Notable & Famous Explorers Posters “Be...-”
for social studies teachers and home schoolers, theme decor in office.

James Beckwourth
b. 4-6-1798/1800; Frederick Co., Virginia
d. 10-29-1886; Denver

James Beckwourth, the son of a slave woman and her master, Sir Jennings Beckwith, became a blacksmith, explorer and scout, fur trapper, and a war chief in the Crow Nation.

Beckwourth Pass and Trail, between Reno and Portola, California, is named after him. In 1851 James Beckwourth lead a wagon train through the pass that bears his name. Among his “passengers” was a young girl who became the first Poet Laureate of California, Ina Coolbrith.

FYI ~ While Sir Beckwith treated James as a son, James was still considered a slave. After the family moved from Virginia to Missouri around 1809, James received a formal education in St. Louis, and the father had James emancipation recorded three times, in 1824, 1825, 1826.

Gertrude Bell
b. 7-14-1868; Washington Hall, County Durham, England
d. 7-12-1926; Baghdad, British Mandate of Mesopotamia (present day Iraq)

Gertrude Bell was a traveller, political officer, administrator, archaeologist and spy who explored and mapped “Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia”. Bell, along with T.E. Lawrence, was highly influencial in the Middle East.

Gertrude Bell in Women Who Dared I

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen
b. 9-20-1778; Estonia
d. 1-13-1852;

The Bellingshausen Sea is named for Russian naval officer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen who commanded the second Russian expedition to circumnavigate the globe. During this expedition Bellingshausen became one of three Europeans to first see the continent of Antarctica on January 26-7, 1820. The second was Edward Bransfield, a captain in the British Navy, just 3 days later on 1-30-1820.

Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Rabbi whose travels started as a pilgrimage from the Kingdom of Navarre to the Holy Lands in 1165. He recorded his journey emphasizing details of Jewish communities he sought out.

• The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela: Travels in the Middle Ages

Vitus Bering
bap. 8-5-1681; Horsens, Denmark
d. 12-8-1761; Bering Island, Russia

Vitus Bering, an officer in the Russian Navy of Peter the Great, made two expeditions to the north-eastern coast of the Asian continent and the western coast of the North American continent.

Geographic features with his name include the Bering Strait, the Bering Sea, Bering Island, Bering Glacier and the Bering Land Bridge.

Jean de Béthencourt
b. c. 1360; Grainville-la-Teinturière, France
d. c. 1425

In 1402 Jean de Béthencourt, a French explorer, led an expedition to the Canary Islands and received the title “King of the Canary Islands”, while judiciously recognizing his patron, King Henry III of Castile, as his overlord.

• Canarian or Book of the Conquest and Conversion of the Canarians in the Year 1402 by Messire Jean De Bethencourt