Books and Manuscripts

From The Sporting Library Of American Adventurer, Naturalist, and Sportsman, Brooke Dolan II

1. Benson, Frank W.
Widgeon Rising
1920. Etching, signed by Benson in pencil bottom left. From an edition of 150. 14 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. (375 x 260 mm). Light mat burn; light soiling in top edge. In paper mat. Paff 172

2. Benson, Frank W.
Redheads No. 2
1923. Drypoint, signed by Benson in pencil bottom left. From an edition of 150. 10 1/2 x 13 7/8 in. (267 x 352 mm). Light mat burn and soiling along edges. In paper mat. Paff 226

3. Benson, Frank W.
Canvasbacks
1926. Etching, signed by Benson in pencil bottom left. From an edition of 150. 6 1/2 x 12 1/4 in. (165 x 311 mm) (sight). In mat and unexamined out of frame, 13 3/8 x 18 3/4 in. (340 x 476 mm). Paff 261

4. Benson, Frank W.
Here They Come!
1928. Drypoint, signed by Benson in pencil bottom left. From an edition of 150. 17 3/4 x 14 1/2 in. (451 x 368 mm). Light mat burn; old mold residue in top edge and upper right corner, recto and verso. In paper mat. Paff 278

Brooke Dolan II (1908-45) was an American adventurer, naturalist, sportsman, and book collector. Educated at Harvard University and Princeton University, he later became a trustee of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. During the 1930s he led two notable expeditions to China and Tibet, collecting numerous specimens that he sent back for the Academy's collection. In 1942, during World War II, he was recruited to serve in the OSS (precursor of the CIA) and traveled to Lhasa with Ilya Tolstoy (grandson of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy), searching for supply routes to China for the Allied Forces. During this time they established contact with the Tibetan government and met the seven-year-old 14th Dalai Lama--the first Americans to ever do so. He then joined the Army Air Forces, and the United States Military Observer Group in Western China, behind Japanese lines near Mao’s headquarters. He died in 1945.