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Andrews was primarily a naturalist and an organizer of expeditions. His life was a long series of travels and explorations of desert islands, raging seas, remote mountains and deserts. Numerous encounters are reported with everything from angry whales and hungry sharks, to pythons and several brushes with armed Chinese bandits. He was erroneously reported dead at least once.
Andrews is said to have been one of the models for movie legend Indiana Jones.
In 1906, after graduating from Beloit College, Andrews used money he saved from his job as a taxidermist to travel to New York City. He hoped to find work in the American Museum of Natural History. After being told there were no openings, he accepted a job scrubbing floors in the taxidermy department, and soon participated in collecting specimens.
During the next few years, he worked and studied simultaneously, obtaining a Masters of Arts in mammalogy from Columbia UniversityColumbia University officially known as Columbia University in the City of New York is a private institution of higher education. It is one of the world's foremost research universities and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1754 under a royal charter.
In 1909Events January 5 Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. January 16 Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole. January 28 United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War. February 12 The National and 1910Events January events January 13 The first live musical radio program. Lee De Forest broadcasts a live performance of Enrico Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera. January 26 ? Seine floods in Paris. February events February 8 The Boy Scouts of America is in he sailed as on the USS Albatross to the East Indies, collecting snakes and lizards and observing marine mammals.
Andrews married his wife, Yvette Borup Andrews , in 1914Events January 4 77 seal hunters freeze to death on ice near Labrador January 5 Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor February 13 Copyright: In New York City the ASCAP (for American Society of Compos.
From 19161916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. Impressionist Monet paints Water Lilies'. January 8 Allied forces withdraw from to 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti-, Andrews and his wife Yvette led the Asiatic Zoological Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History through much of western and southern YunnanYunnan ( Simplified Chinese: , Traditional: , pinyin: Yunnan) is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwestern corner of the country. Yunnan Sheng ''Province Abbreviation(s): (Din) or (Yun Capital Kunming Area Total % water, as well as other provinces of China. The book Camps and Trails in China records their experiences.
In 1920 he began planning for expeditions to Mongolia, for which he drove a fleet of dodge cars westward from Peking. In 1922, soon after beginning, the party discovered a Giant Rhinoceros ( Baluchitherium), which was sent back to the American Natural History Museum, arriving on December 19, 1922. On July 13, 1923 the party were the first in the world to discover dinosaur eggs. Initially thought to be protoceratops, they were in fact oviraptors. In 1923 Walter Granger discovered a Cretaceous period skull. In 1925 the museum sent a letter back informing the party that the skull was that of a mammal, and therefore rare and valuable. More were uncovered. Expeditions in the area stopped during 1926 and 1927. The 1928, the expedition's finds were seized by Chinese authorities but were eventually returned. The 1929 expedition was cancelled. In 1930 he made one final trip and discovered some mastodont fossils. (Sixty years after Chapman's initial expedition, the American Museum of Natural History returned to Mongolia on the invitation of its government to continue exploration.) Later that year, Champan returned to the United States to divorce his wife Yvette, with whom he had two sons.
In 1934 Andrews took over as director of the American Museum of Natural History. In his 1935 book The Business of Exploring , he wrote "I was born to be an explorer", "There was never any decision to make. I couldn't do anything else and be happy."
In 1942 Andrews retired to Carmel-by-the-Sea, California where he wrote about his life and finally died in 1960.