Cutting-Vernay Tibetan expedition field photographs

Field photographs from the Cutting-Vernay Expedition to Tibet.

Expedition. The Cutting-Vernay Expedition to Tibet collected ethnological objects for the American Museum of Natural History and botanical specimens for the Kew Gardens in England.

The expedition was co-led by Charles Suydam Cutting and Arthur Stannard Vernay, another AMNH trustee. Cutting worked many years to plan and make connections in order to gain permits to journey to the expeditions locations in Tibet. (1) This included many years of correspondence with the Dalai Lama including exchanges of various breeds of dogs including the first Lhasa Apso dogs to enter the US in 1933, which established the breed in the US. (2, 4) After many years of correspondence the trip took place in October of 1935. The expedition pointedly did not collect animal specimens out of respect of their hosts. (1) Up to this point foreigners were allowed no farther into Tibet than Shigatse. (2) Sources

(1) C. Suydam Cutting, “In Lhasa-The Forbidden” Natural History, February 1936, Volume XXXVII.

(2) C. Suydam Cutting, The Fire Ox and Other Years, New York, Scribner’s Sons, 1940

(3) "C. Suydam Cutting, Who Made Historic Visit to Tibet, Is Dead". The New York Times. 25 August 1972. Retrieved 8 Feb 2021.

(4) "Lhasa Apso". Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed 8 Feb 2021.