Arthur Stannard Vernay
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Arthur Stannard Vernay (11 May 1877 – 25 October 1960) was a noted English-born American art and antiques dealer, decorator, big-game hunter, and naturalist explorer. He sponsored and took part in expeditions across the world to collect biological specimens and cultural artifacts on behalf of the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
. The Vernay-Faunthorpe Hall of South Asian mammals in the AMNH is named after him.


Early life

Born in Weymouth, England, Vernay was born to Louisa Stannard and Thomas Crabb Avant. Shortly after his parents divorced, he emigrated to New York in August 1904 and changed his surname from Avant to Vernay. He found a job as an elevator operator at a furniture store known as A.J. Crawfords and after working there briefly, Vernay started his own shop in 1906, called Arthur S. Vernay, Inc. located at 1 East 45th Street, near Madison Avenue. He also had a shop in London at 217 Piccadilly in the late 1910s to 1920s. He sold antiques and decorative artworks to a number of important and influential New Yorkers including Ogden Codman Jr.,
Elsie de Wolfe Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl ( Ella Anderson de Wolfe; December 20, c. 1859 – July 12, 1950) was an American actress who became a prominent interior designer and author. Born in New York City, de Wolfe was acutely sensitive to her surroundings ...
, Sir Charles Carrick Allom,
Consuelo Vanderbilt Consuelo Vanderbilt-Balsan (formerly Consuelo Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; born Consuelo Vanderbilt; 2 March 1877 – 6 December 1964) was an American socialite and member of the Vanderbilt family. Her first marriage to the 9th D ...
,
Francis Patrick Garvan Francis Patrick Garvan (June 13, 1875 – November 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, government official, and long-time president of the Chemical Foundation, Inc. The Chemical Foundation was established to administer in the public interest 4,500 ...
, Benjamin Altman,
Solomon R. Guggenheim Solomon Robert Guggenheim (February 2, 1861 – November 3, 1949) was an American businessman in needlework, gold, silver, copper, and lead and an art collector. He is best known for establishing the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Sol ...
,
William Russell Grace William Russell Grace (May 10, 1832 – March 21, 1904) was an American politician, the first Roman Catholic mayor of New York City, and the founder of W. R. Grace and Company. Early life Grace was born in Ireland in Riverstown near the Cove ...
, as well as leading art dealerships such as M Knoedler & Co, and the design firm
Tiffany Studios Tiffany may refer to: People * Tiffany (given name), list of people with this name * Tiffany (surname), list of people with this surname * Tiffany Darwish, (born 1971), an American singer, songwriter and actress known mononymously as Tiffany * ...
. From the 1920s to the early 1940s, he had a shop at
19 East 54th Street 19 East 54th Street, originally the Minnie E. Young House, is a commercial building in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. It is along 54th Street (Manhattan), 54th Street's northern sidewalk between Madison Avenue and Fifth Av ...
in New York.


Travel and hunting

In the 1920s, Vernay grew increasingly interested in game hunting and naturalist exploration. In 1921 he stayed at the Biligirirangans with
Ralph Camroux Morris Colonel Randolph "Ralph" Camroux Morris (3 March 1895 – 19 December 1977, London) was a coffee planter, British Army officer, and hunter-naturalist who was born in India. A pioneer of wildlife conservation in India, a member of the Bombay Natural ...
and saw wild animals in nature for the first time. He returned to the US and then sponsored a collecting expedition led by Colonel
John Champion Faunthorpe Colonel John Champion Faunthorpe (30 May 1871 – 1 December 1929) was a British Army officer, big game hunter and sport shooter. Apart from serving in the Indian Civil Services in the United Provinces, he served in World War I in army in ...
intended to enhance the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
's collection of Southeast Asian animals, Vernay joined Faunthorpe in India in 1923. This expedition culminated in the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
'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 The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and publ ...
in 1928. Vernay shot the rare Javan rhinoceros near Telok Anson in 1932 along with Guy Rowley while searching for Schomburg's deer. It was the last of its species in Perak. In 1935 he became a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and in the same year he accompanied
Charles Suydam Cutting Charles Suydam Cutting, CBE (January 17, 1889 – August 24, 1972) was an explorer, naturalist, society figure, philanthropist, and author. He travelled around the world on numerous expeditions including the Field Museum-Chicago Daily News Abyssin ...
to Tibet where they met the
Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣 识一切 瓦齐尔达喇 达赖 喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...
. His last expedition was to Africa in 1946. Around the same time he became very interested in orchids.


Bahamas

Vernay sold off his company in the 1940s (it was then run by Stephen Jussel) and moved to
Nassau, Bahamas Nassau ( ) is the capital and largest city of The Bahamas. It is on the island of New Providence, which had a population of 246,329 in 2010, or just over 70% of the entire population of The Bahamas. As of April 2023, the preliminary results of ...
, where he cultivated an orchid greenhouse, collected species from South America, participated in environmental conservation efforts, co-founding the
Bahamas National Trust The Bahamas National Trust is a non-profit organisation in the Bahamas that manages the country's 32 national parks.. Its headquarters is located in New Providence in the Bay Street Business Centre, East Bay Street. Its office was formally locate ...
and the Society for the Preservation of the Flamingo. In the Bahamas, Vernay lived with his wife Marion Woodruff Kelley (married 1908) at their home, Los Cayos, and was part of an
expatriat An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. The term often refers to a professional, skilled worker, or student from an affluent country. However, it may also refer to retirees, artists and ...
e social community that included the
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and
Duchess of Windsor Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer and then Simpson; June 19, 1896 – April 24, 1986) was an American socialite and the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (former King Edward VIII). Their intenti ...
, the Swedish entrepreneur
Axel Wenner-Gren Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren (5 June 1881 – 24 November 1961) was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s. Early life He was born on 5 June 1881 in Uddevalla, a town on the west coast of Sweden. He ...
, and hosted the English author
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...
when he visited the Bahamas in 1956 before writing both '' Dr. No'' and '' Thunderball''. Fleming accompanied Vernay and
Robert Cushman Murphy file:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18156963552).jpg, The whaling ship, ''Daisy'', which Murphy traveled on to the Antarctic Robert Cushman Murphy (April 29, 1887 – March 20, 1973) was an American ornithologist and Lamont Curator of ...
along with his friend and
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agent Ivar Felix Bryce, to Inagua which had the largest flamingo colony in the world.


Expeditions

The major expeditions sponsored by Vernay include: * Faunthorpe-Vernay Expedition to India, 1923 * Vernay-Angola Expedition, 1925 * Vernay-Archbold Expedition to Madagascar, 1929 * Vernay Scientific Survey of the Eastern Ghats (with collectors V.S. LaPersonne and N.A. Baptista), 1929 * Vernay-Lang Kalahari Expedition for
Field Museum The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educationa ...
, 1930–31 * Vernay-Hopwood Upper Chindwin expedition, 1935 (S.F. Hopwood was the chief conservator of forests in Burma) * Vernay-Cutting Burma Expedition, 1938-39 (with
Charles Suydam Cutting Charles Suydam Cutting, CBE (January 17, 1889 – August 24, 1972) was an explorer, naturalist, society figure, philanthropist, and author. He travelled around the world on numerous expeditions including the Field Museum-Chicago Daily News Abyssin ...
) * Vernay Nyasaland Expedition, 1946


Eponymy

A large number of species and subspecies described from specimens collected on his expeditions have been named after him including the fish '' Hypsibarbus vernayi'', the Spottail Barb '' Enteromius afrovernayi'', the climbing mouse '' Dendromus vernayi'', the rodent genus '' Vernaya'' and the Angolan file snake, '' Mehelya vernayi''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Vernay", p. 274).Vernay's business papers are in the Winterthur library through his friend
Henry Francis du Pont Henry Francis du Pont (May 27, 1880 – April 11, 1969) was an American horticulturist, collector of early American furniture and decorative arts, breeder of Holstein Friesian cattle, and scion of the powerful du Pont family. Converted into ...
.


References


External links


Old English glasses by A. S. VernayVernay and Cutting in Tibet

History of Vernay's antique businessAntique dealer notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernay, Arthur Stannard 1877 births 1960 deaths English art dealers English emigrants to the United States English explorers English hunters English interior designers Members of the Bombay Natural History Society People from Weymouth, Dorset