1865-1952

Swedish Explorer

Swedish explorer Sven Hedin enjoyed a life of adventure that many would have envied. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at a time when to some it seemed that all the frontiers of terrestrial exploration had been crossed, he added greatly to the knowledge of the mysterious region known as Central Asia.

Born in Stockholm on February 19, 1865, Hedin showed an early interest in geography and map making. As a teen, he was commissioned by the Swedish Geographical Society to prepare a map showing the Central Asian journeys of Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky (1839-1888). The map received the praise of Arctic explorer Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskjöld (1832-1901).

Hedin took his first trip east at age 20, when he accepted a job tutoring the son of a Swedish engineer working in the Azerbaijan oil fields. He lived in Baku, on the...