One pleasure of researching a trip is when you come across interesting characters in the history of your destination. Here is one.
Fridtjof Nansen
1861. Born in what is now Oslo, Norway.
1879 (18). Beat the world skating record.
1880. Won the Norwegian national cross-country skiing championship, a feat he would repeat on 11 subsequent occasions.
1881. Began studying zoology at University of Oslo.
1882 (21). Joined a sea voyage on a sealer, to study Arctic zoology between Greenland and Spitzbergen. Measured the Gulf Stream.
Appointed curator in the zoological department of the Bergen Museum. Nansen's chosen area of study was the then relatively unexplored field of neuroanatomy, specifically the central nervous system of lower marine creatures. Nansen is considered the first Norwegian defender of the neuron theory. His subsequent paper, The Structure and Combination of Histological Elements of the Central Nervous System, published in 1887, became his doctoral thesis.
1897 (36). His book 'Farthest North' was published in English. He was appointed Professor in Zoology at the University of Oslo.
1900. Nansen became director of the Oslo-based International Laboratory for North Sea Research, and helped found the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.
1893 - 1903 Five children were born. He designed a larger house for the family called Polhøgda. It now houses the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, a think tank.
Polhøgda
1905. The union between Norway and Sweden, imposed by the Great Powers in 1814, had been under considerable strain through the 1890s, the chief issue in question being Norway's rights to its own consular service. Nansen became actively involved in promoting the idea of a separation of Norway from Sweden. A Norwegian referendum was overwhelmingly in favour of independence from Sweden. The King resigned. The Norwegian Prime Minister sent Nansen as an envoy to persuade the Danish Prince Charles to accept the Norwegian throne. He was successful.
1906. Nansen was appointed Norway's first Minister in London. While he was there, Eva got pneumonia and died.
1908. He resigned as a diplomat. His chair at Oslo University was changed from Zoology to Professor of Oceanography.
1914. On the outbreak of WW1, Norway declared its neutrality. Nansen was appointed as the president of the Norwegian Union of Defence.
1917. Restrictions on trade as a result of the war led to major food shortages in Norway. Nansen was dispatched to Washington by the Norwegian government; after months of discussion, he secured food and other supplies.
1918. The Paris Peace Conference agreed to create a League of Nations. He became president of the Norwegian League of Nations Society, and he helped to ensure that Norway became a full member of the League in 1920, and he became one of its three delegates to the League's General Assembly.
1920 - 22. He organised the repatriation of 427,886 prisoners of war to about 30 different countries.
The Nansen Mission is the term used by inhabitants of the former USSR for the series of humanitarian initiatives undertaken by the International Committee of the Red Cross, headed by Fridtjof Nansen.
1921 He was appointed the League of Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees.
1922. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his work for the repatriation of the prisoners of war, his work for the Russian refugees, his work to bring succour to the millions of Russians afflicted by famine, and finally his present work for the refugees in Asia Minor and Thrace".
From 1925 onwards, Nansen devoted much time trying to help Armenian refugees, victims of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War and further ill-treatment thereafter.
Roald Amundsen (1872 – 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
A party of five, led by Amundsen, became the first to reach the South Pole on 14 December 1911.
Roald Amundsen: Conqueror of the South Pole
The Man Who Conquered the Poles - Roald Amundsen
Roald Amundsen and the Northwest passage (1903-1906)
Henrik Ibsen (1828 – 1906) was a Norwegian playwright. He is considered one of the world's pre-eminent writers of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama".
Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work The Scream has become one of the most iconic and acclaimed images in all of Western art.
The Scream
This pastel version was sold at Sotheby's in New York for a record price of nearly US$120 million at auction on 2 May 2012 to Leon Black, a billionaire associate of Jeffrey Epstein.
Edvard Grieg. 15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide.
His most famous work was Peer Gynt, a part accompaniment for Ibsen's play of the same name.
He invented dynamite in 1867, and gelignite in 1875.
In 1888, the death of his brother Ludvig supposedly caused several newspapers to publish obituaries of Alfred in error. One French newspaper condemned him for his invention of military explosives and this is said to have brought about his decision to leave a better legacy after his death. The obituary supposedly stated, "The merchant of death is dead",
Nobel read the obituary and was appalled at the idea that he would be remembered in this way. His decision to posthumously donate the majority of his wealth to found the Nobel Prize has been credited to him wanting to leave behind a better legacy.
Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century.
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