C. Suydam Cutting

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C. Suydam Cutting
CBE
Cutting (far left), 1927.
Born
Charles Suydam Cutting

(1889-01-17)January 17, 1889
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 24, 1972(1972-08-24) (aged 83)
Edgartown, Massachusetts
EducationGroton School
Alma materHarvard University
Spouses
Helen McMahon
​
​
(m. 1932; died 1961)​
Mary Percy Pyne Filley
​
​
(m. 1963)​
Parent(s)Robert Fulton Cutting
Helen Suydam Cutting
RelativesWalter Lispenard Suydam (uncle)
William Bayard Cutting (uncle)
AwardsCroix de Guerre
Order of the Black Star

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 Abyssinian[1], Kelley-Roosevelts Asiatic, and Vernay-Cutting Expeditions. He was among the first Europeans to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa in Tibet and is credited with introducing the Lhasa Apso breed into the United States.

Early life[edit]

Cutting was born in New York City on January 17, 1889. He was the son of Robert Fulton Cutting, known as the "first citizen of New York,"[2] and Helen (née Suydam) Cutting,[3] who married in 1883.[4] From his father's first marriage, he had an older half-brother, Robert Bayard Cutting, who died in Paris during World War I.[5] Among his full siblings was Helen Suydam Cutting,[6] who married Lucius Kellogg Wilmerding Jr.;[7][8] Elisabeth McEvers Cutting; Robert Fulton Cutting Jr.; Ruth Hunter Cutting; and Schermerhorn Cutting, who died young.[9]

Among his many prominent family members was his maternal uncle, Walter Lispenard Suydam, and his paternal uncle, William Bayard Cutting. His mother was a granddaughter of Abraham Schermerhorn and a niece of Caroline Schermerhorn, who was married to William Backhouse Astor Jr.[10]

Cutting went to the Groton School and Harvard University, where he graduated in 1912 with an engineering major.[11]

Career[edit]

After Harvard, he went into engineering sales with the M. W. Kellogg company.[11] He served in the US Army during both world wars, with the rank of Lieutenant colonel in World War II. Prior to the U.S. joining World War II, he was a prominent advocate of arming Britain via The American Committee for the Defense of British Homes.[12]

Cutting was a member of The Room, a group of high-society amateur spies organized by Vincent Astor who reported to President Franklin Roosevelt.[13]

Exploration[edit]

Expedition members, left to right, C. Suydam Cutting, Jack Baum, Wilfred Hudson Osgood, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, Alfred Marshall Bailey, 1927.

In 1925, he went on his first expedition to Chinese Turkestan with Kermit and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. After the Roosevelt expedition, he traveled to Ethiopia in 1926, Assam in 1927, Tibet in 1928, 1930, 1935, 1937, the Galapagos Islands in 1930 (sailing aboard Vincent Astor's yacht Nourmahal),[14] Celebes in 1934, Nepal in 1937, and Upper Burma in 1939.[15] In 1935, he went to the forbidden city of Lhasa in Tibet that made him famous as being among the early Westerners[16] to see the city. He was able to gain admittance by currying favor with the Dalai Lama through a series of gifts over a number of years, including a pair of dachshunds, a pair of dalmatians, gold watches and heating appliances.[14] The Dalai Lama also wanted an ostrich, but it was felt that the animal wouldn't have survived the journey. Eventually, the Dalai Lama permitted Cutting and Arthur Stannard Vernay to enter Lhasa and gave Cutting the first Lhasa Apso dogs that entered the U.S. in 1933.[12]

After his expedition to Lhasa, Cutting wrote a book that was published commercially about his travels over the course of fifteen years, entitled The Fire Ox and Other Years.[15][17] He also wrote a number of articles for the Museum of Natural History in the 1930s, including articles about his expedition and articles about hunting with a Maharajah's specially trained cheetahs (which was collected in As Told at the Explorer’s Club: More than Fifty Tales of Adventure edited by George Plimpton).[12]

Cutting is credited with helping to save the Galapagos tortoise from extinction and with bringing the first Lhasa Apso dogs to the United States.[12]

Personal life[edit]

In 1932,[18] Cutting was married to Helen McMahon (1894–1961),[19] who joined him on his second expedition to Tibet in 1937.[11] Helen was a widow of James Cox Brady Sr. (a son of Anthony N. Brady, the largest shareholder of the American Tobacco Company), who died in 1924.[20]

After her death in 1961, he remarried to Mary Percy (née Pyne) Filley (1893–1994)[21] in 1963. Mary, a widow of Oliver Dwight Filley (the grandson of Oliver Filley),[22] was the daughter of Percy Rivington Pyne and Maud (née Howland) Pyne.[23][24] They had a 35-acre estate known as "Old Fort Bay", purchased by Cutting's first wife and her first husband, near Lyford Cay (located on the western tip of New Providence Island in The Bahamas), where the entertained friends, including Gertrude Legendre.[25] Cutting was a close friend of the Duke (formerly Edward VIII) and Duchess of Windsor, who he entertained at their Gladstone, New Jersey home, known as Hamilton Farms, inherited from his first wife.[18] Mary owned her own estate, Upton Pyne.[14]

Cutting died at his summer home on Chappaquiddick Island in Edgartown, Massachusetts on Martha's Vineyard on August 24, 1972.[14] He was buried at St. Bernard's cemetery in Bernardsville, New Jersey. His widow continued to live in Bernardsville,[26][27] and then Far Hills, until her death in 1994.[28]

Honors[edit]

Cutting was awarded a Croix de Guerre (with gold star) and an Order of the Black Star from the French. He was also made an honorary Commander, Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Cutting, Suydam. "Field Museum – Chicago Daily News Abyssinian Expedition". Field Museum of Natural History.
  2. ^ "FULTON CUTTING, N.Y. REAL ESTATE HEAD, DIES AT 82 -- Noted for Philanthropic Activities". Chicago Tribune. September 22, 1934. p. 16. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  3. ^ "DIED. Cutting" (PDF). The New York Times. June 20, 1919. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  4. ^ "MARRIED. Cutting--Suydam". The New York Times. January 27, 1883. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  5. ^ "R.B. CUTTING DIES IN FRANCE; New Yorker Was a Y.M.C.A. Officer Worker in War Service". The New York Times. 5 April 1918. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  6. ^ "Mrs. Wilmerding". The New York Times. 25 March 1971. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  7. ^ "NOTABLES MOURN FOR R.F. CUTTING; Funeral of Philanthropist and Financier Held at St. George's Church". The New York Times. 25 September 1934. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  8. ^ "L. WILMERDING, 69, STOCKBROKER HERE; Banker, Former Limited Partner in Harris, Upham & Co. Dies.---Aided Philanthropies". The New York Times. 16 July 1949. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  9. ^ Moffat, R. Burnham (1904). The Barclays of New York: who They are and who They are Not,-and Some Other Barclays. R. G. Cooke. p. 205. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  10. ^ "William Astor Is Dead; Stricken Suddenly at the Hotel Liverpool, Paris. He Leaves a Fortune of Many Mill- Ions -- John Jacob Astor Will Inherit It -- the Body Will Be Brought Home for Burial" (PDF). The New York Times. April 27, 1892. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  11. ^ a b c Shavit, David (1990). The United States in Asia: A Historical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 118. ISBN 9780313267888. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  12. ^ a b c d e "Cutting, C. Suydam (Charles Suydam), 1889-1972 (amnhp_1000476)". data.library.amnh.org. American Museum of Natural History Research Library. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  13. ^ Dorwart, Jeffery M. (1981). "The Roosevelt-Astor Espionage Ring". Quarterly Journal of New York State Historical Association. 62 (3): 307–322. JSTOR 23169848.
  14. ^ a b c d "C. Suydam Cutting, Who Made Historic Visit to Tibet, Is Dead". The New York Times. 25 August 1972. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  15. ^ a b Cutting, Suydam (1947). The Fire Ox and Other Years. London: Collins.
  16. ^ Cooper, James (2003). "Western and Japanese Visitors to Lhasa: 1900-1950". The Tibet Journal. 28 (4): 91–94. ISSN 0970-5368. JSTOR 43302544.
  17. ^ Andrews, Roy Chapman (22 December 1940). "Suydam Cutting's Journeys Into the Forbidden Land;" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  18. ^ a b "MRS. J. COX BRADY WED TO C. S. CUTTING; Bishop Walsh Assists Mgr. McKean in Ceremony at Bride's Country Home. CLOSE FRIENDS PRESENT Attendants Are Dispensed Withu Bridegroom Is Member of Many New York Clubs" (PDF). The New York Times. 3 July 1932. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  19. ^ "Mrs. C. Suydam Cutting Dead; Served on Board of Lighthouse" (PDF). The New York Times. July 22, 1961. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  20. ^ Blackman, Lynne (2018). Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection. University of South Carolina Press. p. 349. ISBN 9781611179552. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  21. ^ "Mary Cutting, 100, great-grandmother". The Courier-News. 12 May 1994. p. 15. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  22. ^ "OLIVER FILLEY, 78, A RETIRED BROKER; Aide at Post & Fiagg From 1921 to 1942 Dies--Was Pilot in World War I" (PDF). The New York Times. January 19, 1961. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  23. ^ "MISS PYNE ENGAGED TO COL. O.D. FILLEY Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Percy R. Pyne to Wed U.S.A. Aviator Awarded Cross by British" (PDF). The New York Times. December 2, 1917. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  24. ^ Ewing, E. M. (5 May 1974). "30 Decorators Revive a Mansion" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  25. ^ Columbia, David Patrick (22 August 2013). "Resort Life: Chapter XVII, 1965-1966". New York Social Diary. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  26. ^ MacHalaba, Daniel (25 January 1976). "No Boom for the Many Mansions of Somerset" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  27. ^ Curtis, Charlotte (5 July 1983). "PORTRAIT OF A LADY; BERNARDSVILLE, N.J. High above the town, in the densely forested Somerset Hills, is a rambling house with several drawing rooms. Outside, the mistress of that house and what used to be a 500-acre property sits on her porch, sipping minty iced tea". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  28. ^ Perry, W. Jacob (September 9, 2014). "Mountain estate sells for $12.8M in Bernardsville". New Jersey Hills. Retrieved 3 March 2019.

External links[edit]

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