Roy Chapman Andrews

-Chrissie

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            Roy Chapman Andrews was an American naturalist and scientist who is best known for his work in paleontology. He is also widely cited as the inspiration for the character Indiana Jones.

            Andrews was born on 26 January 1884 in Wisconsin. He spent much of his childhood in the woods near his home, where he became skilled at hunting and developed an interest in taxidermy. He was able to make enough money with this hobby to pay for his undergraduate degree at Beloit College in his hometown.

            Degree in hand, he applied to work at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. However, his bachelor’s degree in English was insufficient for the museum, despite his extensive coursework in anthropology and evolutionary biology. He took a job as a janitor for the museum, spending the mornings cleaning and the afternoons working in the taxidermy lab. While doing this, he completed a master’s degree in Mammalogy from Columbia University. He also joined The Explorers’ Club, a New York-based organization that supports exploration and scientific field research. Through this connection, he went on his first trip for the American Museum, a 1909 expedition studying whales and other marine mammals. In 1913, he travelled to the Artic on another expedition looking for specimens to be displayed in the American Museum.

He spent 1916 and 1917 in China, in hopes of finding evidence of early hominid development as part of the Asiatic Zoological Expedition with his new wife, Yvette Borup Andrews, who was the project’s primary photographer. World War One delayed further work, but also allowed him time to plan and make arrangements to return to China. Between 1922 and 1926, he conducted the Central Asiatic Expedition for the Museum. It was decided that the best way to travel would be in automobiles, so the expedition purchased five Dodge trucks, after having been turned down by the company when they asked for a donation. The scientists traveled in the cars, meeting with supply camps set up along the route ahead of time. The cars proved themselves so well that Dodge regretted not donating the vehicles when asked. Seeing an advertising opportunity that could not be matched by any other car company, Dodge offered to outfit the expedition in exchange for using some of the photos from the expedition and testimonials from Andrews in their advertising. Dodge custom-built eight vehicles to the specifications laid out by the expedition’s mechanic, which allowed them to have a brochure in their showrooms that proved Dodge was the most rugged and reliable car on the market.

It is Andrews’ finds in the Gobi Desert for which he is best-known. What began with looking for evidence to support the Out of Africa theory of human evolution became a dinosaur hunt. In 1923, his team uncovered the first known fossilized dinosaur eggs. A clutch was found with a carnivorous dinosaur on top of it and, because they had found a group of Protoceratops nearby, they assumed that the eggs belonged to them, not the animal with them. The one with the eggs was named Oviraptor, meaning “egg thief.” Later discoveries and improved technology showed in 1995 that the eggs were not from the nearby herd of Protoceratops but belonged to the Oviraptor, who had been protecting the nest, not stealing from it.

The Protoceratops found were the first recorded specimens of their kind, so they were given the species name “andrewsi” for the expedition’s leader. This was just one of the very many finds from this expedition, which also uncovered the first known velociraptor specimen. The expedition work in the Gobi was suspended in 1926 and 1927 due to objections from the Chinese government. The 1928 expedition was permitted, but their finds were seized by the Chinese authorities and the 1929 trip was cancelled. The last trip was in 1930. Planned trips over the next few years were cancelled due to the Great Depression and the Chinese civil war.

Andrews became the director of the American Museum of Natural History in 1935, thirty years after he was hired there as a janitor. He wrote many books on his travels and discoveries, including children’s books on dinosaurs and other animals. He retired to California in 1958 and died in 1960.

His children’s books remined in print for decades, both of your hosts remember having a well-loved copy of his first, All About Dinosaurs. I’m willing to bet a lot of you did, too.