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.