The Finnish-Swedish polar explorer and mineralogist Baron Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld (1832-1901) was the first to make a ship voyage from Scandinavia to Alaska through the Northeast Passage.

Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld was born on Nov. 18, 1832, in Helsinki, the third of seven children of Nils Gustaf Nordenskjöld, chief of the Finnish mining department and a member of an old Swedish family that had settled in Finland. The boy took an early interest in natural history and mineralogy. He specialized in mineralogy and geology and collected minerals in parts of Finland and Russia while attending the University of Helsinki, where he obtained his degree in 1855. During his studies at the university, Nordenskjöld had developed certain Swedish and Western sympathies which implied criticism of Russian political control in Finland. As a result, he incurred the displeasure of the authorities, and in 1856 he lost...