Born May 23, 1790,
Condé-sur-Noireau, France
Died May 8, 1842,
Near Meudon, France

French knowledge of the Antarctic and South Pacific was greatly aided by Jules-Sébastian-César Dumont d’Urville. He began his career as a naval officer by helping the French government to acquire one of the most beautiful examples of classical Greek art, the Venus de Milo. His later discoveries led to extensive revisions of existing charts and maps and redesignation of island groups.

Buys Venus de Milo for France

Dumont d’Urville was born in the village of Condé in Calvados in Normandy. He entered the French navy in 1807 and studied at the naval base of Toulon on the Mediterranean, where he graduated at the head of his class in 1811. During a charting mission from...