Andrews, Roy Chapman

Andrews, Roy Chapman

(1884–1960) naturalist, explorer, author; born in Beloit, Wis. Andrews spent his career on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History (1906–42, director 1935–42). He led numerous expeditions, most notably five to central Asia (1922–30), and became famous for his team's discovery in 1928 of 100-million-year-old dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert (the first ever found). Andrews published many popular accounts of his travels, including Across Mongolian Plains (1921) and Ends of the Earth (1929), and he was held up to a whole generation of young Americans as a role model for the scientist as adventurer.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.