Everyone wants to be Indy. The guy gets to go on epic adventures, explore ancient ruins, recover lost artifacts and then return to a cushy teaching job with a solid pension plan. These are real individuals who lived something of a double life, part of it anchored in academia and the other free to pursue their passion for adventure.
ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS
Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews started his career as an explorer and naturalist in the early 1900s after working a janitorial job at the American Museum of Natural History in order pay his way through a Masters program at Columbia University. Soon after receiving a degree in mammalogy, Andrews set of on his first exploratory voyage to study marine life in the East Indies. From that point on, Andrews would go on many more adventures including leading a fleet of Dodge cars through Mongolia and modern day Beijing and discovering the first known fossilized dinosaur eggs in central Asian. He would eventually retire from exploring to become the director of the Natural History Museum.
PERCY FAWCETT
Percy Fawcett was a man of many trades. In addition to being a prolific explore of South America and student of eastern occultism, Fawcett served as a surveyor for the British Secret Service, mapping out regions in North Africa. Through all this, the one passion that resonated with him above all else was finding what he called “The Lost City of Z.” Fawcett believed the lost city to be somewhere in the mass uncharted jungles of Brazil and went on numerous expeditions in attempts to find the city. He was ultimately unsuccessful in this task. Fawcett embarked on his final expedition through Brazil and was never seen again. Most people believe that he was killed by hostile natives but others like to speculate that he found the lost city he had dedicated his life to finding.
HIRAM BINGHAM III
Hiram Bingham III was a lecturer and professor at Yale University. During a sabbatical leave from Yale, Bingham made a major contribution to archaeology by discovering the then lost citadel of Machu Picchu and recording its location for the modern world. As it turns out, the indigenous people of Peru knew of Machu Picchu and where it was for quite some time and all Bingham had to do was befriend the locals to gain access to their knowledge of the lost citadel. Bingham would go back to teach at Yale, but he had been bitten by the adventure bug and would periodically leave his position at the school the excavate and recover lost artifacts from around the world.
William Montgomery McGovern
It seems that William Montgomery McGovern believed in exploring as many aspects of the world around him as he could. Before beginning his career as a professor at Northwestern University, McGovern had built quite the resume for himself. He had explored unknown parts of the Himalayas, gone to Mexico for the sole purpose of witnessing a revolution, traveled the Amazon, and even became a Buddhist priest at a monastery in Japan. McGovern’s surreal adventures were widely publicized, making his classes highly sought after.
Leonard Woolley
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley devoted his life to excavating various ruins in Mesopotamia and ancient Rome. He claims that he learned everything about archaeology from first hand experience and doing fieldwork rather than academic studies or formal education. If this statement is true, it certainly worked out in his favor. Woolley discovered an ancient Sumerian burial site that contain tombs of royalty filled with extravagant treasures and precious stones. Woolley’s many adventures and contributions to the field of archaeology eventually lead to him being knighted by the British monarch.
ROBERT JOHN BRAIDWOOD![]()
Robert John Braidwood was recognized as a promising anthropologist and archaeologist before he even finished his education. While earning his Ph.D. at University of Chicago, Braidwood embarked on an expedition to modern day Turkey and impressed the University’s officials so much that they immediately offered him a teaching job upon finishing his degree. Braidwood accepted the position but never let it stand in the way of his true passion – recovering ancient artifacts. Braidwood make such great contributions to the field of archaeology that the Archaeological Institute of America of America awarded him with the “Gold Medal Award” for his distinguished work.
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