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NORDENSKIOLD, NILS ADOLF ERIK, BARON ...

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 741 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NORDENSKIOLD, NILS ADOLF ERIK, See also:BARON (1832-1901) , geographer and See also:Arctic explorer, was See also:born at See also:Helsingfors, 18th See also:November 1832. His ancestors came originally from See also:Sweden, but for some generations had been settled in See also:Finland. His See also:father, Nils Gustav Nordenskiold, was both a mineralogist and a traveller. Nordenskiold entered the university of Helsingfors in 1849, and applied himself specially to See also:chemistry and See also:mineralogy. In 1853 he accompanied his father to the Ural Mountains and studied the See also:iron and See also:copper mines at Tagilsk. On his return he received See also:minor appointments both at the university and the See also:mining See also:office, but an unguarded speech at a convivial entertainment in 1855 See also:drew the See also:attention of the See also:Russian authorities to his See also:political views, and led to his dismissal. He then visited See also:Berlin, continuing his mineralogical studies, and in 1856 obtained the See also:Alexander travelling See also:stipend at the university of Helsingfors and planned to expend it in See also:geological See also:research in See also:Siberia and See also:Kamchatka. Before starting he took his See also:master's and See also:doctor's degrees (1857), but he again aroused the suspicion of the authorities, so that he was forced to leave the See also:country and was deprived of the right of ever holding office in the university. Settling at See also:Stockholm he thenceforward became practically a See also:Swedish See also:citizen. He soon received an offer from See also:Otto See also:Torell, the geologist, to accompany him on an expedition to See also:Spitsbergen. To the observations of Torell on glacial phenomena Nordenskiold added the See also:discovery at See also:Bell See also:Sound of remains of See also:Tertiary See also:plants, and on the return of the expedition he received the See also:appointment of See also:professor and See also:curator of the mineralogical See also:department of the Swedish See also:State Museum. In 1861 he took See also:part in Tbrell's second Spitsbergen expedition, which yielded even more important geological results.

Of the further expedition to the same See also:

quarter promoted by the Swedish See also:academy of See also:science in 1864, Nordenskiold was the See also:leader. Three years later, chiefly through the support of the Swedish See also:government and Oscar See also:Dickson, who contributed largely towards the later expeditions of 1872 and 1875, he headed a well-organized expedition in the iron steamer " See also:Sofia," and reached the highest See also:northern See also:latitude (81° 42') then attained in the eastern hemisphere. Arctic exploration had now become his all-absorbing See also:object in See also:life, and in 187o, with three See also:young naturalists, he visited the vast inland See also:ice-See also:sheet of See also:Greenland. His next expedition in 1872 did not See also:answer expectation, for the tenders were caught in the ice, and the crews of the three vessels were forced to See also:winter in Spitsbergen. In 1875-1876, however, a successful voyage eastwards, including the ascent of the See also:Yenisei, led him to See also:attempt the discovery of the See also:long-sought See also:North-See also:East Passage. This he accomplished in the voyage of the " See also:Vega," navigating for the first See also:time the northern coasts of See also:Europe and See also:Asia. Starting from See also:Karlskrona on the 22nd of See also:June 1878, the " Vega " doubled Cape Chelyuskin in the following See also:August, and after being frozen in at the end of See also:September near See also:Bering Strait, completed the voyage successfully in the following summer. He edited a monumental See also:record of the expedition in five See also:octavo volumes, and himself wrote a more popular See also:summary in two volumes. On his return to Sweden he received an enthusiastic welcome, and in See also:April 188o was made a baron and a See also:commander of the See also:Order of the Nordstjerna. In 1883 he again visited the east See also:coast of Greenland, and succeeded in taking his See also:ship through the See also:great ice barrier, a feat attempted in vain during more than three centuries. Baron Nordenskiold also made a notable reputation in the See also:field of See also:historical See also:geography by his Facsimile See also:Atlas (1889) and Periplus (1897). The former contains reproductions of the most important See also:geographical documents printed during the 15th and 16th centuries, and the latter, a See also:work of far greater research, deals with the See also:history of See also:early cartography and the sailing charts in use among mariners during the See also:middle ages.

He died at Stockholm on the 12th of August 1901.

End of Article: NORDENSKIOLD, NILS ADOLF ERIK, BARON (1832-1901)

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