Notable Explorers
Updated February 21, 2017 | Factmonster Staff 
Notable Explorers
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Biographies by Category
- Abruzzi, Luigi Amedeo, duca degli, Italian explorer and mountain climber
- Acuña, Cristóbal de, Spanish Jesuit missionary and explorer in South America
- Alarcón, Hernando de, Spanish explorer in the Southwest
- Amundsen, Roald, Norwegian polar explorer
- Andersson, Karl Johan, Swedish explorer in Africa
- Anza, Juan Bautista de, Spanish explorer and official in the Southwest and the far West
- Baffin, William, British arctic explorer
- Baker, Sir Samuel White, English explorer in Africa
- Balboa, Vasco Núñez de, Spanish conquistador, discoverer of the Pacific Ocean
- Barentz, Willem, Dutch navigator
- Barrow, Sir John, British geographer, promoter of arctic exploration
- Barth, Heinrich, German explorer in British service
- Bartlett, Robert Abram, American arctic explorer
- Beechey, Frederick William, British admiral and Arctic explorer
- Beke, Charles Tilstone, English explorer and author
- Bent, Charles, American frontiersman
- Bering, Vitus Jonassen, Danish explorer in Russian employ
- Block, Adriaen, Dutch navigator
- Bougainville, Louis Antoine de, French navigator
- Boyd, Louise Arner, American arctic explorer
- Bruce, James, Scottish explorer in Africa
- Bruce, William Speirs, Scottish explorer and authority on the polar regions
- Brulé, Ãtienne, English sea captain and antarctic explorer
- Burckhardt, Johann Ludwig or John Lewis, European explorer
- Burton, Sir Richard Francis, English explorer
- Byrd, Richard Evelyn, American aviator and polar explorer
- Cárdenas, GarcÃa López de, Spanish explorer in the Southwest.
- Cabeza de Vaca, Ãlvar Núñez, Spanish explorer
- Cabot, John, English explorer
- Cabot, Sebastian, explorer in English and Spanish service
- Cabrillo, Juan RodrÃguez, Spanish conquistador and discoverer of California
- Caillié, René, French explorer in Africa
- Cameron, Verney Lovett, English traveler in Africa
- Cano, Juan Sebastián del, Spanish navigator
- Cartier, Jacques, French navigator
- Carver, Jonathan, American explorer
- Chaillé-Long, Charles, American soldier, African explorer, and writer
- Champlain, Samuel de, French explorer, the chief founder of New France
- Chesney, Francis Rawdon, British soldier and explorer in Asia
- Clapperton, Hugh, British explorer
- Clark, William, American explorer
- Columbus, Christopher, European explorer
- Cook, Frederick Albert, American explorer and physician
- Cook, James, English explorer and navigator
- Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de, Spanish explorer
- Cortés, Hernán, Spanish conquistador
- da Gama, Vasco, Portuguese navigator
- Dampier, William, English explorer
- David, T.W.E., English navigator
- De Long, George Washington, American arctic explorer
- De Soto, Hernando, Spanish explorer
- Dias, Bartolomeu, Portuguese navigator
- Drake, Sir Francis, English navigator and admiral
- Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni, French-American explorer in Africa
- Duluth, Daniel Greysolon, sieur, French explorer in Canada
- Dumont d'Urville, Jules Sébastien César, French navigator
- Ellsworth, Lincoln, American explorer
- Emin Pasha, German explorer
- Entrecasteaux, Joseph Antoine Bruni d', French navigator
- Eric the Red, Norse chieftain, discoverer and colonizer of Greenland
- Frémont, John Charles, American explorer, soldier, and political leader
- Franklin, Sir John, British explorer
- Garnier, Marie Joseph François, French explorer and naval officer
- Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, English soldier
- Gosnold, Bartholomew, English explorer and colonizer
- Gray, Robert, American sea captain, discoverer of the Columbia River
- Greely, Adolphus Washington, American army officer and arctic explorer
- Hall, Charles Francis, American arctic explorer
- He, Zheng, explorer
- Hedin, Sven Anders, Swedish explorer in central Asia
- Henry the Navigator, prince of Portugal, patron of exploration
- Henson, Matthew Alexander, African-American arctic explorer
- Heyerdahl, Thor, Norwegian explorer and anthropologist
- Hillary, Sir Edmund Percival, New Zealand mountain climber and explorer.
- Hudson, Henry, English navigator and explorer
- Humboldt, Alexander, Freiherr von, German naturalist and explorer
- Ibn Batuta, Muslim traveler
- Johnson, Martin Elmer, American explorer and author
- Johnston, Sir Harry Hamilton, British explorer and colonial official
- Jolliet, Louis, French explorer
- Kane, Elisha Kent, American physician and arctic explorer
- Kotzebue, Otto von, Russian naval officer and explorer;
- La Salle, Robert Cavelier, sieur de, French explorer in North America
- Leif Ericsson, Norse discoverer of America
- Leo Africanus, Moorish traveler in Africa and the Middle East.
- Lewis, Meriwether, American explorer
- Livingstone, David, Scottish missionary and explorer in Africa
- Long, Stephen Harriman, American explorer
- Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, Canadian fur trader and explorer
- MacMillan, Donald Baxter, American arctic explorer
- Magellan, Ferdinand, Portuguese navigator
- Marquette, Jacques, French missionary and explorer in North America
- McClintock, Sir Francis Leopold, British arctic explorer
- McClure, Sir Robert John Le Mesurier, British arctic explorer
- Nansen, Fridtjof, Norwegian arctic explorer
- Nordenskjöld, Nils Adolf Erik, Baron, Swedish geologist and arctic explorer
- Ohthere, Norse explorer
- Orellana, Francisco de, Spanish explorer of the Amazon River
- Park, Mungo, British explorer in Africa
- Parry, Sir William Edward, British arctic explorer and rear admiral
- Peary, Robert Edwin, American arctic explorer
- Perrot, Nicolas, French explorer in Canada and the Old Northwest
- Pike, Zebulon Montgomery, American explorer
- Pizarro, Francisco, Spanish conquistador
- Polo, Marco, Venetian traveler in China
- Ponce de León, Juan, Spanish explorer
- Raleigh, Sir Walter, English soldier, explorer, courtier, and man of letters
- Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor, Danish arctic explorer and ethnologist
- Ross, Sir James Clark, British polar explorer and rear admiral
- Schouten, Willem Cornelis, Dutch navigator
- Scott, Robert Falcon, British naval officer and antarctic explorer
- Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry, British antarctic explorer
- Speke, John Hanning, English explorer in Africa
- Stanley, Sir Henry Morton, Anglo-American journalist and empire builder
- Tasman, Abel Janszoon, Dutch navigator
- Thorfinn Karlsefni, Icelandic colonizer
- Valle, Pietro della, Italian traveler in Asia
- Vancouver, George, English navigator and explorer
- Verrazano, Giovanni da, Italian navigator and explorer
- Vespucci, Amerigo, Italian navigator in whose honor America was named
- Wilkes, Charles, American naval officer and explorer
- Wilkins, Sir George Hubert, British explorer
- Younghusband, Sir Francis Edward, British explorer
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