Roy Chapman Andrews (1884–1960) became fascinated with the natural world during his childhood along the Rock River in Wisconsin. After attending Beloit College, Andrews traveled to New York and asked for a job at the American Museum of Natural History, where he started as a janitor and eventually became the director of the museum.

“Organized under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History and heavily financed by Wall Street titans and public donations, the Central Asiatic Expeditions were immense in scope and logistical complexity. . . . Andrews and his companions challenged the Gobi using automobiles supported by camel caravans, an audacious concept denounced by many skeptics as foolhardy if not impossible. . . . In retrospect, the Central Asiatic Explorations constituted one of the truly innovative episodes in the annals of scientific discovery.”—from the foreword by Charles Gallenkamp, archaeologist and co-author of Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions

"From the time that I can remember anything, I always intended to be an explorer, to work in a natural history museum, and to live out of doors. Actually, I never had any choice of a profession. I wanted to be an explorer and naturalist so passionately that anything else as a life work just never entered my mind."—Roy Chapman Andrews, Under a Lucky Star

“Hollywood added an unlikely boost to [Roy Chapman Andrews’s] reviving fame with the creation of the daring celluloid explorer ‘Indiana Jones.’ Persistent rumors credit Andrews with serving as the real-life model for the adventurous lifestyle of the imaginary explorer Dr. Henry Jones, Jr. (The gun-toting, fedora-wearing Andrews hated snakes, too.)”—from the afterword by Ann Bausum, author of Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs: A Photobiography of Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews