Joseph Banks was a late-18th to early-19th century British explorer and botanist who pushed for the advancement of science.
1743-1820
Gertrude Bell was a British writer, archaeologist and political officer best known for helping to establish modern Iraq after World War I.
1868-1926
Sir Richard Burton was a British explorer and linguist. He translated The Arabian Nights, and wrote extensively about his travels in Asia, Africa and America.
1821-1890
British navigator James Cook discovered and charted New Zealand and Australia's Great Barrier Reef on his ship Endeavor, and later disproved the existence of the fabled southern continent Terra Australis. His voyages provided the first accurate map of the Pacific.
1728-1779
English explorer Martin Frobisher is best known for his attempts to discover a Northwest Passage and his voyages to Labrador and Frobisher Bay in Canada.
1535-1594
John Galt was a prolific Scottish novelist admired for his depiction of country life. His masterpieces include The Ayrshire Legatees and Lawrie Todd.
1779-1839
Francis Galton was an English explorer and anthropologist best known for his research in eugenics and human intelligence. He was the first to study the effects of human selective mating.
1822-1911
John Hawkins was a 16th century British naval commander and slave trader who entered into conflict with Spain.
1532-1595
English explorer Henry Hudson embarked on multiple sailing voyages that provided new information on North American water routes.
1565-1611
David Livingstone was a Scottish missionary, abolitionist and physician known for his explorations of Africa, having crossed the continent during the mid-19th century.
1813-1873
Scottish explorer Mungo Park (1771–1806) wrote Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa about his expeditions to find the source of the Niger River.
1771-1806
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English adventurer and writer who established a colony near Roanoke Island, now known as Virginia. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London and eventually put to death for treason.
1552-1618
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was an Irish-born British explorer who was a principal figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
1874-1922
John Smith was a British soldier who was a founder of the American colony of Jamestown in the early 1600s.
1580-1631
John White was a British artist, explorer, cartographer and governor of the English settlement on Roanoke Island (now in North Carolina, U.S.).
1540-1593