Yvette Borup Andrews (February 28, 1891 – April 12, 1959) was an American photographer associated with the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inte ...

. With the museum's director,

Roy Chapman Andrews Roy Chapman Andrews (January 26, 1884 – March 11, 1960) was an American explorer, adventurer and naturalist who became the director of the American Museum of Natural History. He led a series of expeditions through the politically disturbed ...

, she traveled to Central Asia twice during 1916-18 for the museum's First and Second Asiatic Zoological Expeditions.

Early life

Yvette Huen Borup was born in Paris to American parents, Henry Dana Borup (1854–1916) and Mary Watson Brandreth Borup (1854–1897). Her father was an American military attaché in Paris and Berlin before World War I. Her maternal grandfather, George A. Brandreth, and her great-grandfather, Congressman Aaron Ward, were both New York politicians. Her great-great-grandfather,

Elkanah Watson Elkanah Watson (January 22, 1758 – December 5, 1842) was a visionary traveler and writer, agriculturist and canal promoter, banker and businessman. He was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts and died at Port Kent, New York. He worked in Alban ...

, was a notable New York businessman. Her older brother, George Brandreth Borup (1885–1912), was assistant to

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in Apri ...

on the North Pole Expedition, and wrote a book about his experiences in the Arctic. Yvette Borup was educated in France, Germany, Italy, and New York.Lydia Pyne
"Yvette Borup Andrews: Photographing Central Asia"
''The Public Domain Review'' (January 10, 2018). One of her school friends at the Kaiserin Auguste Institute was

Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia german: Viktoria Luise Adelheid Mathilde Charlotte , house = Hohenzollern , father = Wilhelm II, German Emperor , mother = Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein , birth_name = Princess Victoria Louise of Prussia ...

Career

Yvette Borup Andrews was an ethnographic photographer and filmmaker for the

. She was the photographer assigned to the museum's First Asiatic Zoological Expedition (1916–1917), to China, Tibet, and Burma, and the Second Asiatic Zoological Expedition (1918), to Mongolia and North China, both expeditions led by her husband. She developed her still images and films in a portable "rubber darkroom" in the field. In the 1920s she was again in the field with Andrews, as photographer on the museum's Central Asiatic Expeditions. On that trip, she photographed the last Maidari Festival in

Ulaanbaatar Ulaanbaatar (; mn, Улаанбаатар, , "Red Hero"), previously anglicized as Ulan Bator, is the capital and most populous city of Mongolia. It is the coldest capital city in the world, on average. The municipality is located in north c ...

, creating a valuable historical document of the custom. Her photographs were published in ''Camps and Trails in China'' (1918), a book she co-authored with her husband. More photographs by Andrews appeared in ''Across Mongolian Plains'' (1921). Soon after their 1931 divorce, Roy Chapman Andrews told an audience that "Physically and intellectually, women may be the equals of men for the work of exploration, but temperamentally they are not. They do not stand up under the little daily annoyances that loom large to them in the somewhat trying work involved on an expedition. The trivialities which men can ignore completely disturb them and prevent them from settling down to hard and conscientious work." The

Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981. It is based in Washington, D.C., and h ...

objected to his observations. In 1940, she was active with the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, volunteering as a "Minute Woman" at a phone bank to build support for the United States' entry into World War II.

Personal life

Yvette Borup married naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews (1884–1960) in 1914; he was an acquaintance of her late brother. She had two sons. The father of George Borup Andrews (1917–2007) was Roy Chapman Andrews but, although Yvette was married to Roy Chapman Andrews at the time of the birth of her second son, Roy Kevin Andrews (1924–1989), the first man to visit her to see the newborn son was not Roy Chapman Andrews, but Harold St Clair (Chips) Smallwood. On the eve of Kevin’s marriage nearly 30 years later, Yvette announced to Kevin that Smallwood, and not Roy Chapman Andrews was his father. Yvette and Roy Chapman Andrews were divorced in 1931. She died in a 1959 traffic accident, near Bahabón de Esgueva, in the province of

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of t ...

, Spain, aged 68 years.R. Pérez Barredo
"La trágica muerte en Burgos de la mujer de Indiana Jones"
''Diario de Burgos'' (February 14, 2016).

References

External links

*
Photographs taken by Yvette Borup Andrews and others
on various expeditions, in the American Museum of Natural History Research Library, Digital Special Collections. * (death certificate) * (gravestone) {{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Yvette Borup 1891 births 1959 deaths American photographers Museum people Members of the Society of Woman Geographers