The Most Famous
EXPLORERS from Latvia
This page contains a list of the greatest Latvian Explorers. The pantheon dataset contains 498 Explorers, 2 of which were born in Latvia. This makes Latvia the birth place of the 28th most number of Explorers behind Indonesia, and Switzerland.
Top 3
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Latvian Explorers of all time. This list of famous Latvian Explorers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Johann Anton Güldenstädt (1745 - 1781)
With an HPI of 52.89, Johann Anton Güldenstädt is the most famous Latvian Explorer. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages on wikipedia.
Johann Anton Güldenstädt (26 April 1745 in Riga, Latvia – 23 March 1781 in St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Baltic German naturalist and explorer in Russian service. Güldenstädt lost both his parents early, and from 1763 onwards studied pharmacy, botany and natural history in Berlin. At the age of 22, he obtained his doctorate in medicine at the University of Frankfurt in 1767. In the following year, he joined the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences' expedition sent by Catherine II of Russia to explore the Russian empire's southern frontier. Güldenstädt travelled through Ukraine and the Astrakhan region, as well as the northern Caucasus and Georgia, both of which were almost entirely beyond the borders of the Russian empire. In March 1775 he returned to St Petersburg. The results of the expedition and Güldenstädt's edited expedition journal were published after his death by Peter Simon Pallas in Reisen durch Russland und im Caucasischen Gebürge (Travels in Russia and the Mountains of the Caucasus) (1787–1791). The expedition contributed greatly to the fields of biology, geology, geography, and particularly linguistics. Güldenstädt took detailed notes on the languages of the region. After the expedition, which definitively established Güldenstädt's reputation at the Academy, he continued to work as a naturalist. Güldenstädt's expedition was the first systematic study of the Caucasus. As was typical of contemporary expeditions organized in the spirit of the Enlightenment (including the later American Lewis and Clark Expedition), it was tasked with the observation and description of virtually every aspect of the region under study. This included both its "natural" attributes — flora, fauna, geography, and geology — and its peoples, economy, and government. In this sense it was both a scientific expedition and a mission of reconnaissance to learn more about a region that was important in the simultaneous Russian war with the Ottomans, of which the Caucasus was a theater, with the Georgians acting as Russian allies. Immediately following the expedition, Russian interest in the region, particularly Georgia, grew markedly, culminating in the Treaty of Georgievsk, which made East Georgia a Russian protectorate. In 1781, he died from an outbreak of fever in St. Petersburg.
2. Annie Londonderry (1870 - 1947)
With an HPI of 52.79, Annie Londonderry is the 2nd most famous Latvian Explorer. Her biography has been translated into 25 different languages.
Annie Cohen Kopchovsky (1870 – 11 November 1947), known as Annie Londonderry, was a Jewish Latvian immigrant to the United States who in 1894–95 became the first woman to bicycle around the world. After having completed her travel, albeit mostly by ship, she built a media career around engagement with popular conception of what it was to be female.
3. Matvei Gedenshtrom (1780 - 1845)
With an HPI of 49.00, Matvei Gedenshtrom is the 3rd most famous Latvian Explorer. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Matvei Matveyevich Gedenshtrom (Swedish: Mathias Hedenström; Russian: Матвей Матвеевич Геденштром; 1780 – 2 October [O.S. 20 September] 1845) was a Russian explorer of Northern Siberia, writer, and public servant. Matvei Gedenshtrom was born in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire to Mathias Hedenström (1733–1799), a Swedish political refugee from Dalarna. Matvei Gedenshtrom himself was still a Swedish citizen in 1798. Gedenshtrom attended the University of Tartu. He did not finish his studies and left his alma mater in favor of work at Tallinn customs. Until 1806, he worked in Riga as a translator for Count Friedrich von Buxhoeveden, the Governor-General of the Baltic provinces. In 1808, while working as secretary to a customs inspector, he was arrested in connection with a bribery affair, tried, and then banished to Siberia. Later that year, Gedenshtrom arrived in Irkutsk and received his first duty assignment by Minister of Commerce Nikolay Rumyantsev, namely, the exploration of the coastline of the Arctic Ocean. Lacking necessary scientific background, Matvei Gedenshtrom had to study a lot in order to be able to reckon a latitude and longitude of a given location and use scientific equipment in general. Gedenshtrom led the cartographic expedition to explore the New Siberian Islands (together with Yakov Sannikov and land surveyors Pyotr Pshenitsyn and I.Kozhevin). The theory about the existence of Sannikov Land somewhere northwest of the Kotelny Island originated during this very expedition. Gedenshtrom established the presence of the Siberian polynya – patches of open water in sea ice at the edge of the drifting ice and continental fast ice. In 1809, Gedenshtrom visited the eastern shores of an island, discovered by merchants Semyon and Lev Syrovatsky three years earlier, and named it New Siberia (this name would be officially endorsed in 1810). Gedenshtrom charted the coastline between the mouths of the rivers Yana and Kolyma. He also made many trips across Yakutia and areas east of the Lake Baikal. In 1813, Matvei Gedenshtrom was employed by the secretariat of Irkutsk governor. Later on, he was appointed head of district police (исправник) in Verkhne-Udinsk, which did not distract him from scientific research and compiling his mineralogical and botanic collection. Matvei Gedenshtrom was a smart, talented, educated, and kind man, who often helped local peasants with advice and money. However, he was also known to have been an immoral person and a squanderer. He was one of the closest associates of Nikolai Treskin (then-governor of Irkutsk) and made a sizeable fortune on bread purchases assigned to him by the governor's office. In 1819, Mikhail Speransky (governor general of Siberia) paid a visit to Irkutsk as part of his Siberian tour and exposed many instances of official misconduct by local authorities. On 20 February 1820, Matvei Gedenshtrom was removed from his post for his autocratic style of management, embezzlement, extortion, and fraud. Speransky's report on his findings was examined by a special committee, established on 28 July 1821. The committee divided all of the offenders into ten categories. Gedenshtrom found himself in the third category, which meant he could never again be admitted to hold any public posts and had to be banished to an inner guberniya (European Russia). However, it was soon decided not to send him away from Siberia and settle him in Tobolsk. Willing to take advantage of Matvei Gedenshtrom's skills and experience, the administration of Western Siberia managed to obtain permission for him to join the public service. In 1827, Gedenshtrom was allowed to return to European Russia and then employed by the Medical Service Corps (Медицинский департамент) as a section chief. In the 1830s, Matvei Gedenshtrom was appointed a postmaster in Tomsk. Upon his retirement, he moved to a village of Kaidukovaya near Tomsk and spent the rest of his days drinking. Matvei Gedenshtrom died in extreme poverty on 20 September 1845, at the age of 65. He was interred in Tomsk three days later.
People
Pantheon has 3 people classified as Latvian explorers born between 1745 and 1870. Of these 3, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased Latvian explorers include Johann Anton Güldenstädt, Annie Londonderry, and Matvei Gedenshtrom. As of April 2024, 1 new Latvian explorers have been added to Pantheon including Matvei Gedenshtrom.
Deceased Latvian Explorers
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Johann Anton Güldenstädt
1745 - 1781
HPI: 52.89
Annie Londonderry
1870 - 1947
HPI: 52.79
Matvei Gedenshtrom
1780 - 1845
HPI: 49.00
Newly Added Latvian Explorers (2024)
Go to all RankingsOverlapping Lives
Which Explorers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Explorers since 1700.
