Book 3 — EXPLORERS.

Evelyn Briggs Baldwin.

Evelyn B. Baldwin, the well-known arctic explorer, was born in Springfield, Missouri, July 2, 1862. He is the son of Elias Briggs Baldwin, who served with distinction during the Civil war. The subject of this sketch was educated at the public schools in Dupage county, Illinois, and, on graduating from the Northwestern college, Naperville, Illinois, taught in district schools for some time. After an experience as professional pedestrian and bicyclist in Europe, he returned to this country and was appointed principal of high schools and superintendent of city schools in Kansas. Next we hear of him as attached to the United States weather bureau and becoming inspector-at-large of the signal corps of the United States army. In 1883 he was a member of the Peary expedition to North Greenland in the capacity of meteorologist. In 1897 he made a voyage to the Andree balloon station in Spitzbergen, hoping to join that ill-fated scientist, but arrived a few days too late. In 1898 he accompanied Wellman’s polar expedition as meteorologist, and secured valuable data in connection with same. He also organized and commanded the Baldwin-Ziegler polar expedition in 1901. He is the author of several works on arctic exploration and is the member of a number of scientific societies.

Frederick Albert Cook.

Dr. Frederick A. Cook, physician by profession and explorer by inclination, was born in Callicoon Depot, Sullivan county, New York, on June 10, 1865. He is the son of Dr. Theodore Albert Cook and was first educated in Brooklyn, graduated from the University of the City of New York in 1890, and received his medical degree from that institution in the same year. His work of exploration has been confined to the arctic regions. He was surgeon of the Peary expedition in 1891 and acted in the like capacity for the Belgium antarctic expedition in 1897. Dr. Cook has a fertile pen, and it is mainly through its efforts that he is as well known to the American people as he is. He has contributed liberally to the leading magazines, writing on the problems of the north and south poles; is the author of a monograph on the Patagonians, and has published a work entitled The First Antarctic Night. He is a member of a number of scientific societies, has been decorated by King Leopold of Belgium and has received medals from foreign geological societies as a recognition of his services in the lines indicated.

Sven Anders Hedin.

The ancient Norseman’s desire to wander and to conquer still stirs the blood of many of his modern descendants. Happily nowadays, the wandering is done for the benefit of humanity and the conquests are those of peace and not of the “Swan Path.” Sven Anders Hedin, explorer and geographer, is a case in point. He was born at Stockholm, February 19, 1865, and is the son of Ludwig Hedin, official chief architect of Stockholm. When a mere child he exhibited the traits that distinguished his later years, and there are many stories told of how his parents were kept on the alert to prevent their baby—for he was not much more—from playing truant, which he did whenever the opportunity offered. The boy was indeed father to the man, and his parents, on his finishing his education, had the wisdom not to attempt to thwart his expressed desire to become an explorer. Had they done so the world would possess much less geographical knowledge than it now does. After courses in the universities of Stockholm, Upsala, Berlin and Halle, he began his travels. The Orient attracted him, and he made journeys through Persia and Mesopotamia. In 1895 he was a member of King Oscar’s embassy to the Shah of Persia. He is best known in connection with his explorations in Asia, those of Khorasan, Turkestan and Thibet being especially notable. Hedin is the author of many works on travel and has contributed largely to those journals which are published in the interest of science of geography.

E. Burton Holmes.

E. Burton Holmes, who is well known to the American public through his lectures on foreign countries, was born in Chicago, January 8, 1870. He is the son of Ira and Virginia (Burton) Holmes. Educated at first in the Allen academy, and subsequently in the Harvard school, Chicago, he, not long after his graduation, began to evince that uncontrollable desire to see the world which is innate in the breast of the born explorer. Notwithstanding that he is still a comparatively young man, Mr. Holmes has managed, since he attained his majority, to visit Japan, Algeria, Corsica, Greece and Thessaly. He has also taken part in an expedition sent under the auspices of a scientific organization to Fez, Morocco. All of the continental countries of Europe are known to him, as are the Hawaiian Islands, the Philippine Islands and China. He has visited the Yellowstone Park and the Grand Canyon of the Colorado river. His first appearance on the lecture platform was in 1890, and since then he has appeared in nearly all of the American cities. Mr. Holmes has graphic powers of description, which explains the popularity of his addresses. His lectures have been published in book form.

A. H. Savage Landor.

The power of purpose is emphasized in the career of A. H. Savage Landor, artist and explorer. Son of Charles Savage Landor, and the grandson of Walter Savage Landor, author and poet, he was born in Florence, Italy; was educated in that city, and afterward went to Paris to study art. There he entered the studio of Julian, one of whose favorite pupils he soon became. There is every likelihood that he would have become prominent in art circles had it not been for his keen desire for travel. So deserting the easel for the knapsack, he visited Japan, China, Corea, Mongolia, India, Napaul, Thibet, America, Australia, Africa and other countries. He lived for some time among a curious race of aborigines known as the Hairy Ainu, in the wilds of Northern Japan. Mr. Landor is best known to the reading public by reason of his explorations in Thibet and the remarkable book which was the fruit thereof. During his sojourn in “The Forbidden Country” he underwent incredible hardships, and as a result of the tortures inflicted upon him by the natives who held him prisoner for some time, he will probably be a sufferer to the end of his days. A man, who when riding on a saddle studded with sharp spikes, can take note of the physical features of the surrounding country and can calculate the height of the plateau over which he is passing in agony must be molded from that kind of stuff of which hero adventurers are made. Likewise does he show the power of a purpose over the dangers and difficulties that threaten to thwart it.

Fridtjof Nansen.

Of the several explorers who have endeavored to solve the mysteries of the Arctic regions, none perhaps is better known than Fridtjof Nansen, a descendant of the old Vikings. He was born in Christiania, October 10, 1861, and is the son of a lawyer well known in Norwegian legal circles. After an education, which began at home, he graduated from the University of Christiania, and immediately began to exhibit those nomadic tendencies which distinguish the born explorer. His first trip to the far north was in 1882, when he made a voyage to the seas surrounding Greenland. Returning with much valuable geological and zoological data, he was appointed curator of the natural history museum at Bergen. In 1889 he took his second trip to the Arctic, when he succeeded in crossing Greenland. Subsequent thereto he was made curator of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy of Christiania university. His most memorable undertaking, however, was in 1893, when he endeavored to reach the North Pole. Although he did not accomplish his object, he succeeded in getting nearer to it than had any of his predecessors. On that occasion he spent three years in the Arctic region, and again returned laden with data which, from a scientific standpoint, was invaluable. He was next appointed professor of zoology of the Christiania university. Nansen has published several books dealing with his life work, including Esquimaux Life, Across Greenland and Farthest North. He has also written a number of articles for magazines. He married Eva Sears, who was well known in musical circles of the continent.

Robert Edwin Peary.

Robert Edwin Peary, the brilliant Arctic explorer, was born at Cresson, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1856. After a course in public schools he entered Bowdoin college, graduating therefrom in 1877. In 1881 he was appointed civil engineer to the United States navy. From 1884 to 1885 he acted as assistant engineer in the surveys for the Nicaraugua ship canal, and from 1887 to 1888 was engineer in charge of further surveys for the same project. In this connection he invented the rolling lock-gate for canals. He inaugurated his career as Arctic explorer in 1886, when he made his famous reconnaissance of the Greenland inland ice cap, a thing that none of his predecessors had attempted. In 1891 he undertook another expedition to the north under the auspices of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He also determined the insularity of Greenland, for which he received medals from a number of scientific organizations. Still another voyage was made in 1893, and a year later he discovered the famous Iron Mountain, which proved to consist of three meteorites, one of them weighing ninety tons. Some of the meteorites he brought back with him during a summer trip made in 1896. In 1898 he again started north in an endeavor to reach the North Pole, but was not successful. Lieutenant Peary married Josephine Diebitsch in 1888. He is the author of several books on his work in the arctic regions and of a great many papers in geological journals and popular magazines. He once remarked that even Polar ice would melt “by heat of effort,” meaning that any obstacle can be destroyed by enthusiasm and persistency.

Henry Morton Stanley.

The career of Sir Henry M. Stanley is not only of a more or less romantic nature, but furnishes lessons that are as obvious as they are useful. Beginning life as an unknown boy, he is now one of the best-known, as he is the most highly honored of men. And he has thus achieved, through the medium of his stalwart mental and physical attributes. Sir Henry was born in Denbigh, Wales, and emigrated to the United States in 1856. He was adopted by a New Orleans merchant, whose name he now bears. Coming north, he became connected with the New York Herald, and in 1870 was sent to Africa by that newspaper, in order to explore some of the then unknown sections of that country. Returning to America, in 1874, he was ordered at brief notice by James Gordon Bennett, of the Herald, to find Dr. Livingston, the late famous traveler and missionary, from whom no tidings had been heard for some time. Stanley successfully carried out the instructions. Subsequently he discovered the source of the Congo, and still later his explorations, undertaken at the request of the King of Belgium, resulted in the foundation of the Congo Free State. He also commanded the Emin Pasha relief expedition. Since 1895 he has been a member of the British parliament. His books are many and have for the most part to do with his adventures and experiences in Africa. He was knighted by the late Queen Victoria for his services to science as explorer.

Walter Wellman.

Walter Wellman, journalist and explorer, was born in Mentor, Ohio, November 5, 1858. He was educated in the district schools, and during his boyhood gave evidence of his journalistic instincts, for when but fourteen years of age he established a weekly newspaper at Sutton, Nebraska. When he attained his majority, he founded the Cincinnati Evening Post, the venture being of a successful nature. For many years he was political and Washington correspondent of the Chicago Herald and Times-Herald. Mr. Wellman, in 1892, succeeded in locating the landing place of Christopher Columbus, on Watling Island, in the Bahamas, and erected a monument upon the spot. In 1894 he took his initial trip to the Arctic regions, making explorations on the northeastern coast of Spitzbergen. Four years later he explored Franz Josef Land, where he discovered many new islands and made valuable contributions to Arctic geography. As a writer on subjects connected with the frozen north, he is well known by reason of his articles in leading magazines. He has also written on political and general topics.