Chinese bandits. The cars had been held up near a mud house which had long been a brigand rendezvous. When we arrived, all was quiet and the place seemed deserted, for even the Mongols from several yurts had gone or kept indoors. We went by at full speed and passed Chap Ser in the same way, reaching Kalgan with no difficulty.

A week later Mac went back. Ho drove one car and Liu Hsih-ku, one of our Chinese, the other. I had a presentiment that something would happen, and asked Mac to be particularly careful on the road. Two days of rain had made the trail like grease. He fought mud all the way where we had driven over a hard, dry terrain. On the second morning after passing Chap Ser, two Mongol children told him that bandits were robbing a caravan just ahead. It was at the familiar place of the mud house.

The ground was so soft that Mac could not leave the road and circle over the hills and he decided to go on. The mud house appeared half obscured by a train of oxcarts. Several men stood about. Mac had nearly passed the house when from behind a low wall thirty yards away three Chinese opened fire with Luger pistols. Bullets sang all about him, but he was not hit. He slowed down, swung about in the seat and took a snap shot at one fellow who was doing the most persistent shooting. His bullet struck a small stone in the mud wall an inch from the man's head. Either the steel jacket or fragments of rock hit the bandit's face. He fell backward, but the other two kept on firing.

Mac dared not take his hands of the wheel, for the car was skidding dangerously. Holding his rifle in one hand like a pistol, he fired three more shots. In the meantime a dozen brigands standing near horses on the other side of the road began shooting with rifles and pistols. Some had mounted and were riding after him when Mac slowed down, took a good aim and killed a horse. That ended the matter. The bandits stopped and galloped away.

When the Expedition returned a month later, they learned that there had been eleven brigands in the mud house. They expected an easy time when the two cars approached, and got the surprise of their lives. Instead of finding sheeplike Chinese who would have stopped at the first shot, they had figuratively grabbed a viper by the tail which proceeded to sting them unmercifully.

Unselfishness was one of Mac's most outstanding virtues; it is, I may remark, a sine qua non for an explorer. Time after time when we have been crossing the desert together, when water was short, when the sun had turned the sand into a glaring furnace, when our throats were parched and our mouths like cotton, I have had to watch Mac to see that he took his share. I have slept with him in the open on the summit of the Altai Mountains where the cold bit like a knife, and waked to find myself with more than my half of the blanket. Those are the things that one never can forget; the things that endear a man to his fellows as nothing else can. Mac returned to New York from China early in 1931. The Chinese had forced a temporary suspension of the Expedition and, until we could see our way clear to resume operations, the headquarters had been closed.

En Route To Mongolia
McKenzie Young and AMNH President Henry Fairfield Osborn at the barrier outside of Kalgan, in 1923

In August he started to drive alone in his car from New York to California. In Nevada he met two nice-looking young men who asked him for a lift. Mac never refused a kindness to any human being. Of course, he agreed. Near Lovelock they suggested that it would be well to fill his water bottle from a spring beside the road. While he sat in the car, one of the men doped the canteen and offered him a drink. A short time later the drugged water made him so sleepy that he could not go on. He stopped the car beside the road and, while one of the men effusively thanked him for the ride, the other stepped behind, bashed him over the head, robbed and left him in the motor.

He never recovered from the blow. During the following two weeks he complained of an unendurable headache, but continued on his way westward. On September 3 his body was found in his car in a lonely lane near Eureka, California, with a bullet in the back of his head. Murder or suicide? The coroner reported it to be the latter. Personally I cannot believe that verdict to be true. Unless it were done when he was temporarily insane from the pain in his head, he never would have taken his own life. Of that I am sure. Mac was only thirty-seven years old and he had much to live for. With his passing I have lost a dear friend. His place on the Expedition never can be filled. When we return to Mongolia, something vital which we loved will be gone from the life on the desert.

Lion's Paws: The Story of Famous Ink-Covered Hands.

2011-04-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

Nellie Simmons Meier

Among many varied pleasures involved with building my Andrews collection has been the discovery of various quirky individuals that were in one way or another associated with Roy. Today I introduce a Palmist [Fortune Teller] Palm Reader - Nellie Simmons Meier.

Meier published: Lion's Paws; The Story of Famous Hands in 1937, published by Barrows Mussey, New York. Her act was somewhat popular among the well-to-do, and she managed to convince sixty-six celebrities from Movies, Sports, Dance, Literature, etc, to allow their hands to be inked up, and leave their impression on paper. Among those who submitted to this were Irvin S. Cobb, Elbert Hubbard, Margaret Sanger, Alexander, Grand Duke of Russia, Walt Disney, Jascha Heifetz, George Gershwin, Howard Chandler Christy, Burton Holmes, Amelia Earhart, and Roy Chapman Andrews.

Being able to peer into an inky print of somebody's palm, and divine their future would be a really great trick if anybody could actually do it. To be very effective, it should be a controlled experiment with a double blind, where neither the palmist or his/her assistant knows the name or the sex of the individual.

Alas, this is not what Meier did. Working with already well know celebrities, she expounds on character traits, and lifestyles that would have been easier to divine by picking up a newspaper.

However, Ms. Meier did leave us a very interesting collection of autographed prints of famous people's palm prints. Among Roy's fellow Explorinkers were William Beebe, Raymond Ditmars, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Harvey W. Wiley, and Bernarr Macfadden.

Here is the entire write up on Roy Chapman Andrews as printed on pages 122-123.

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Chapter 18. On Unknown Trails

"How," demanded an Editor who was considering the publication of some of my work, "do you get people who are scientists and great men of affairs to lend themselves to a thing like hand reading? Do they believe in it?" Many of them do not," I replied dryly, "and they have their hands read for that very reason." "But I don't see that."

"Scientists," I informed him, "and inventors, as well as men and women of great affairs, are and must be open minded persons. Most of them know nothing at all about the—as I believe and call it—SCIENCE of hand reading. They know something of the work of charlatans, but they also know of charlatans in medicine, in general science and in all affairs. Rather than cast a doubt upon a possible science of which they know nothing, they have extended their hands to me and have allowed me to read them. The very qualities that sent them out upon unknown trails and returned them as Lions made it imperative that I, as a hand reader, should have the opportunity to demonstrate my work. Some of these people have been impressed by my readings to a point where they have made a further investigation of the subject. But the most of them withhold judgment, in perfect courtesy to a possible fellow scientist upon a trail unknown to them, but not a false trail until it is proved to be false.

Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews, recently appointed head director of the Museum of Natural History in New York City, a scientist whose years of work have been crowded with honors, was perfectly willing to have me come to his office and read his hands. He readily made an appointment. After that I had to wait with patience. For the whimsical character who roamed the oceans from the Arctic to the East Indies in studies of whales, and who after that led the largest expeditions ever sent to Asia into the Gobi Desert, opening up that unknown region of the earth to motor traffic and bringing back to us knowledge of wide and varied character, from fossils to gold, proved to be a bit elusive. I kept three appointments before I saw Dr. Andrews, but it was not from lack of interest on his part or indeed on the part of the people who work with him. As I began the reading, the group grew in numbers. Dr. Andrews as a real sport of a scientist, did not mind. What I found in his hands I might shout to the listening world. But I felt a bit disturbed in making a frank reading. I said so, and the crowd melted away.

I was looking at the hands of a man of power—I think that the reader will know that by the prints shown. They are hands with many conflicting characteristics but dominated by few: firm hard square palms, the palms, of the man who sees the necessity for a practical foundation for what he does, and who will work out the plans essential to that foundation. Great independence in thought and action is shown in the wide flare between the third and fourth fingers, and coolness and courage in time of danger is disclosed in the high development of upper Mars, just under the heart line on the outside of the hand. Add to these a definite whorl shown upon the Mount of the Moon, into which the headline dips—indeed the whorl seems almost an obstruction to the headline in the left hand—and you have a man whose foresight is pronounced along intellectual lines. And top this with the most significant sign of all, the spatulate tip of the third finger, that certain indication of originality, and the double joints of the thumbs, an equally certain indication of love of the dramatic, and you have a condensed picture of Andrews, a courageous, independent, practical character with a gift of prescience and decided originality which will develop along dramatic lines. Certainly Andrews' expeditions have been dramatic.

There are less obvious traits that speak more intimately of the man himself. The thick, long first phalange of the thumb is that of a possessor of the power of iron discipline. The practical palms indicate a love of order; the short fingers show that he wants someone else to maintain that order. But if he must maintain it himself, he can. The length of his first finger shows a strong sense of responsibility and the length of the nail phalange of that finger adds integrity and a high sense of honor. Andrews will always live up to all responsibilities he undertakes, even against mighty odds. The length of his fourth finger, Mercury, shows tact, and the length of its first phalange, the gift of words. He prefers talking to writing. The nails are broader than they are long. Andrews is argumentative and introspective, sometimes mentally irritable, and apt to become belligerent. However, he has a very flexible thumb, and suavity comes to his aid accompanied by a delightful sense of humor that has saved him again and again, a sense of humor which is shown in the development of the mount of Mercury beneath the fourth finger.

On the hands of most famous men and women are definite lines under the third fingers. There are none in the hands of Dr. Andrews* But upon the mount under the third finger is a less usual sign, a circle upon the mount of Apollo, an indication of glory and of lasting success.

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Did she warn Roy that he would never return to Mongolia?; did she warn him that he would die of a painful heart attack? Sadly, I expect not.

Comical Renderings ~ Modern Dragon Hunter. 1950

2011-04-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

By popular demand, here for your edification and enjoyment is another rendering of the Andrews biography rendered into unintelligibility. Roy Chapman Andrews Modern Dragon Hunter. True Comics, No. 81, February 1950 [Copyrighted 1949] Anonymous. I think this is a reprint of an earlier wartime printing, but have temporarily misplaced my reference. If anybody knows, please drop me a line.

I am unsure of what sources the cartoonist [or his editor] drew upon for images to render this story, perhaps the previously presented Andrews of Asia. It is a kooky rendering, and yet in its own way endearing. With thanks to my old friend Staq Mavlen at Atomic Surgery who made all of the original scans. Enjoy.

Click to Enlarge

Click Images to Enlarge

Comical Visions ~ Andrews of Asia. 1944

2011-04-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

As a high profile public figure during the 1920's through 1940's Roy Chapman Andrews was the subject of newspaper cartoons, illustrated biographies, and treatments in comic book format. I recently discovered that Andrews had been rendered into cartoon form within the pages of "It Really Happened", Popular Heroes of Past and Present, published by Wm. H. Wise & Co. Copyright Best Syndicated Features, Inc. 1944. Volume 1, Number 3.

With a cover drawn by the illustrious Alex Schomburg, RCA shares the issue with Carlson's Raiders, Maid of the Margiris, Theodoric the Great, Rescue at Truk, General Antoine Henri Jomini, Second Lieutenant Ernest Childers, and Cabeza de Vaca.

Apart from Schomburg's action-packed cover illustration, the interior artists are not identified, and perhaps it is just as well - the art work is dreadful, as is the accuracy of the story telling. If the other stories are told with as many factual errors as the Andrews adventure, then a generation of youth grew up with the wrong information, terribly, terribly wrong.

This comic may have done more to perpetuate the image that Andrews shot his way across the Gobi of China and Mongolia, than Andrews did in his own writings. Still, I hope you can ignore the outrageous stereotypes, incorrect animals and vehicles, and enjoy a good old fashioned comic from the Golden Age.

With apologies to my Mongolian Colleagues in Ulaanbaatar.

Click each image to see near full size.

Click each to see near full size.

Click image to see near full size.

Personalities ~ Edmund Heller 1875 - 1939

2011-04-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

Edmund Heller. From a lecture brochure Ca. 1912

In 1916-1917, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City sent an expedition under Roy Chapman Andrews to study the zoology of southern China, in particular Yunnan Province. Andrews' wife, Yvette Borup Andrews, was the official photographer for the expedition. The Andrews left in March 1916 and were joined by Edmund Heller at Lung-tao, China on July 20, 1916.

After spending some time near Foochow hunting tigers, the expedition left for Yunnan via Hong Kong, Hainan, Haiphong and Hanoi. The route of the expedition in Yunnan took them through Yunnan-Fu, Tali-Fu, Chien-Chuan-Chou, Li-Chiang and the Snow Mountain, Meng-Ting, Wa-Tien and Teng-Yueh Ting. They then crossed the border into Burma making their way to Rangoon via Bhamo and Mandalay. The expedition broke up at Bhamo with the Andrews heading for New York, via Rangoon, Calcutta, Bombay, Singapore and Japan. Edmund Heller went on to Calcutta, Darjeeling, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canton and Shanghai.

In camp. Fuchow, China, 1916. Photograph taken by Yvette Borup Andrews. As Yvette developed her glass negatives in the field under somewhat trying conditions, it is likely that the fingerprints on the right margin are hers. This 'safe edge' of the glass negative would not normally be seen when used as a lantern slide or used to print photographs. This image has never been published.

Detail of Camp Fuchow. Left to Right: Yvette Borup Andrews, Edmund Heller, Roy Chapman Andrews, Harry Caldwell of 'Blue Tiger' fame. Note that all three men appear to have been in the midst of rolling cigarettes. Photo by Y.B. Andrews

-------------------------------------------------------

This brief biography from Smithsonian Institution Archives : Edmund Heller Papers

Edmund Heller was born in Freeport, Illinois on 21 May 1875. When he was thirteen, he moved with his parents to Riverside, California, which he thereafter considered his home. As a boy, he spent much time collecting birds and their eggs in the area near Riverside. He was joined in this collecting by Harvey M. Hall, later a noted botanist.

Heller entered Stanford University in 1896 and received his A.B. in 1901. An opportunity arose for Heller to collect on the Galapagos Islands during the Hopkins-Stanford Expedition in 1898, and together with Robert E. Snodgrass, Heller spent 7 months on the islands. In 1900, the United States Biological Survey employed Heller as assistant to Wilfred Hudson Osgood in his Alaskan investigations.

Following his graduation, Heller joined the Field Columbian Museum as western field collector and worked in California, Oregon, Lower California, Mexico and Guatemala. In 1907, Heller accompanied Carl Ethan Akeley on the Field Museum's African expedition.

Upon his return, Heller was appointed curator of mammals at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California. While with the MVZ, Heller participated in the 1908 Alexander Alaskan expedition and made the report on the mammals collected.

Heller spent the years 1909-1912 with the Smithsonian-Roosevelt and the Rainey African Expeditions.

In 1914, the United States Biological Survey conducted field investigations in Canada to secure information concerning the habits and distribution of large game mammals. Heller accompanied the Lincoln Ellsworth expedition to the Dease River-Telegraph Creek area of British Columbia and later to Alberta.

The National Geographic Society and Yale University jointly sponsored an expedition to Peru in 1915 to explore newly discovered ruins of an Incan civilization at Machu Picchu, northwest of Cuzco. Specialists in various fields were chosen to accompany the party. Heller, as expedition naturalist, supervised the collecting of 891 mammal specimens, 695 birds, about 200 fishes and several tanks of reptiles and amphibians.

In 1916, Heller joined Roy Chapman Andrews and Yvette Borup Andrews on the American Museum of Natural History Expedition to China.

When Paul J. Rainey, with whom Heller had traveled to Africa, was appointed official photographer for the Czech army in Siberia, he invited Heller to accompany him to Russia. From the summer of 1918 until the end of World War I, they traveled by rail across Siberia to the Ural Mountains and back to their starting point.

In 1919, Heller took charge of the Smithsonian Cape-to-Cairo Expedition. Upon his return, he worked briefly for the Roosevelt Wild Life Experiment Station making a field study of large game animals in Yellowstone National Park. He was then appointed assistant curator of mammals at the Field Museum under Wilfred Hudson Osgood. During his six years in that position, Heller made trips to Peru in 1922-1923 and to Africa from 1923-1926.

Heller's trip to Africa was his last collecting effort. After his return, he resigned his position at the Field Museum and became director of the Milwaukee Zoological Garden, a position that he held from 1928 to 1935. From 1935 until his death in 1939, Heller was director of the Fleishhacker Zoo in San Francisco.

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Cover of Lecture Brochure, Ca. 1929. Collection of Clive Coy

Over the past 30+ years, I have read nearly everything written by Roy Chapman Andrews about his expedition to China with Edmund Heller. There are several magazine articles, the popular account of the expedition itself was published in a book: Camps and Trails In China, [D. Appleton & Co., 1918] and Andrews' two autobiographies. I have found it peculiar that Andrews had very little to say about Heller, and always referred to him as Mr. Heller, unlike other persons mentioned who were usually introduced once formally within the narrative, and then referred to by their first name, example Rev. Harry Caldwell, and after simply called Harry.

I would not normally make much of this, except within Under A Lucky Star is this rather suggestive mention of Heller during the Yunnan trip:

I wanted to explore Yunnan, the mountainous province of southeastern China, which margined the Tibetan plateau. The expedition would cost fifteen thousand dollars and I agreed to raise half of it among my friends if the Museum would provide the remainder.

I don't remember where all the money came from. I think Sidney M. Colgate, James B. Ford, Charles L. Bernheimer, George S. Bowdoin, and Henry C. Frick gave most of it. Anyway I got it, and by March 1916 we sailed on the Japanese ship Tenyo Maru. Edmond Heller was the other scientist of the expedition. Heller had accompanied Colonel Theodore Roosevelt on his African trip after he left the White House and was an excellent small mammal collector, although hardly as successful a field companion.

[Excerpted from Under A Lucky Star. The Viking Press, 1943. Page 129]

Does anyone know what Andrews was making oblique reference to?

Click image to view near full size

click image to view near full size

The Sulphur Bottom Whale Model 1907

2011-04-10T09:12:00.000-07:00

Despite his many years working for the American Museum of Natural History, Roy Chapman Andrews had only very limited hands-on involvement with the museum's exhibits. One of his first projects was to assist in the construction of a life-like model of a Sulphur Bottom Whale, more commonly called a Blue Whale [Balaeoptera musculus]. This project was led by James L. Clark, himself a young member of the department who had not yet become famous as an artist and sculptor.

Andrews told this story in several different versions in his books and popular magazine articles. Andrews' first autobiography, Ends Of The Earth was sparingly illustrated, his second autobiography, Under A Lucky Star had none at all.

Here then is a little known article published by Scientific American in 1907 with images of the model under construction. Images of this model were published in National Geographic, May 1911 in Andrews article: Shore Whaling, A World Industry, also in his two biographies Ends Of The Earth, and Under A Lucky Star; in each case they are attributed to the author. In : American Museum Whale Collection, a December 1914 article by Andrews for The American Museum Journal, the exact same images are marked as copyright National Geographic Magazine.

I have determined that the photographs were originally taken by a museum photographer named J. Otis Wheelock.

I have provided the original text of the accompanying article immediately after this image of the cover.

The Whale In The American Museum of Natural History.

A Life-like Model of the Largest Living Mammal.

[By Anonymous. Scientific American Supplement. September 14, 1907]

The American Museum of Natural History in New York has recently added an exact model of a large whale to its mammalian collection, and the achievement is one deserving of more than passing notice or credit. Relics of whales are common, from the huge jaws to be seen in many a seaside village to the more or less complete skeletons in museums. But there have been obvious difficulties in the way of preserving complete specimens. Not only is there the practical problem of-large size, but the.oily skin is almost impossible of natural-appearing preservation.

This model is the outcome of a notable forward movement in the policy of the museum. The old formula for "stuffing," say, a bear, was arsenical paste, wire, and a bale of hay. The skin was literally "stuffed" to a barrel-like' distortion, and the whole labor cost but a few dollars. To-day the skin is mounted over a model, the work of a sculptor who knows anatomy, and the final result may represent weeks of skilled labor. But it is a correct representation of the animal as it lived.

When it was decided to add a whale model to the collection, the idea was to obtain a satisfactory facsimile of the real creature. The species chosen was the sulphur bottom, a whale which is common off the coast of Newfoundland, where regular shore stations are maintained for its chase. This whale is the largest species known, and is indeed larger than any of the reptilian monsters of geology, of which actual traces have been found. The work was placed in the hands of Mr. Roy C. Andrews, of the museum staff, who visited Newfoundland, and was fortunate in securing his data from a large whale measuring 76 feet.

From these data an exact model was made, scale one inch to one foot, and from this model the large one was plotted. The model was divided into sections, and its various dimensions accurately copied on paper ruled in squares. From these plans others of life size were enlarged for the use of the blacksmith, the carpenter, and other workers. The work was done in the large gallery where the whale now hangs. A working platform was constructed, and on this light T-irons were laid out to mark the backbone and the ventral lines This framework was bolted together with plates to allow it to be divided into sections of eight feet each, for transportation if required. This provision, however, proved unnecessary, as the finished whale now swings over the spot where its lines were laid down. Rigidity was given to the frame by cross bracing; and iron ribs were next added.

These ribs, like the back and ventral lines, are accurately bent to the size and contour of the finished model, but are a little smaller; the final covering of laths being carried on a wooden framework fitted over the iron and projecting about a couple of inches beyond it. Up to the stage when the iron ribs were attached to one side, the model was lying on its side.

Ropes were now rove through the rings in the ceiling, placed to bear the finished whale, and the framework was raised until it stood upright, resting on the platform. The second set of ribs was now added, giving the complete skeleton shape. The iron frames for the fins and the flukes were next bolted on, and a wooden framework fastened over the skeleton.

On this framework laths were nailed . These laths were of basswood, two inches broad, and 3/16 inch thick; they were laid diagonally across the skeleton, and this wood was chosen as being soft and bending well to the framework. The framework being now completed, there remained the most important part of the work, from the public's point of view—the outer modeling and coloring. The final outer skin is of papier mache. The whale was covered with wire screen of a mesh rather coarser than that used for windows in summer, and the papier mache was worked into this.

At this stage Mr. Andrews had the collaboration of Mr. J. L. Clark, the sculptor-anatomist of the museum. To Mr. Clark is due the external modeling, each detail of which is a close copy from life. The wonderful grooves along the lower jaw of the whale—grooves the use of which is not definitely known—are exact in number and position. The blowhole (just behind the hump on the head), the line of the meeting jaws, the tiny external orifice of the ear, and the curves around the eye, were a few of the details needing exact care. The modeling completed, there remained the coloring, and here the thoroughness which has characterized each stage of the construction has been maintained.

The body color of the whale is a light slate flecked with peculiar markings. Why the whale received its name "sulphur bottom" is not apparently known, but there is no trace of sulphur color in these fleckings; they circle the hinder parts of the body in patches of a lighter gray slate, and under the belly beneath the film they emerge into an almost solid band of white—as though the whale had been whitewashed. The blotches have been applied with an airbrush, and are successful in suggesting a local lack of coloring matter in the skin, rather than a wash of paint. Figs. 6 and 7 give a good idea of the completed specimen, and of the successful modeling and coloring.

The size of the gallery where the whale hangs allows visitors to obtain a good idea of the proportions of the monster, but handicaps the photographer. The two pictures reproduced show this limitation, and so a few dimensions may be added. The total length of the whale is 76 feet, and its greatest body breadth, across the shoulders just behind the blowhole, is 12 feet. At this point its girth is 36 feet. From tip to tip across the flukes measures 16 feet.

The weight of the original whale was estimated at 63 tons—8 tons of blubber, 8 tons of bones, 40, tons of flesh, and the blood, whalebone, and viscera accounting for the remaining 7 tons.

The sulphur bottom whale attains the largest size of any species, and the longest authentic record of length is 86 feet; this model therefore fairly represents the size of the largest living creature. Off the coast of Newfoundland several hundreds are captured annually. Watch is kept on shore, and when a whale is sighted, a small steamer starts in chase. The captured whale is towed ashore, where in several places machinery has been installed for cutting up the carcass. Little goes to waste; the blubber yields oil, and parts of the viscera are turned into leather. The flesh and the bones are used in making fertilizer, and the whalebone has many uses, although that supplied by the sulphur bottom is not of the best quality.

Whale Model in Mammal Gallery, as seen from floor level of visitor

Here is one account by Andrews from his best selling Autobiography Under A Lucky Star. 1943 I had been in the Museum only a few months when my big chance came. In the Director's office I was introduced to a fussy little" gray-haired gentleman named Richardson. He was, Dr. Bumpus said, going to build a life-size model of a whale to hang in the third floor gallery-well. I was to be his assistant. I was considerably frightened but tried not to show it. What I knew about whales was less than nothing. I had never met a whale in Wisconsin's Rock River! By that time, however, I had learned to keep my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open. No one could know how ignorant I was if I didn't talk. But the job wasn't as terrifying as it sounded for we were only to enlarge a scale model which Jim Clark had made under the direction of Dr. F. A. Lucas, then Director of the Brooklyn Museum.

Construction details, however, were a hidden mystery to me, for Fve never had the slightest interest in mechanics. My mind doesn't run that way any more than to mathematics. But I got along all right because Richardson knew what he was about until we came to the paper covering. The framework of angle 
iron and bass wood strips was impressive, for the whale boasted a length of seventy-six feet. But the paper wouldn't work. It buckled and cracked and sank in between the ribs. Our whale looked awful. It seemed to be in the last stages of starvation. I used to dream about it at night, and the Director was in despair. 

Finally, he called Jimmy Clark and me to his office. "This whale is getting on my nerves," he said. "It is beyond all endurance. What shall we do?" Jimmy and I knew exactly what to do for we had spent 
many hours discussing that emaciated whale. "Fire the paper, gentlemen," we chorused, "and let us finish it with wire netting and papier-mache." The Director beamed. "Done. If you turn that wreck of a Cetacean into a fat, respectable whale, Fll give you both a knighthood." 

Jimmy and I hopped to it with a crew of twelve men. It was amazing what a well-regulated diet of papier-mache did for the beast. He lost that pitiful, starved, lost-on-dry-land appearance, his sides filled out and became as smooth as a rubber boot; we could almost feel him roll and blow as we built him up with 
our new tonic. After eight months, the job was done. During thirty-five years our whale has hung in the gallery and is still as good as new. He has been stared at by millions of eyes, and is still one of the most popular exhibits in the Museum.

Roy C Andrews November 16, 1907

An interesting account of the Newfoundland Blue whale and this model can be found at: Acadiensis, Vol. XXVII, No. 1 Autumn/Automne 1997 The Construction and Display of the First Full-Scale Model of a Blue Whale: The Newfoundland Connection. By Chesley W. Sanger, and Anthony B. Dickinson Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Article From Edmonton Journal: New Dinosaur Museum

2011-04-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

Dr. Philip J. Currie, Dr Eva Koppelhus, and Brian Brake.

Photo by Laura Beauchamp

EDMONTON — Philip Currie is well-accustomed to his life’s work finding its way into museums. Now, Alberta’s best-known paleontologist will have to get used to his name adorning the front of one.

A new $26.4-million facility near Grande Prairie will be called the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

“It’s a funny feeling, it’s strange. In my wildest dreams I wouldn’t have expected it,” Currie, 62, said after the announcement was made this week. “Once I got over the shock of finding out they wanted to do this, I said I would because it’s an amazing honour.”

West of Grande Prairie, the Pipestone Creek fossil bed has already yielded more than 3,500 complete bones and samples from more than 40 animals.

Currie was one of the first scientists to do work in the area, back in the 1970s, shortly after he came to Alberta. He believes a new museum in the area will educate Albertans and tourists to the fact that the entire province is a fine source of fossils, not just the well-known Drumheller area and its Royal Tyrrell Museum.

“The nice thing about two museums is to expand thinking beyond Drumheller, to the larger package. The whole province is incredibly rich in these matters.”

The museum will also provide paleontologists with two bases to work and store fossils in the province.

Brian Brake, executive director of the project, said Currie’s long association with the area and his international prominence made him an easy choice. “We wanted someone who gave us instant recognition.”

The museum’s previous working title was River of Death Discovery Dinosaur Museum, a reference to the mass drowning of a herd of animals in the late Cretaceous period that provided the area with many of its fossils. However, Brake said the name turned many people off. One corporate sponsor refused to support the project unless the name was changed, Brake said.

“What they wanted was a name more associated with the living, and hopefully that’s me,” Currie said with a laugh

The museum will be in the town of Wembley, on Highway 43, near Grande Prairie. If all the funding falls into place, Brake said it is possible to break ground on the project in August or September.

rcormier@edmontonjournal.com

Breaking News ~ The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum

2011-04-05T19:26:00.000-07:00

New Dinosaur Museum Gets A Name

Philip Currie uncovers the complete skull of an Ornithomimid dinosaur.

Dinosaur Provincial Park

Announced today: A new palaeontology museum to be constructed near Wembley, Alberta, Canada will officially be known as the Phillip J Currie Dinosaur Museum, in honour of Dr. Phil Currie.

Dr. Philip J. Currie is a world renowned paleontologist who helped found the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology near Drumheller, Alberta.

He has also been instrumental in the development of several Grand Prairie Region dinosaur sites, including the Pipestone Creek bonebed, over the past 25 years. Among his many publications, Dr. Currie co-authored a monograph on the bonebed's unique dinosaur; Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai.

Philip Currie uncovering a specimen in Dinosaur Provincial Park, 2010

Dr. Philip J. Currie is Professor and Canada Research Chair in Dinosaur Palaeobiology at the University of Alberta.

Special Commondations

Research Associate at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology
Received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws at the University of Calgary (June 2008)

Received the Alberta Award of Excellence [2010]

Research Interests

Works on dinosaurs, focusing on problems with growth and variation, the anatomy and relationships of carnivorous dinosaurs, and the origin of birds. Has a long term goal of understanding the rich Cretaceous ecosystem of Dinosaur Park , and contemporaneous faunas and habitats of other sites in western North America. Is also interested in what can be learned about dinosaurian behaviour, including annual and intercontinental migrations.

Interested in dinosaurs since childhood, he finds that the excitement of discovery (fossils in the field, and ideas in the "lab") constantly renews his interest.

Fieldwork connected with his research has been concentrated in Alberta, British Columbia, the Arctic, Argentina and China. Work on the Centrosaurus bonebed, the origin of birds, "feathered" dinosaurs, hadrosaur nesting sites and the Canada-China Dinosaur Project have attracted the greatest international attention.

"Happy is the boy who discovers the bent of his life-work during childhood".

- Sven Hedin

Congratulations Phil.

Alberta's "Cretaceous Park"

2011-04-02T07:55:00.000-07:00

While dinosaurs have been discovered from our chilling Arctic to the pounding surf of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, nowhere are they more abundant than in the Badlands of Alberta’s Dinosaur Provincial Park. This small area of 73 square kilometers has produced more than 250 dinosaur skeletons representing 36 different species, and another 84 species of vertebrates such as birds, crocodiles and pterosaurs.

The 120 vertical meters of Upper Cretaceous [73 - 78 million years BP] sediments in the park were exposed by the meltwaters of retreating glaciers 12,000 - 14,000 years ago. It was not until the 1850’s as geologists explored the prairies for important resources like coal that they also discovered dinosaur bones. As few scientists in Canada knew anything about the giant reptiles, first discovered in Europe during the 1820’s, our first specimens were sent to researchers in Europe and America.

American Museum of Natural History Scow and crew on Red Deer River, Alberta Badalnds.

By 1909, dinosaur bone from Alberta attracted the attention of American dinosaur hunter Barnum Brown from the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Brown and his crew started working on the Red Deer River the following year, and by 1912 they had set up camp within current park boundaries. Brown’s impressive collections included complete skeletons of horned dinosaurs, plant-eating hadrosaurs, and the meat-eater Gorgosaurus. Brown found so many dinosaurs that he sent them back to New York by the train boxcar load.

Hauling crates of dinosaur specimens out by wagon, using a route which is now the main modern paved road into Dinosaur Provincial Park

The number of dinosaurs leaving Canada in a single summer caused concern, but rather than banning foreign collectors, the Geological Survey of Canada hired its own team of dinosaur hunters in 1912 to collect for Canada, Charles Sternberg and his three sons. This period of intense, but friendly, competition became known as the “Great Dinosaur Rush” [1912 - 1917]. Dinosaurs collected by the Sternbergs became the first to be put on display in Canada, where the skeletons fascinated the public, and contributed to dinosaurs remaining popular today.

Modern Reprint of C. M. Sternberg's classic account of Hunting Dinosaurs in the Badlands of the Red deer River, Alberta, Canada

This early work set the stage for more than 80 years of successful fossil collecting in the park, and led directly to the park being named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. In 1987, the Government of Alberta acknowledged the significance of the park’s fossil deposits by building the research station and field laboratory of the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Dinosaur Park, where researchers from around the world continue to study its overwhelming richness.

Arrived In The Mail ~ Protoceratops andrewsi mounts 1925

2011-03-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

A little damp stained and frumpled, all the same, I have never seen this postcard before. Undated, but judging from when the exhibit was opened to the public in 1925, I am guessing it is from about that same time period.

Two mounts of Protoceratops andrewsi with casts of eggs in a re-created nest. I find it very nice that the two technicians who worked on these skeletal mounts are given credit; Peter C. Kaisen, and Charles J. Lang. Peter Kaisen was a member of the Central Asiatic Expeditions, and a long time employee of the American Museum of Natural History.

Charles Lang - Technician at AMNH working on a model of Triceratops

Peter Kaisen - Technician, and Barnum Brown's right-hand man on almost every dinosaur hunting expedition during the 'Dinosaur Bone Rush' era at the AMNH

Divided back, printed postcard. Undated Ca. 1930's

Hunting Dinosaurs ~ Part 2

2011-03-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Spring Snow Storm. Field Season 2010. Photo by P. J. Currie

Dinosaur research in North America during the 1930’s - 40’s, was severely hampered, but a few like Edwin Colbert managed to keep on digging. Colbert’s two autobiographies, A Fossil Hunter’s Notebook, and Digging Into The Past, are a captivating record of his life and the profession between the time of the Wright Brother’s first flight and the modern Laptop computer. His professional career began

as the personal assistant of Henry Fairfield Osborn, who knew Charles Darwin, and spans an important period of paleontological research history, that includes his own startling discoveries in Antarctica. Colbert wrote many books on dinosaurs, but it is the unassuming story of his own life that is the most fascinating.

Despite these many earlier efforts, the method of reproduction in dinosaurs was poorly understood. Although dinosaur eggs had been found at least as early as 1923, evidence of babies was exceedingly rare. In Digging Dinosaurs, John Horner and James Gorman, provide an enjoyable personal account of the first major discovery of baby dinosaurs.

Beginning with a chance discovery of fragments in a rock-shop, Horner and his team searched the Montana badlands for several years before discovering the source. The story is one of perseverance, human tragedy, frustration, and in the end, success. Digging Dinosaurs provides a window into the life of the modern dinosaur hunter, who despite computers, GPS units, and four-wheel drive vehicles, must still endure long months searching on foot, and more often, on hand and knee.

Horner used these remarkable discoveries to advance his own radical notions about dinosaur ecology, and these new ideas caused paleontologists to seriously review old theories. While many scientists were supportive of Horner’s ideas, some decidedly not, the discoveries caught the public’s attention around the world. Ultimately, Digging Dinosaurs shows that dinosaur paleontology is still very much alive, and in a state of constant change as new evidence is found to support or defeat previously held ideas.

Dinosaur hunters like Philip Currie, Dale Russell, and Peter Dodson are still traveling the globe, excavating new specimens, and publishing important research that expands our knowledge of the dinosaurs. At present they are too involved with the task at hand to reflect on their own accomplishments. We can only encourage their work, and trust that they too will take time to record their lives spent in the shadow of dinosaurs.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

A SELECTED CHECKLIST

Autobiographical accounts have also been written by dinosaur paleontologists from Europe and Asia, unfortunately many of these works are not yet available in English. Additionally, there are accounts by paleontologists not involved with dinosaur research that are equally worthy of reading and collecting.

Brown, Lilian. I Married A Dinosaur. NY: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1950.

Bring ‘Em Back Petrified. London: The Adventurer’s Club, 1958

Colbert, Edwin H. A Fossil Hunter’s Notebook: My Life with Dinosaurs and other Friends. NY: E. P. Dutton, 1980.

Digging Into The Past: An Autobiography. NY: Dembner Books, 1989.

Grady, Wayne. The Dinosaur Project: The Story of the Greatest Dinosaur Expedition Ever Mounted. Toronto: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1993.

Horner, John R. Digging Dinosaurs: The Search that Unraveled the Mystery of Baby Dinosaurs. With James Gorman. NY: Workman Publishing, 1988.

Kielan-Jaworowska, Zofia. Hunting For Dinosaurs. Mass.: MIT Press, 1969. [Originally published in Poland as: Polowanie na Dinozaury.]

Novacek, Michael J. Dinosaurs Of The Flaming Cliffs: The Thrilling Account of one of the Largest Dinosaur Expeditions of the 20th Century by the Expedition Leader. NY: Doubleday, 1996.

Parkinson, John. The Dinosaur In East Africa: An Account of the Giant Reptile Beds of Tendaguru, Tanganyika Territory. London: H. F. & G. Witherby, 1930.

Sternberg, Charles H. The Life Of A Fossil Hunter. NY: Henry Holt & Co., 1909.

[500 copies privately printed.]

Hunting Dinosaurs In the Badlands Of The Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada.

Kansas: World Company Press, 1917.

[500 copies privately printed.]

Letters Home from the Bone Camps. Annals of a Field Museum Paleontologist. Argentina and Bolivia, 1926 - 27. Original Letters and Photos by Robert C. Thorne. Privately Published. 1995

Dinosaurios en la Patagonia. By Rodolfo A. Coria. Rumbo Sur, Editorial Sudamericana.

Undated Circa 2003.

Hunting Extinct Animals in the Patagonian Pampas. By Frederic Brewster Loomis.

Dodd, Mead and Company. 1913

Dinosaur Impressions. Postcards from a Paleontologist. By Philippe Taquet. Translated by Kevin Padian. Cambridge University Press. 1998.

Hunting Dinosaurs ~ Part 1

2011-03-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

Excavating an Isolated Hadrosaur Humerus, Dinosaur Provincial Park. 2010

Photograph courtesy of Dr. Philip Currie, University of Alberta.

“This treasure must be at once deposited where it can

be thoroughly investigated and properly understood.”

The Pickwick Papers

Dinosaurs fascinate people of all ages in all countries, and museums displaying dinosaur skeletons continue to attract large numbers of visitors. However, it is not apparent to the casual visitor just how much work is behind these mounted wonders; the work of finding them, digging them out of the ground, patiently chipping their brittle remains out of solid rock, studying them, publishing research, and finally mounting them in museum galleries where they may be viewed by the studious and curious. Who does this work? What is their story?

The story of the dinosaurs is closely associated with the story of the men and women who hunt and study dinosaurs, paleontologists, that small segment of society who never lost their childhood fascination. Their youthful interest in sharp teeth and blood-letting gave way to a matured interest in the dinosaurs as living animals, a part of our biological past. By studying the rise, world domination, fall, and eventual demise of the dinosaurs, paleontologists not only learn about this single group, but also about their complex interactions with the world they inhabited. Information gained from these inquiries is helping us to understand the planet we occupy today, and just maybe how to avoid their same fate.

The term Dinosauria [terrible lizards] was first published in 1842. Since then dozens of major expeditions, and hundreds of smaller ventures have discovered and excavated dinosaurs from every continent including Antarctica. Much of what is written by paleontologists is admittedly dry reading, published in professional journals with precise descriptions of new specimens. These research papers are essential tools in recording and sharing discoveries, but the necessary jargon involved limits casual reading. Fortunately, some paleontologists have also applied themselves to writing books that are not just about dinosaurs, but about the people involved, their likes, dislikes, triumphs, failures, travels to exotic locales, and historical events. These personal stories offer readers not only a valuable perspective on science, but contain fascinating reading in natural and human history.

Charles H. Sternberg

Early this century, the pioneer work of two men, Charles H. Sternberg [1850 - 1943, and Barnum Brown [1873 - 1963], began a period of North American dinosaur collecting known as the “Great Dinosaur Rush.” Now almost impossible to obtain, Sternberg’s privately printed The Life Of A Fossil Hunter, and Hunting Dinosaurs In The Badlands Of The Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada, are the classic early accounts of dinosaur hunting that chronicle not only the development of dinosaur hunting in North America, but also the opening of the West to settlers.

Sternberg began collecting fossils as a youth during the 1860’s, and by 1876 was employed by America’s great vertebrate paleontologist, Edward Drinker Cope. This was a formative time when dinosaurs were poorly known, methods of excavation were crude, and the U.S. Cavalry was still fighting protracted skirmishes with Native Americans. During his first summer in Montana, Sternberg and his team narrowly avoided an encounter with Sioux warriors who had just defeated Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Barnum Brown in Alberta, Canada.

Working in friendly competition with Sternberg, who in 1912 was working for the Geological Survey of Canada, Barnum Brown explored the Red Deer River Canyons for the American Museum of Natural History. Notable among few accounts in Brown’s own words is, Hunting Big Game Of Other Days, a National Geographic article about his expeditions into the Badlands of Alberta, Canada. During a sixty-six year career at the American Museum of Natural History, Barnum Brown excavated more dinosaurs than anyone, worked in almost every area of the globe, traveled on every form of transport except by submarine, but never found time to write his own autobiography.

Fortunately, Brown’s industrious life was recorded by his second wife, Lilian Brown. I Married A Dinosaur, and Bring ‘Em Back Petrified, are two witty accounts of her life, including a honeymoon spent collecting fossils in the Siwalik Hills of Pakistan, with “Dr. Bones”.

American Museum Crew Excavates a Centrosaurus Skeleton in Alberta, Canada. 1915

North America and Europe were not the only areas being explored for dinosaurs early this century. Tendaguru is a remarkable deposit located near Lindi, Tanzania, once part of German East Africa. First discovered and excavated by German scientists from 1909 - 1913, it revealed unusual new animals such as the apartment building-sized plant-eater Brachiosaurus. Mandated to Great Britain after the first world war, expeditions by British scientists, including a convalescing future anthropologist Louis Leakey, continued the discoveries at Tendaguru.

The Dinosaur In East Africa, by John Parkinson also offers interesting reading for those not ordinarily interested in dinosaurs. Extreme geographic isolation, poisonous snakes, disease bearing insects, predatory leopards, malaria, and primitive living conditions are but a few of many distractions encountered by the British.

Even though the Central Asiatic Expeditions opened exciting new fossil fields in Asia, the Depression, and World War II dried up funding for dinosaur hunting, and it was not until the late 1940’s that excavations began again in earnest, this time led by the Soviet Union.

Hunting For Dinosaurs, written by the female leader of three Polish expeditions, Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska, remains the only English language first hand account of Soviet work in Mongolia. Kielan-Jaworowska describes in detail the previous work of Russian expeditions, and the success with which her own expeditions discovered important new dinosaurs.

The expeditions entered areas that no other team had risked before, and were handsomely rewarded with numerous discoveries that contributed substantially to paleontology. Little had changed in forty years since the Gobi had first yielded dinosaurs, conditions were as primitive, food and water were still scarce, and maps were no more accurate. Hunting For Dinosaurs is also an unintentional record of a Mongolia that no longer exists, a Mongolia before Pepsi, German hunting lodges, and Japanese golf courses.

Rolling Verdant Grasslands of Outer Mongolia. Photograph by Clive Coy.

Roy Chapman Andrews ~ Video by Mike44920

2011-03-15T05:25:00.000-07:00

I found this nicely compiled 5 minute pastiche of Central Asiatic Expedition stills, and original motion film on YouTube. It was put together with an interesting soundtrack by a user who goes by the mysterious moniker Mike44920. I like this 'short', and thought I would bring it to the attention of visitors to Whales, Camps and Trails.

It is my understanding that a large portion of the original motion film shot by James Shackelford, the official photographer of the expeditions, was lost due to it being on Nitrate film. Sadly, this was the fate of many early movies, now lost forever.

Here is an excerpt taken from Wikipedia that more fully explains the problem.

Nitrate film

Nitrocellulose was used as the first flexible film base, beginning with Eastman Kodak products in August, 1889. Camphor is used as a plasticizer for nitrocellulose film, often called nitrate film. It was used until 1933 for X-ray films (where its flammability hazard was most acute) and for motion picture film until 1951. It was replaced by safety film with an acetate base.

The use of nitrocellulose film for motion pictures led to the requirement for fireproof projection rooms with wall coverings made of asbestos. The US Navy shot a training film for projectionists that included footage of a controlled ignition of a reel of nitrate film, which continued to burn when fully submerged in water. Unlike many other flammable materials, nitrocellulose does not need air to keep burning, and once burning it is extremely difficult to extinguish. Immersing burning film in water may not extinguish it, and could actually increase the amount of smoke produced.[4][5] Owing to public safety precautions, the London Underground forbade transport of movies on its system until well past the introduction of safety film.

Cinema fires caused by ignition of nitrocellulose film stock were the cause of the 1926 Dromcolliher cinema tragedy in County Limerick in which 48 people died and the 1929 Glen Cinema Disaster which killed 69 children. Today, nitrate film projection is normally highly regulated and requires extensive precautionary measures including extra projectionist health and safety training. Projectors certified to run nitrate films have many precautions, among them the chambering of the feed and takeup reels in thick metal covers with small slits to allow the film to run through. The projector is modified to accommodate several fire extinguishers with nozzles aimed at the film gate. The extinguishers automatically trigger if a piece of flammable fabric placed near the gate starts to burn. While this triggering would likely damage or destroy a significant portion of the projection components, it would prevent a fire which could cause far greater damage. Projection rooms may be required to have automatic metal covers for the projection windows, preventing the spread of fire to the auditorium.

It was found that nitrocellulose gradually decomposes, releasing nitric acid and further catalyzing the decomposition (eventually into a flammable powder or goo). Decades later, storage at low temperatures was discovered as a means of delaying these reactions indefinitely. It is thought that the great majority of films produced during the early twentieth century were lost either through this accelerating, self-catalyzed disintegration or through studio warehouse fires. Salvaging old films is a major problem for film archivists (see film preservation).

Nitrocellulose film base manufactured by Kodak can be identified by the presence of the word Nitrate in dark letters between the perforations. Acetate film manufactured during the era when nitrate films were still in use was marked Safety or Safety Film between the perforations in dark letters. Film stocks in the non-standard gauges, 8 mm or 16 mm, were not manufactured with a nitrate base on any significant scale in the west, though rumours persist of 16mm nitrate having been produced in the former Soviet Union and/or China.[6]

The volatility of nitrocellulose film was used as a plot device in the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds to start a theater fire during the film's climax.

How Dodge Put The "Go" In Gobi Part 2

2011-03-12T10:49:00.000-08:00

Despite the ease with which the work in Mongolia began, the expedition had yet to rendezvous with the camel caravan, and establish if resupply by camel was feasible over great distances.

While Granger continued searching for fossils, Andrews and the rest of the expedition set off on a 400 kilometer journey to the meet the caravan. Andrews feared that it might be attacked by bandits, or lost in the desert. To their great relief, the caravan was waiting. All seventy-five camels with intact supplies had arrived a full hour before the cars.

Using this leap-frog technique enabled the expedition to cover more than ten-thousand miles during 1922 and 1923, far more than Andrews had originally thought possible. Overburdened with equipment, specimens, and staff, the Dodge cars had performed heroically, exceeding all previous expectations.

Crossing The Ongin River.

Once, while returning to China, Andrews and his passengers discovered that their oil had leaked out of its cans. It would be impossible to go much further, but as they were debating what to do, they came upon a Mongol encampment. Knowing that the herdsman would have sheep, and mutton fat, Andrews queried “why not use that for oil!”

An obliging herdsman soon had a great pot of mutton fat warming over a fire. When it was liquefied, “We poured it into the motor and proceeded merrily on our way.” The Dodge did not notice the change in diet, but there was one serious obstacle to the enjoyment of its passengers. “We had had very little food for some time and were very hungry...” As their engine warmed up, “a most tantalizing odor of roast lamb arose from the car!”, and Andrews imagined he could smell mint sauce.

Showroom Brochure. Dodge Brothers. 1925

Similarly, the expedition once found itself without cup grease for the cars. Cold cream and Vaseline that had been prepared for the summer was sacrificed, Mongol cheese was also substituted, apparently with good results.

By the end of the second field season, the Dodges had given a Herculean performance without any major mechanical problems. However, it was felt that it would be safer to retire them and purchase new ones for the next field season.

The well-traveled Dodges were sold as they stood, to Chinese importers of wool and furs from Mongolia. Remarkably, they sold for more than they were worth new. “After all,” Andrews records the buyers saying, “we know these cars can do the job because they’ve already been there. Perhaps new ones won’t be as good.”

Returning to New York to raise additional funds, Andrews barely arrived at the museum before a representative of Dodge Brothers called on him. Dodge was delighted with the news coverage their cars were receiving, and realized it was priceless advertising. Dodge Brothers wanted to be a sponsor.

Centerfold of Showroom Brochure. Dodge Brothers 1925

“I’ll play ball,” said Andrews, “if you’ll give us a new fleet of cars, made to our specifications.” Two years of work had shown where the cars needed changes - all in the body, and none in the motor. “I need eight new cars,” Andrews went on, and “[Dodge] jumped at the suggestion like a trout taking a fly.”

Colgate and Andrews went to Detroit to see Fred Haynes, then president of Dodge Brothers. Haynes’ greeting was “Now gentleman, Dodge Brothers employs twenty thousand men. You tell us what you want and we’ll build it.”

Colgate knew exactly what was required. Seven of the new cars were to be an open express body with eight-inch sides of heavy screen wire. Springs, both front and rear, were made heavier than commercial cars. In addition, on each rear spring, inside, were iron bumpers lined with pieces of heavy tire, to give a heavily loaded car additional support, and leather snubbers were installed to prevent wild rebounds.

Gasoline tanks were increased to twenty-one gallons, four strong hooks were bolted onto the chassis member to aid pulling out of mud and sand, and each car was given two complete spare wheels, mounted either side of the driver’s seat.

The eighth vehicle was an ordinary five-passenger touring body. This lightest member of the fleet would be used during advance reconnaissance.

The Gobi savaged ordinary tires, but Dodge provided the relatively new 33 X 4.5 Royal Cord. Balloon-type tires had not proven practical. Although they held a car up better in sand, they increased fuel consumption, and were easily cut by stones.

Dodge’s support saved the expedition about fifty thousand dollars. In return, Dodge Brothers used images of the expedition vehicles, with quotes from Andrews, in advertising brochures, calendars, and magazine ads. Andrews later speculated that the expedition’s endorsement sold thousands of cars for Dodge.

Sales Brochure April 1937

Equipped with the new fleet of Dodge Brothers cars, the expedition worked in the Gobi during 1925, 1928, and 1930, and continued to make major scientific findings that established Asia as an important dispersal centre of animal life.

They uncovered 20,000 - year old stone tools, evidence that the Gobi had been inhabited by people who may have migrated to North America. Their geological findings confirmed that Outer Mongolia had never been glaciated and was the oldest area on earth of continuously dry land.

Expedition Vehicles at Headquarters, Peking [Beijing] 1928

The most spectacular discovery, for which Andrews and the expeditions became world-famous, was of three nests containing two dozen dinosaur eggs, the first recorded by science. The nine-inch-long eggs were nearly perfectly preserved.

During the late twenties, Asia grew restless, and field work in the Gobi became dangerous. Civil war, banditry, and the actions of Imperial Japan in China made exploration after 1930 impossible.

Roy Chapman Andrews never returned to the Gobi Desert, but did continue his relationship with Dodge after it was sold to Walter Chrysler. He remained a popular and widely recognized spokesman into the late 1930’s.

National Geographic. March 1936

Dodge’s positive experience with the Central Asiatic Expeditions began an era of similar sponsorships. In the 1930's Chrysler Corporation sponsored expeditions by other explorers such as Armand Denis and Lisa Roosevelt. Their "Wheels Across Africa" , and "East of Bombay” documentaries showcase Dodge Power Wagons and Sedans prevailing over impossible terrain, and demonstrated that Dodge’s were “Reliable, Dependable, Sound” as ever.

How Dodge Put The "Go" In Gobi. Part 1

2011-03-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

Convoy of Expedition Vehicles. Folding Panorama from 'New Conquest of Central Asia'.

“ The Dodge Bros. cars climbed like mountain goats, and later, in our enthusiasm, Colgate and I agreed that we should be willing to attempt the ascent of Mount Everest with them if the snow could be eliminated.”

- Roy Chapman Andrews, 1926 -

Never before had the Dodge Brothers’ motto - “Reliable, Dependable, Sound” - been so vigorously challenged. Despite critics who said they might as well search the bottom of the ocean, an intrepid group of scientists gambled their lives, and a fortune to explore one of the Earth’s last unmapped regions - the Gobi Desert - using Dodges.

Conceived and led by explorer Roy Chapman Andrews and sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History, the Central Asiatic Expeditions [C.A.E.] consisted of five separate thrusts into remote Outer Mongolia and Northern China between 1922 and 1930.

The C.A.E. heralded a new type of multidisciplinary exploration, with representatives from eight fields of investigation that included geology, palaeontology, and archaeology.

With funds from financial giants like John D. Rockefeller, and public lectures, Andrews raised more than $300,000 U.S. [equivalent to twenty times that today], an enormous expenditure for a scientific expedition even during the heady 1920’s.

Mongolia, which occupies an area larger than Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined, is still a difficult country to explore. Poorly maintained dangerously-pot-holed asphalt roads run for a few hundred kilometers east and west of the capital. Communities outside this paved-zone are serviced by rugged trails that meander over steep mountain valleys, lush unfenced grasslands, and arid deserts.

In 1918 when Andrews first visited Mongolia, there were a few motor cars running infrequently between China and the old capital of Mongolia, Urga. The ancient caravan route was difficult, and the Ford motor cars that were used had proved unable to meet the severe demands made upon them. Accidents were frequent and many people had been killed.

However two Dodge Brothers cars had made it through in 1916. This achievement gave Andrews the inspiration for conducting explorations of Mongolia using automobiles. He was convinced that a properly equipped motor expedition supported by a camel caravan could do ten years’ work in five months. Scientists in motor cars would conduct the actual exploration, while a caravan of camels sent out months in advance would transport food, gasoline and oil to prearranged locations.

Expedition camel and Vehicle Tyres at Flaming Cliff Camp.

Returning to New York, Andrews began looking for a light car with high clearance, great durability, flexible chassis, and an engine with sufficient power to pull through sand.

“When it came to choice of cars opinion was strongly in favor of several well known Italian and French makes,” wrote Andrews, although he personally had a poor opinion of Citroën all-terrain vehicles. Asked to adopt it for the expedition, Andrews found the car to be absolutely impractical for rough work. “It is a nice little French Toy,” wrote Andrews to a friend.

Fulton 1 ton truck, used in early years of the Expedition. Photographed at the American Museum prior to shipment to China. Ca. 1920

Dodge had an advantage - it had already proven itself capable of the arduous journey to Mongolia. Additionally, a Dodge had climbed the Twin Peaks of San Francisco higher than any other car, and was the first automobile to reach the floor of the Grand Canyon and climb back out under its own power.

After careful investigation, and despite Dodge’s polite refusal to donate vehicles, Andrews chose five Dodge Brothers’ cars: medium priced, no frills workhorses that were plain looking, utilitarian and rugged. “Those which we used were stock cars with no especial equipment.”

These vehicles were expected to operate under extremely harsh conditions including: freezing nights, and + 40° C. days, and choking sand storms. Every imaginable situation was contemplated. Eventually, Andrews noted, “We carried hundreds of nuts and bolts, almost every conceivable part and the very best tools...short of actual wrecking of the chassis or engine, we were prepared for any emergencies.”

“Motoring on the Gobi is not quite like rolling down Fifth Avenue. If anything happens to your car there are no garages around the corner....to be alone on the desert when something is wrong with the digestion of your automobile can have its serious aspects.”

As scientists were expected to be conducting research, not tinkering with engines, Andrews hired Bayard Colgate. A motor enthusiast since his youth, Colgate, already an accomplished mechanic, underwent further intensive training at the Dodge factory in Detroit before sailing for China.

Andrews purchased new Dodges in Peking at the regular price, but was unable to secure insurance. Despite arguing, “the moral risk was good because we certainly would not abandon a machine...in view of the fact that the success of the expedition, if not our actual lives, depended upon [them],” Andrews was refused coverage. The insurers said the risk was too great, he was lucky to have a supporting caravan for he would be returning on camels, if he ever returned at all.

Despite this opinion, in March of 1922, five weeks ahead of the scientists in their cars, a caravan of seventy-five camels was sent out across the border of China into Mongolia. They were instructed to drop twelve cases of gasoline at a telegraph station along the road to Urga, and then rendezvous with the automobiles 150 miles from Urga. The success or failure of Andrews’ novel plan rested on the caravan’s ability to cross the Gobi Desert.

Pushing Expedition vehicles through sand.

Thirty-five days later, the scientists and overloaded Dodges slowly climbed westward toward the Great Wall, passed through a stone gate, and rolled into Mongolia.

“It makes me shudder even to write about the places through which we took the cars and trucks during the next four hours” recalled Andrews, “There were ravines, ditches, walls, rocks and washouts. Only Colgates’s good driving and resourcefulness got us through without a disastrous smash.”

That day’s progress was excellent, until a rain storm caused the ground to become thick clinging gumbo. The lead car suddenly sank up to the running boards in mud, followed by each of the cars in turn. They were so badly stuck that they could only be retrieved with block and tackle.

Four days later the expedition reached the first supply drop at the telegraph station. The caravan had been there two weeks before, leaving cans of gasoline as planned.

After pitching camp near the telegraph station, palaeontologist Walter Granger set off to explore the surrounding hills, but was soon back in camp. “Well, Roy,” Granger burst out, “we’ve done it. The stuff is here. We picked up fifty pounds of [fossil] bones in an hour.” The expedition members were jubilant.

"Explore with Roy"

2011-03-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

BELOIT, Wis. – Congratulations to Robert Hackbarth of Janesville, Wisconsin! Mr. Hackbarth participated in the “Explore with Roy” Identity Design Contest submitting artwork which will be used in Beloit’s new branding and tourism campaign. Mr. Hackbarth will receive a cash prize and his selected Beloit area non-profit Friends of RiverFront will receive a matching gift. Mr. Hackbarth’s winning design represents Beloit’s most famous native son—explorer and anthropologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Andrews, who remains a historical figure in the city, attended Beloit College and traveled the world as an archeologist.

Throughout 2011, Beloit will be home to a series of activities incorporating Roy Chapman Andrews’ sense of adventure, daring, and passion for bringing history to life. “Explore with Roy” activities will include a Classic Car Rally; a Kick-off Event featuring Indiana Jones Movies; Geo-Caching/Scavenger Hunt; an Historic Walking Tour; and a Mural Painting Project; a kayaking event; a bicycling event; and a Fishing Derby; . Mr. Hackbarth’s design provides a recognizable visual identity for the series and will be featured on print materials, T-shirts and electronic advertising.

Collecting Roy Chapman Andrews. Part 5 ~ Conclusion

2011-02-26T07:05:00.000-08:00

My tent at Byan Dzag [ Flaming Cliffs ]. Photo. by Clive Coy

Over the course of his life Andrews was the recipient of many prestigious awards, including, the Elisha Kent Kane Gold Medal of the Philadelphia Geographical Society [1929], the Hubbard Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society [1931], the Explorers’ Gold Medal [1932], and the Charles P. Daly Gold Medal of the American Geographical Society [1936]. Honorary Sc. D. degrees were conferred on him by Brown University [1926], and by Beloit College [1928].

Elisha Kent Kane Medal. Photo by Clive Coy.

In recognition of his qualities as organiser and leader, Andrews has eleven animals, fossil and living, named in his honour by ten separate researchers between 1911 and 1981, including one by a Soviet palaeontologist. Contrary to popular belief, scientists do not name new discoveries after themselves, and even in today’s jaded world it is still considered an honour to have new discoveries named in recognition of the discoverer.

Still writing books, and corresponding with admirers around the world, Andrews made his last and longest journey on March 11, 1960. His passing was reported on the front-page of major newspapers, and from the world came tributes to “one of the greatest naturalists and zoologists of the 20th century”. “Roy Chapman Andrews was one of the truly fortunate men who know exactly what they want to do in the world.”, reported the New York Times. Inexplicably, the institution that he had worked so hard for made no mention of his passing in the yearly report or popular magazine that Andrews himself had written 24 articles for.

Andrews, Colebrook, Conn., 1953. Hunting license pinned to his Fedora.

Filled with a thirst for life, Andrews lived it to the fullest. He had a restless spirit, an exuberant personality, a determined will, and limitless energy. Fieldwork and exploration, not paper work, consumed him. Not content merely to see the world, he wanted to know its closely kept secrets. For three decades he was the popular ideal of the romantic explorer, combining scientific ability and the capacity to direct major expeditions with the showmanship necessary to obtain publicity and financial support.

Expeditions to Northern China and Mongolia conducted by the Russians, Chinese, Poles, Canadians, Japanese, and Americans owe much to the pioneering work of Roy Chapman Andrews, whose significance lies both in his own findings and in the international attention he drew to the role and value of the explorer-naturalist and the modern interdisciplinary scientific expedition.

ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS

An Informal Checklist of Books

Publication statistics for Andrews’ books appear to be undocumented. Several of his publishers have ceased to exist, or have not retained records from the periods involved. The later children’s books are not difficult to obtain, although as in almost all juvenile literature, condition is a common problem. Books published previous to 1929 are scarce in even very good condition, and dust wrappers for the first three books are very uncommon.

[NF] nonfiction; [F] fiction; [NF - J] nonfiction juvenile; [F - J] fiction juvenile

1. Whale Hunting With Gun And Camera [NF]

NY; D. Appleton and Company, 1916

2. Camps And Trails In China [NF]

NY; D. Appleton and Company, 1918

3. Across Mongolian Plains [NF]

NY; D. Appleton and Company, 1921

4. On The Trail Of Ancient Man [NF]

NY; G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1926

5. Ends Of The Earth [NF]

1929 G. P. Putnam’s Sons New York / London

6. The New Conquest Of Central Asia [NF]

NY; American Museum of Natural History New York / G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1932

7. This Business Of Exploring [NF]

NY; G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1935

8. Exploring With Andrews [NF - J]

NY; G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1938

9. This Amazing Planet [NF]

NY; G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1940

10. Under A Lucky Star [NF]

NY; The Viking Press, 1943

11. Meet Your Ancestors [NF]

NY; The Viking Press, 1945

12. An Explorer Comes Home [NF]

NY; Doubleday and Company, 1947

13. My Favorite Stories Of The Great Outdoors [NF]

NY; Greystone Press, 1950

14. Quest In The Desert [F - J]

NY; The Viking Press, 1950

15. Heart Of Asia [NF]

NY; Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951

16. Nature’s Ways [NF]

NY; Crown Publishers, 1951

17. All About Dinosaurs {NF- J]

NY; Random House, 1953

18. All About Whales [NF - J]

NY; Random House, 1954

19. Beyond Adventure [NF]

Boston / Toronto; Duell, Sloan and Pearce / Little Brown and Company, 1954

20. Quest Of The Snow Leopard [F - J]

NY; The Viking Press, 1955

21. All About Strange Beasts Of The Past [NF - J]

NY; Random House, 1956

22. In The Days Of The Dinosaurs [NF - J]

NY; Random House, 1959

Roy Chapman Andrews Society

2011-02-21T18:03:00.000-08:00

I have been remiss in not placing a link to The Roy Chapman Andrews Society on my Blog. This group based in Roy's hometown of Beloit, Wisconsin are dedicated to perpetuating the name and achievements of one of Beloit's most famous native sons. Their new website contains interesting video clips, a photo of RCA's childhood home, and a walking map of Beloit and points of interest related to Andrews, as well as the multifacted activities of the Society.

Collecting Roy Chapman Andrews Part 4

2011-02-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

Barkan dune at Tugrikin Shire, Outer Mongolia. By Clive Coy

During the late twenties field work in Mongolia became dangerous, and civil war combined with the overt actions of Imperial Japan within China made further exploration impossible. With great reluctance the members of the 1930 field season returned home to the United States certain they would never be able to return. Andrews remained behind at the expeditions headquarters in Peking, spending his time paying the expeditions accounts, selling the camel caravan, vehicles and equipment. It was during this period that Yvette divorced Andrews, citing abandonment. Civil war and banditry had made it unsafe for Yvette and her two young sons to follow Andrews into the field after 1920. Andrews had allowed himself to become consumed by the needs of the expedition and had lost both emotional and physical contact with his family.

During a cold and solitary Peking winter Andrews finished what is arguably the single greatest undertaking of his writing career; The New Conquest Of Central Asia. Published as volume one, it was third in a series that were originally conceived as a twelve volume set of which only seven were ever published.

First Edition. 1932. In original dust jacket

Now highly prized by collectors, the bulk of the imposing seven pound volume is the official narrative of the expeditions that gives a comprehensive review of the accomplishments as a whole, and reviews problems raised by their discoveries. The photographs are numerous, and the panoramic fold out plates are of such high quality that they would cost a fortune to reproduce today. So comprehensive and wide ranging was the work of the C.A.E. that the seven completed volumes became standard works on the geology, recent animals, fish, and palaeontology of Mongolia and China. Never before had an American non-military overseas expedition made so many major discoveries in so short a time. The most important scientific discoveries were quickly published by Osborn, Matthew, and Granger. However, the enormous collections outran the available research and publication facilities of the Museum and even now, eighty-one years later, their preparation and study are ongoing.

Andrews returned to New York; and after more than 23 years of continual field work his exploring days were over. On February 21, 1935, he married Wilhelmina [“Billy”] Anderson Christmas, and Andrews began to rebuild his life in busy, noisy New York.

Andrews and 'Billy' in Seattle, boarding the train to New York

upon returning from Honeymoon trip to Asia. 1936.

Andrews capped his career at the American Museum of Natural History as vice-director [1931 - 34] and director [1935 - 42]. In addition to his new museum duties, he continued to promote the need for exploration in numerous popular articles, and books; with Ends Of The Earth, his first autobiography, printed in serial form by Saturday Evening Post prior to being released by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Trying his hand at radio, Andrews also presented a popular series entitled “New Horizons” on the Columbia Network during the late 1930’s. Andrews had contributed to exploring and filling in the last “unknown” corners of the globe, and he realised that exploration of the future would be very different from that of his own youth.

Andrews as Director of AMNH, beneath portrait of his patron, mentor and friend, Henry Fairfield Osborn.

As early as 1932, Andrews observed; “To study these little-known areas, to reveal the history of their making and interpret that history to the world today, to learn what they can give in education, culture and for human welfare - that is the exploration of the future!”. Consequently, he began to write books specifically for young readers in the hope that it would encourage them to pick up the torch . This Business Of Exploring, and Exploring With Andrews influenced a generation of young readers, some of whom became today’s leading palaeontologists and zoologists.

First Edition. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1935

First Edition. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1938.

Inevitably, the steady diet of routine administration irked Andrews, who had always preferred outside to indoors, and a tent to a boardroom. During the late 30’s and early 40’s the museum faced hard times caused by the national economic crisis, low public attendance, and a sharp decline in philanthropic donations. Bean-counting museum administrators questioned Andrews’ abilities to guide the ailing museum through the hard economic times, even going as far as to call for Andrews’ dismissal. Hurt and disheartened; wishing to close his career at the museum with honour and dignity; Andrews chose to resign, and at the end of 1941, although still robust and only 57, he retired.

Andrews lived for a time in Connecticut, moved later to Arizona, and eventually settled in Carmel, California. In retirement he wrote another 13 best-selling books that include his second autobiography, Under A Lucky Star, and two fictional accounts of his early exploration days, Quest In The Desert, and Quest Of The Snow Leopard.

First Edition. Viking Press. 1943.

Reprint. Blue Ribbon Books. 1945.

Aimed at young readers the two novels drew on his experiences leading expeditions; and introduce the hero of both books, Jack Benton, a character based loosely on Andrews himself. The action packed novels cleverly instruct young readers on what it takes to put an expedition into the field, from purchasing supplies to dealing with bandits.

First Edition. The Viking Press. 1950

First Edition. The Viking Press. 1955.

Much loved and now difficult to find in even reasonable condition are Andrews’ three books for the All About series by Random House; All About Dinosaurs, All About Whales, and All About Strange Beasts Of The Past. Authoritative children’s books on prehistoric animals were rare prior to the 1950’s, and this trio of books illustrated by the talented Thomas Voter, and Matthew Kalmenoff, influenced school science reports and the daydreams of several generations of young readers.

First Edition. Random House. 1953

First Edition. Random House. 1954.

First Edition. Random House. 1956

Andrews also tried his hand at fiction for adults; most notably Heart Of Asia, a collection of twelve tales of life in Asia. Andrews asserted that the ripping yarns were true as he experienced them or were told to him by others. Among the tales were a dog who lived for vengeance; the predations of a phantom Blue Tiger; and a bandit who paid a debt with the hearts of his wife and child.

First Edition. Duell, Sloan & Pearce. 1951.

Collecting Roy Chapman Andrews Part 3

2011-02-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

Typical Gobi road, Outer Mongolia. Photo by Clive Coy.

Mongolia had captivated Andrews, and he became obsessed with the idea of exploring the largely unmapped and mysterious country for the scientific treasures he was sure were buried there. Despite critics who said that he might as well search the bottom of the ocean, Andrews together with palaeontologist Walter Granger, led five major expeditions in 1922, 1923, 1925, 1928, and 1930 to Northern China and Mongolia, which were commonly referred to as the Third Central Asiatic Expeditions. The C.A.E. heralded a new type of multidisciplinary exploration, with representatives from eight fields of investigation: geography, topography, geology, palaeontology, zoology, archaeology, paleobotany, and herpetology. These expeditions were the largest non-military ventures to leave the United States until that time; often operating with forty scientists and technicians, eight motorcars, and 150 camels.

Third Asiatic Expedition's Vehicles :
The original unmodified Dodge Touring Cars,
and Fulton One Ton Trucks

Although the expeditions did not discover early humans, they made major scientific findings that established Asia as one of the chief dispersal centres of animal life. They uncovered implements dating back 20,000 years, evidence that the Gobi had been inhabited by people who may have later migrated to China, Siberia, and North America. Their geological findings confirmed that Outer Mongolia had never been glaciated and was the oldest area on earth of continuously dry land. The rich fossil fields that they discovered produced the first evidence of dinosaurs in Asia north of the Himalayas. They yielded specimens of tiny early mammals; the largest mammalian carnivore; skulls and other fragments of the largest mammal known to have existed on land; and a genus of rhinoceros called Baluchitherium, which lived about thirty million years ago, stood eighteen feet high, and weighed twenty tons.

The most spectacular discovery, for which Andrews and the expeditions became world-famous, was of three nests containing two dozen dinosaur eggs, the first recorded by science. Discovered in the Gobi in 1923 and pictured in newspapers and magazines around the world, the nine-inch-long eggs had been nearly perfectly preserved.

Original 1923 Photograph of Dinosaur Eggs found by George Olsen at Flaming Cliffs locality [Byan Dzag]
Photo: James Barnes Shackelford, Expedition photographer.

Popular culture has incorrectly attributed Andrews as discovering the eggs. It was in fact technician George Olsen, an error that Andrews himself was always quick to correct in his books, and lectures. Nonetheless, Andrews was responsible for much of the success of the logistical work and fund raising for these expeditions. He conceived them, raised the funds, led them through the perils of banditry in Mongolia, revolution and civil war in China; and was adept at obtaining publicity, and achieving prompt publication of findings. Andrews wrote the preponderance of popular literature about the expeditions, but always shared the credit for its success with all members of the expedition.

Public demand for information about the expeditions was nearing hysteria by the mid 1920’s. Newspaper reporters mobbed the ship when members of the expedition returned to New York via San Francisco between expeditions. Offers reaching thousands of dollars were made for exclusive rights to pictures and stories, but Andrews refused them all, freely giving interviews to as many reporters as he and his staff could schedule. However, one publisher did have first rights for magazine stories by Andrews, and all photographs taken by the expedition; an incredible arrangement agreed to in the early years of fund raising.

Asia Magazine, the official publication of the American Asiatic Association, was the premiere American magazine devoted to an area that in the 20’s overshadowed Europe as a popular travel destination. Catering to wealthy travellers, Asia Magazine reached its zenith during the late 1920’s, publishing articles by authors such as Pearl S. Buck, and Franklin D. Roosevelt; with cover art by Frank M. McIntosh. Liberally illustrated with photographs fresh from the expeditions’ cameras, Andrews published a total of 25 lengthy articles between 1918 and 1926. These articles detailed the triumphs and tribulations of the expedition; but most importantly allowed Andrews to reach his prime target audience, the wealthy elite with disposable money to fund such grand adventures.

Dust jacket of First Edition. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1926

By 1926 Andrews was deluged with letters from the public requesting a collected account of the expedition’s activities to date. On The Trail Of Ancient Man was published as a popular narrative in direct response to these requests. Much of the text of the book was written on the spot and preserves the atmosphere and excitement of the expedition that was pushing beyond the boundaries of contemporary exploration. An examination of Andrews original field diaries revealed that in the early years his daily entries are sketchy reference notes; but by 1923 the entries have become volumous detailed narratives that required only minor polishing before becoming magazine articles and book chapters. On The Trail Of Ancient Man also marked the beginning of Andrews’ association with G.P. Putnam’s Sons, a relationship that produced a total of six books by 1940.

Reprint. Undated [Circa 1930] Garden City Publishing Co., Inc.

Collecting Roy Chapman Andrews Part 2

2011-02-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

By the time his first book was published Andrews was already deeply immersed in preliminary land exploration in Asia. No longer content to work in an office or laboratory most of the year, Andrews developed a desire to do field work and exploration, away from the modern city, preferably somewhere little known. With the support of Henry Fairfield Osborn, then director of the Museum, funds from financial giants like J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller were forthcoming. Assisted further by monies raised personally through public lectures, Andrews led a series of expeditions to Asia. Yvette Andrews recorded the expeditions in both still photographs [including some of the earliest colour] and motion pictures.

In recognition of his ability he was appointed director of the museum’s First Asiatic Expedition to Tibet, south-west China, and Burma. This general stocktaking expedition on the edge of the Central Asian plateau was the first of a series of such expeditions directed by Andrews to gain information by which to guide more extensive explorations planned for the future. Appleton’s earlier gamble would be amply rewarded with Andrews’ next two books; Camps And Trails In China, and Across Mongolian Plains.

First Edition D. Appleton & Co. 1918
Gilt Stamped on Cloth.

The infectiously enthusiastic Camps And Trails In China, co-authored and illustrated by Yvette, is a rich narrative of travel and hunting while traversing southern China, Vietnam, and Burma, at that time part of the Chinese Empire. Although technical in some areas, scientific reporting was avoided. Success of this book can be measured by its subsequent reprintings [1919, 1920, 1925,] at a time when first-hand accounts of the Great War, and the puerile novels of Harold Bell Wright were best sellers for Appleton. Both books have now become widely available as print on demand monstrosities, often at higher prices for a poorly bound photocopy, than a decent reading copy of the original edition.

Dust jacket of First Edition. D. Appleton & Co. 1921

First Edition D. Appleton & Co. 1921
Gilt stamped on cloth

In Across Mongolian Plains Andrews succeeds in communicating the “boyish” excitement that animated him as he rode and motored over Northern China and Mongolia, an explorer in a strange place among strange peoples. Despite only sparse illustration, and use of the first person pronoun up to a dozen times per page, the exuberant narrative written from a sportsman’s view point sold well.

Blue Ribbon Books Reprint. Undated [Ca. 1930]

Blue Ink stamped on Buckram

However, Appleton’s was now moving towards fiction by authors like Zona Gale and Edith Wharton, and published only the first edition of this last project with Andrews.

Dust Jacket of Blue Ribbon Books Reprint. Undated [Ca. 1930]

Subsequent reprintings were handed to Blue Ribbon Books, and Garden City Publishing, initiating a trend that continued into the 1940’s after first editions by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Viking Press.

During this period of initial exploration into Asia he became enamored of the theories of William Diller Matthew and HenryFairfield Osborn. Matthew, a renowned palaeontologist at the American Museum, regarded Central Asia as the centre of origin for most mammals, and Osborn believed that it would prove the birthplace of humans. To test these theories it would be necessary to find the fossil evidence.

Advertisement. May 1921.

Evolution, Extinction, Fossilization [Repeat]

2011-02-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

A Link to this Andrews Comic from the 1940's can be found at Paleoblog

For News, Views, Reviews, and Overviews related to all things Palaeo ~ Check out

Dr. Michael Ryan's Paleoblog, where he gives the latest news about paleontology, dinosaurs, paleobiology, and related arts and sciences [and has great imagery from Vintage comics and movies.]

Arrived In My Mail Today

2011-01-31T18:37:00.000-08:00

3000FC Roy Chapman Andrews stamp on decorative sheet.

Issued in 2008. Approx. 5 3/4" x 4 1/4"

The bulk of my collection is original books, photographs, letters, and other materials that were generated by or about Andrews during his life. However, I do also have a few modern pieces, often whimsical things like this that I find or are sent to me by friends. This arrived in today's post from Thailand of all places. The stamp is real, but I doubt that any were ever used in Unions des Comores as actual postage by the local inhabitants. This is a Topical, generated by the government to satisfy stamp collectors and add a little to national revenue of this country located on Africa's east coast, north-west of Madagascar. I looked it up and found that they issued a paleontology set that also includes Edwin Colbert, another stalwart of the AMNH. I am happy to add this fun bit of ephemera to my collection.

Collecting Roy Chapman Andrews: Part 1

2011-01-29T10:13:00.000-08:00

American Museum portrait of a young R. C. Andrews during his 'Whaling Days'.

Dinosaurs interest more people today than ever before, and books about dinosaurs, and the expeditions sent to find them continue to be popular. Titles such as The Dinosaur Project [Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1993], and Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs [Doubleday 1996], offer enjoyable non-scientific accounts of expeditions to collect dinosaurs in Asia. Their subtitles; “The story of the greatest dinosaur expedition ever mounted”, and Doubleday’s more restrained; “The thrilling account of one of the largest dinosaur expeditions of the 20th century...”, might lead us to suppose the expeditions were in competition with each other. However, the two accounts were published roughly four years apart and documented the joint Sino-Canadian expeditions in China, and the American Museum’s return to Mongolia respectively.

Both expeditions operated in a remote area of the world, the rugged naked outcrops and shifting sands of the Gobi desert that lay on the borders of northern China and southern Mongolia. Long proven to contain enough fossil treasure for numerous expeditions, the Gobi has also been explored by Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, and Russian teams. Under this intense scrutiny it has revealed a trove of unique and exquisitely preserved fossilized skeletons.

Despite the superlatives used by their publicists, all expeditions to the Gobi follow in the wheel ruts and camel tracks of one truly monumental expedition, the Third Central Asiatic Expeditions [C.A.E.] of the American Museum of Natural History, New York [1922 - 1930]. Despite having withdrawn from the field eighty years ago, the C.A.E. continues to cast a long shadow across the orange sands of Mongolia and China. The organizer and leader of the C.A.E., Roy Chapman Andrews, was a daring American explorer of the 1920’s who is often identified as the model for the movie hero Indiana Jones, a rumor that co-creators Steven Speilberg and George Lucas have denied. While Indiana Jones may be an unintentional amalgam of real men like Roy Chapman Andrews, Sven Hedin, and Langdon Warner, the four movies undeniably follow in the tradition of “Adventure” movies made popular during the 1930’s.

While Indiana Jones is a creation of Hollywood, Roy Chapman Andrews was the flesh and blood equivalent. He actually did fight off a plague of poisonous snakes, sand storms, bandits, hostile armies in remote corners of the world, and was every bit as ruggedly photogenic as Harrison Ford. Andrews led a remarkable life, a quintessential American success story, beginning his career at the American Museum of Natural History mopping floors, retiring 35 years later as its Director. Expeditions led by Andrews to Korea, Northern China and Mongolia explored and mapped lands previously unknown to Westerners, discovered many new living animals, fossil mammals, dinosaurs, and the first dinosaur eggs described by science. All of these remarkable accomplishments by the time Andrews was 39 years old.

First Edition First Printing

Although a mammologist by training, Andrews is most often associated with dinosaurs, and it is his dinosaur books for children that may be his greatest legacy. Many of today’s leading dinosaur specialists like Philip Currie of the University of Alberta, in Canada, acknowledge their adult fascination with dinosaurs is in part due to reading Andrews’ All About Dinosaurs, or All About Strange Beasts Of The Past.

First Edition First Printing

When writing for adults, Andrews had an uncommon ability to record what he saw and did in a manner that was popular and accessible to non-scientists. Many of his books were written hurriedly on trains and ships in the precious spare time between expeditions, fundraising, and lecturing. Andrews was not a great statesman or philosopher. His writing has few pretensions to literary graces, but it is vivid and full of action and adventure. In today’s world where bookstore shelves groan under the weight of the travels of mediocrity, Andrews’ writing still strikes an authentic note. Virtually in continuous print since 1929, his first autobiography Ends Of The Earth has proven a good investment for at least seven domestic and foreign publishers.

First Edition, First Printing. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1929

With twenty-two books, and well over 200 magazine articles, Andrews did more to popularize dinosaur hunting than any professional palaeontologist, and generated more interest in Central Asia than any writer previously. Sadly, despite the current frenzied interest in all things related to dinosaurs, this body of work is poorly known by book collectors, and book dealers.

Roy Chapman Andrews was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, on January 26, 1884. His parents, Charles Ezra, a rural wholesale druggist, and Cora May Chapman Andrews, were gentle, intelligent people, but there was nothing in his background or surroundings to indicate what he would become. He grew up along the banks of the Rock River with the fields and woods of southern Wisconsin as his playground. Two books made an impression on the young adventurer, Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America by Frank M. Chapman, and William T. Hornaday’s Taxidermy and Home Decoration. Frank Chapman, considered the foremost ornithologist in America at that time, inspired Andrews to wander the woods, binoculars and notebook in hand, studying the habits and migrations of local bird species. Fascinated by nature early in life, Andrews taught himself taxidermy by reading Hornaday’s book, and while still in public school became proficient at realistic bird mounts. From as early as he could remember, Andrews wanted to be an explorer, living out of doors and working for a natural history museum.

In the summer of 1906, two months after graduating from college, Andrews arrived in New York with only thirty-five dollars in his pocket, determined to work at the American Museum of Natural History. Granted an interview with the museum’s director, Herman C. Bumpus, he asked for a job, scrubbing floors if nothing else was available. Bumpus observed that college graduates should not scrub floors. Undaunted, Andrews replied “ I don’t want to wash just any floors, but the Museum floors are different”. Andrews was hired as an assistant in the preparation department, where his duties were washing floors, mixing clay, and helping to set up exhibits. Tenacity paid off and he was soon given a field assignment to assist with collecting the skeleton of a beached whale at Amagansett, Long Island. It was an experience that exhilarated Andrews. His enthusiasm for his work and for the museum were immediately apparent, and he quickly advanced within the institution.

Coloured postcard of A.M.N.H. mailed in 1906

Andrews sailed on expeditions to the Pacific Ocean in order to study whales and the whaling industry in British Columbia, Alaska, Korea, and Japan. Thriving on difficult work, Andrews stalked whales at sea and dissected, sketched, and recorded their characteristics at the rendering factories on shore. He persisted with research despite almost constant torment from seasickness and a number of harrowing experiences; most dramatically, on the deck of a whaler, escaping death by inches when the carcass of a whale slipped from the tackle, crushing the man standing beside him. Throughout his life he made light of the perils of exploration, claiming that he found it more dangerous to live in a modern city than in the wild. He eventually sent back enough whale specimens to fill a large exhibit hall, and built the museum’s collection into what is still regarded as one of the best in the world.

Endowed with enormous energy and ability, Andrews soon established a reputation in the study of cetaceans, and by age twenty-seven he was a recognised authority on whales.

Hand-coloured lantern slide: Baleen. Photo by Roy C. Andrews 1912

As a result of these extensive studies he published two major monographs in the prestigious Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History: The California Gray Whale, and The Sei Whale [1914]. This pioneering work became the basis for his master’s degree from Columbia University, and seven scientific papers on various Cetacea. Despite early acclaim, Andrews’ wrote years later that his heart was not in pure research, a fact born out by publishing none after he was thirty years old.

Andrews’ photograhs in The New York Times created a sensation. The pictures of live whales, swimming, eating and mating were the only images of the giant and poorly known mammals published at that time. Andrews’ star began to rise when Walter Hines Page, editor of World’s Work magazine, asked him to write an article about modern whaling practices. Andrews’ first submission written in scientific jargon was a dismal failure that was rejected outright. However, with the patient guidance of Page, Andrews learned to write in a manner that interested the general public, and conveyed his own personal enthusiasm for the work. Success with his first published periodical story, Whale Hunting As It Is Now Done [1908], led to 13 additional articles in popular magazines such as Harper’s, Metropolitan, and Outing, as well as science magazines that include Nature, Scientific American, and National Geographic. It was at this time that Andrews became popular as a public lecturer. His ability to instil an audience with excitement about science and exploration would serve him well when it came time to raise funds for future expeditions.

Glass Lantern Slide Gray Whale, Ulsan Korea. Photo by Roy C. Andrews

During 1909-10 he served as special naturalist aboard the research ship U.S.S. Albatross on a voyage to the Dutch East Indies, Borneo, and the Celebes. The Albatross made a three year journey around the Philippine Islands, a new American territory recently acquired from Spain, and Andrews was involved in conducting the first survey of life in those waters. He was one of only two people aboard the ship that published a narrative about the history making voyage. During 1911 - 12 he explored northern Korea to collect existing mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and plants in a region never before entered by an outsider. In 1913 he was with the Borden Alaska Expedition, and continued his study of whales and other water mammals until 1914. In 1914 he married Yvette Borup, sister of Arctic explorer George Borup, who had accompanied Admiral Robert E. Peary during his journey to the North Pole. Yvette, a talented photographer whose work appeared in Andrews’ early books and popular magazine articles, was also a lover of the great outdoors, and in the early years of their marriage travelled with her husband to remote corners of the world.

Gilt embossed cover of First Edition, First Printing. 1916

Illustrated dust jacket of First Printing. D. Appleton & Co., 1916.

Andrews’ first book; Whale Hunting With Gun And Camera was a gamble for D. Appleton & Co. The as yet unknown Andrews had written an ambitious book, that until the 1960’s, would remain the most comprehensive study of whale behaviour published. The compelling and exciting images of whale hunting, and previously unseen images of living whales were a departure from Appleton’s normal stock. Ahead of its time, it would have been a risk to publish in the best years, and 1916 was not a good year. America had not yet joined the fight against Germany, but the global effects of W.W.I had already driven the cost of book publication up by 25%. Few publishers could risk committing to a new writer who may not sell. However, Whale Hunting With Gun and Camera does appear to have sold well enough, as there were five printings between 1916 and 1935. Now difficult to obtain in any condition, the first edition, first printing of the heavy photo-illustrated book is scarce. In thirty-one years of collecting Andrews I have located only one first edition copy in the original illustrated dust wrapper. All subsequent printings were issued in a sickly green wrapper with blue titles and no illustration, and the cloth binding lacks the gilt design on the cover.

Born This Day : Roy Chapman Andrews 1884 ~ 1960

2011-01-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

January 26, 1884 ~ March 11, 1960

Born: Beloit, Wisconsin.

Education: B. A. Beloit College 1906;

MSc. Columbia, 1913.

Hon. Doctorate, Brown University 1926

Married: First Wife, Yvette Borup, October 7, 1914: Divorced March 30, 1931

Children: George Borup Andrews 1917 - 2007; Roy Kevin Andrews 1924 - 1989

Married: Second Wife: Wilhelmina [Billie] Anderson Christmas February 21, 1935. No Children.
Died March 11, 1960 Carmel, California. Cremated. Buried Oakwood Cemetery Beloit, Wisconsin.

Walter Granger 1872 - 1941

2011-01-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

Walter Granger was a vertebrate palaeontologist [fossil hunter] who spent the majority of his professional career working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, USA. Granger was head palaeontologist, and second in command of the Central Asiatic Expeditions, responsible for many of the most significant fossil discoveries. A website dedicated to Granger and his wife Anna can be found at:

The Walter Granger Papers Project maintained by Vin Morgan.

Kevin Andrews 1924 - 1989 : The American Ikaros

2011-01-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Roy Kevin Andrews was the second son of Roy Chapman Andrews and his first wife, Yvette Borup Andrews. [First son, George Borup Andrews will be discussed in future postings]. He always preferred to be called Kevin, not Roy and absolutely never Roy Jr.

Overshadowed by his Father's fame, Kevin Andrews' contributions to Greek Archaeology, Travel Writing and Literature, have remained largely unappreciated outside of a small group of academics and admirers. That is, until the recent publication of Roger Jinkinson's new book - American Ikaros: The Search for Kevin Andrews. Published by Racing Horse Press, London, England, 2010.

A chance encounter in a small cafeneion on a remote Greek Island led Roger Jinkinson on a quest to find out what had happened to Kevin Andrews, the author of The Flight of Ikaros, described by Patrick Leigh Fermor as "One of the great and lasting books about Greece".

My personal copy of the First Edition, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1959.

The search for Kevin Andrews covers half the globe and contains a glittering array of characters including W. H. Auden, Louis MacNeice, Dylan Thomas, Patrick Leigh Fermor, E. E. Cummings, Scofield Thayer, Amelia Earhart, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and Queen Frederika of Greece.

Kevin was born in Peking in 1924. His Mother, Yvette Borup, beautiful and spirited was married at the time to Roy Chapman Andrews, but Jinkinson and others contend that Andrews may not have been Kevin's biological Father.

Gifted with good looks, charm and intelligence, Kevin grew to be a confused and troubled man. His one constant love was Greece and the Greeks. He relinquished his American nationality and became a Greek citizen in 1975. The last few years of his life were spent in Athens living as a recluse. He dies in 1989, swimming in wild seas off the Greek Island of Kythira.

American Ikaros can be ordered from Roger Jinkinson's site:
Tales from a Greek Island.

The identity of Kevin's Father has been discussed by various authors over the last decade. I will post my own observations and additional photographs in future postings.