The Vernay-Cutting Expedition to Burma

Filmed during the Vernay-Cutting Expedition to Burma, 1938. The Vernay-Cutting Expedition to Burma was organized for the purpose of collecting zoological and botanical specimens for the AMNH, the New York Botanical Garden, the Kensington Museum of London (probably the British Museum of Natural History), Kew Gardens, and the Bombay Natural History Society. The international staff included co-leaders and AMNH trustees Arthur Stannard Vernay and Charles Suydam Cutting, AMNH mammalogist Harold E. Anthony, and British scientists J. K. Stanford, ornithologist, and F. Kingdon Ward, botanist. Cutting, who filmed the expedition in color, was only able to film part of the trip due to bad weather throughout. Moreover, the sequence of scenes does not reflect the expedition route. In northern Burma in the Irnau Bum mountain range overlooking the Chinese province of Yunnan, men ride Taiwania logs, which will be used by the Chinese to make coffins, on a fast moving river. The mountain flora, including rhododendron, pine, juniper, and oak, is examined. The next scene, clearly out of sequence, is of a temple and a large Buddha in what appears to be Rangoon. Back in the mountains, the expedition party makes its way on foot. The Lisu people (called Yawyin in Burma), influenced by Baptist missionaries, enjoy a Christmas celebration and stage a crossbow competition for the expedition team. The Maru people, who are very similar to the Lisu, dance to celebrate the Christmas feast in their own village. At an expedition campsite, native workers prepare specimens of birds and small mammals as one of the scientists looks on.