One of the driving forces behind exploration and discovery is the overwhelming curiosity of certain men and women who are not content to sit at home with unanswered questions about Earth's mysteries. Throughout the ages, men and women have journeyed through jungles and forests, across scorched deserts and icy tundras, over mountains, along rivers, and across oceans in a quest for answers about geography, peoples, and ancient history.

In the nineteenth century, historic ocean voyages, epic adventures, and exhaustive expeditions rapidly expanded national boundaries and imperial domains as well as scientific knowledge in the fields of botany, zoology, ornithology, marine biology, geology, and cultural anthropology. By the end of the nineteenth century, few areas of the world remained undiscovered and unexplored by humans.

Two of the less explored regions of the world at the turn of the twentieth century were...