American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Cutting, C. Suydam (Charles Suydam), 1889-1972; Cutting, C. Suydam (Lt. Col.)
birth: 1889 January 17
death: 1972 August 24
C. Suydam Cutting was born in New York City in 1899, and died in 1972. He was the son of Robert Fulton Cutting (1852-1934). Cutting senior was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History, and a banker; politician; society figure; and philanthropist.(1) C. Suydam Cutting served in both world wars and was a decorated veteran. He had a Croix de Guerre (with gold star) and Croix Noire from the French. He was also an Honorary Commander, Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. (2)
He was a prominent amateur athlete (3) and a Harvard trained engineer. His went on his first expedition in 1925 with Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt to Central Asia. Ten years later he went on the expedition to Tibet for which he was best known (4) as one of the first Westerners to see Lhasa. In order to gain favor with the Dalai Lama to gain admittance to Lhasa, he had ongoing exchanges with the Dalai Lama including a series of gifts over some years, among them a pair of dachshunds, a pair of Dalmatians (5). The Dalai Lama gave Cutting the first Lhasa Apso dogs to enter the US in 1933, these established the breed in the US (6). In return, Cutting and Vernay were eventually permitted to enter Lhasa. Cutting’s book, The Fire Ox and Other Years, about this expedition was published commercially. (7)
Cutting was also a member of the Explorer’s Club of New York City. Founded in the early twentieth century, The Explorer’s Club promotes expeditions; its members climbed Everest and were the “first” to both poles and the surface of the moon. (8) In a record from the Explorers’ Club he reported that he was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and an officer of the New York Zoological Society and recorded his other expeditions to Tibet and other countries in Central Asia, one of which was for the Roosevelt-Simpson Field Museum. (9)
Cutting did a great deal of writing. In addition to his book, he wrote a number of articles for Natural History in the 1930’s, including one about this expedition, “In Lhasa-The Forbidden.” His article about hunting with a maharajah’s specially trained cheetahs was collected in As Told at the As Told at the Explorer’s Club: More than Fifty Tales of Adventure, George Plimpton, editor. (10)
Cutting died in 1972 in Bernardsville, New Jersey. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary Payne Filley, and his sister, Mrs. Neville Booker. (4)