page_title: Arthur Stannard Vernay
section_title: Travel and hunting
hierarchical_section_title: Arthur Stannard Vernay / Travel and hunting
caption_attribution_description: Arthur S. Vernay (seated next to elephant), J.C. Faunthorpe (right), two Sholega trackers, and R.C. Morris (standing left) in Mysore, 1923
context_page_description: Arthur Stannard Vernay was a noted English-born American art and antiques dealer, decorator, big-game hunter, and naturalist explorer. He sponsored expeditions across the world to collect biological specimens and cultural artifacts on behalf of the American Museum of Natural History. The Vernay-Faunthorpe Hall of South Asian mammals in the AMNH is named after him.
context_section_description: In the 1920s, Vernay grew increasingly interested in game hunting and naturalist exploration. In 1921 he stayed at the Biligirirangans with Ralph Camroux Morris and saw wild animals in nature for the first time. He sponsored a collecting expedition led by Colonel John Champion Faunthorpe intended to enhance the American Museum of Natural History's collection of Southeast Asian animals, Vernay joined Faunthorpe into India in 1923. Eventually this expedition would culminate in the American Museum of Natural History's Vernay-Faunthorpe Hall of South Asiatic Mammals, which opened in 1930 and held mounted elephants shot by the collectors in Mysore. He was elected Vice Patron of the Bombay Natural History Society in 1928. In 1935 he became a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and in the same year he accompanied Charles Suydam Cutting to Tibet where they met the Dalai Lama. His last expedition was to Africa in 1946. Around the same time he became very interested in orchids.
caption: Vernay seated on elephant shot in Mysore (1923) which is now in the South Asia hall of the AMNH
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