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On the Trail of
Roy Chapman Andrews

- By Ann Bausum'79

In 1926, G.P. Putnam’s Sons published On the Trail of Ancient Man by explorer Roy Chapman Andrews’06. Mr. Andrews, a scientist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, was at the peak of his professional career. His popular appeal had never been greater, too. Both the general public and the scientific community followed his research expectantly, wondering if he really would uncover fossils from the earliest humans—as suggested in the title of his book—during his ongoing expeditions in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.

Alas, Mr. Andrews never found ancient man. (Africa, not Asia, would eventually yield the earliest human fossils.) But it didn’t matter. What Andrews and his team of scientists did find over the course of five expeditions to Central Asia proved even better: the first nests of dinosaur eggs; new species of dinosaurs (including Oviraptors, Velociraptors, and Protoceratops andrewsi–named in honor of the expedition leader); the first evidence of mammal life during the age of dinosaurs; and fossils of bizarre Ice Age mammals (like a mastodon with a five-foot-long, shovel-shaped jaw).

Mr. Andrews made these discoveries using a unique scheme of transportation. From the first expedition in 1922, his scientific staff used cars to cross the Gobi. The explorers then conducted field work while a camel caravan plodded after them carrying fresh supplies, including gasoline, motor oil, and spare car parts. One quote gives readers an idea of his lifestyle as an explorer: “In the [first] 15 years [of field work] I can remember just 10 times when I had really narrow escapes from death. Two were from drowning in typhoons, one was when our boat was charged by a wounded whale; once my wife and I were nearly eaten by wild dogs, once we were in great danger from fanatical lama priests; two were close calls when I fell over cliffs, once I was nearly caught by a huge python, and twice I might have been killed by bandits.” Not until 1930 did the twin obstacles of Asian political instability and the Great Depression force Mr. Andrews to abandon field work.

In 1934, Andrews became director of the American Museum of Natural History. His service—through 1941—capped a career that had begun there shortly after graduating from Beloit College, when he talked his way into a job by agreeing to do anything, “even clean the floors.” Mr. Andrews wrote extensively during his retirement, both for adults and for children, and he remained a popular figure until his death, at age 76, in 1960.

Then obscurity began to set in, perhaps because Mr. Andrews was no longer around to keep his story in print. Only a devoted few—particularly scientists who had grown up under the influence of his writings—kept his legacy alive. Even at his alma mater, Mr. Andrews seemed largely forgotten.

I didn’t “meet” Mr. Andrews until 1988, when I was back at Beloit as public affairs director and editor of the alumni magazine. By then the “Indiana Jones” movies were under way, and word was circulating that Mr. Andrews’ adventurous life had served as the model for the title character. The feature I wrote about him then, “Meet Beloit’s Indiana Jones” (Summer 1988), remains one of my favorite assignments from the two dozen issues I edited.

Perhaps that’s why Mr. Andrews came to mind during the 1990s as the possible subject of a children’s biography. In between responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom, I put myself on the trail of Roy Chapman Andrews. I wrote drafts of a book, combed the photo archives of the American Museum of Natural History, and struck up a long-distance acquaintance with Mr. Andrews’ surviving son, George, an octogenarian in Texas. That work led to the publication last spring of Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews.

Along the way I discovered that others were on the trail, too. Beloit College museums mounted a retrospective about him in the early ’90s. Today, Beloit’s Roy Chapman Andrews Society is reviving his memory (see box below), and other institutions (like the American Museum of Natural History, which has sponsored new ground-breaking research in the Gobi) and authors are recalling him, too. See Dinosaurs at the Ends of the Earth–The Story of the Central Asiatic Expeditions by Brian Floca, a Dorling Kindersley picture book. Or watch for Dragon Hunter–Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions, a full-length biography by Charles Gallenkamp, due out in May from Viking Press. Mr. Andrews is no longer his own best promoter; thanks to these efforts, others have taken up the call too. We’re “on the trail” once more.

Ann Bausum’79 edited Beloit Magazine from 1981 to 1990. Last spring, the children’s books division of the National Geographic Society published her first book, Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews. Her second book for children, Our Country’s Presidents, was released in February. She lives and writes on a retired farm outside Beloit with her husband, Dan Boutelle’80, and their two sons.

 

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