Born July 15, 1867, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France
Died September 16, 1936, at sea off Iceland

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, explorers turned their attention to the icy continent of Antarctica. Seal and whale hunters had long visited the polar region, but by the 1890s many countries were sending scientific expeditions there. French physician Jean-Baptiste Charcot was anxious for his country to join these exploratory efforts. He was the driving force behind two French Antarctic expeditions that discovered and charted new coasts and islands in the frigid territory.

Charcot was born in the Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the son of famous neurologist Jean Martin Charcot. Like his father, Jean-Baptiste also became a physician, working at a Paris hospital. But the young man was drawn to sailing and the sea. He owned large boats that he navigated with great skill. In 1901 he sailed to the Faeroe Islands in the North...