SCHILLING VON CANSTADT, Paul Ludwig, Freiherr (Cannstatt, Russian Pavel Lvovič Šilling fon Kanštadt, Baron). Real (Tallinn) 5.(16.)4.1786 — St.Petersburg 25.7.(6.8.)1837. Russian (German of Estonia) Officer, Diplomat, and Lay Sinologist also interested in Tibetan, and in Physics. Son of an officer, Ludwig Joseph Ferdinand Sch., of old Swabian noble family, spent…
SASSETTI, Filippo. Florence 26/28.9.1540 — Goa 3.9.1588. Italian Traveller. Son of a wealthy merchant, he studied at Pisa 1568-73 and thus knew Latin and Greek. In 1578 he went to Spain and Portugal and then 1583 to India as the agent of a Florentine spice syndicate. On way to India…
WOOD, Mark. Perth, Scotland 1747 — London 6.2.1829. Sir (Bart.). British (Scottish) Military Engineer and Traveller in India. Son of Alexander Wood. Cadet 1770, in 1772 joined Bengal Engineers, his two brothers were also in E.I.C.’s military service. Surveyor-General 1787, Chief Engineer in Bengal 1790, retired as Colonel and returned…
WOOD, John. Perth, Scotland 1812 — London 13.11.1871. British (Scottish) Naval Officer in India and Traveller in Central Asia. Educated at Perth Academy, in 1826 joined the E.I.C.’s navy. “Commanded the first [steam] vessel, the Indus, in the navigation of the Indus river, 1835-6; Assistant to Burnes in his commercial…
WOLFF, Joseph. Weilersbach near Bamberg 1795 — Isle Brewers, Somerset 2.5.1862. Rev. German Priest, Oriental Scholar and Traveller in Central Asia. Born in a Jewish family, his father David Wolff was a rabbi, his mother was Sarah. Educated in Stuttgart and Bamberg. After conversion to Catholic Christianity near Prague in…
WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK (Guglielmus de Rubruquis, Guillaume de Rubrouck, Willem van Ruysbroeck, Risbroucke). 1215/20 — after 1255. Flemish Traveller, a Franciscan Monk. Probably born in Rubrouck in French Flanders. In 1248 participated in the 7th Crusade. Head of the embassy sent by Louis IX of France to the Mongol Khan…
WARNER, Langdon. Cambridge, Mass. 1.8.1881 — ibid. 9.6.1955. U.S. Art Historian and Central Asian Explorer. Son of advocate Joseph Bangs Warner (1848–1923) and Margret Woodbury Storer. Educated at Harvard College (A.B. 1903). Participated in Pumpelly–Carnegie Expedition to Trans-Caspia in 1904-05. In 1906-13 Assistant Curator of Oriental Art in Museum of…
ROERICH, Nicholas (Nikolaj Konstantinovič Rërih). St.Petersburg 9.10.1874 — Naggar, Himachal Pradesh 1.3.1948. Russian Painter, lay Archaeologist, Theosophist and Central Asian Traveller. Father of —> G. N. Roerich and Svjatoslav Roerich (Svetoslav, 1904–1993, painter in India). Studied art and law in St.Peterburg, worked as a much appreciated artist and art teacher…
ROE, Thomas. Low Leyton near Wanstead in Essex 1580/81 — Bath 6.11.1644. Sir. British Diplomat in India. Son of Sir Robert Rowe and Elinor Jermy, lost early his father. After early studies at Oxford (Magdalen College) he became esquire of the body to Queen Elizabeth I and was knighted by…
ROCKHILL, William Woodville. Philadelphia, Pa. 1.4.1854 — Honolulu 8.12.1914. U.S. Diplomat, Traveller, Sinologist and Tibetan Scholar. Son of Thomas Cadwalader Rockhill (1819–1871) and Dorothea Anne Woodville (1823–1913). Lost his father when 13 (but ancestors.familysearch.org claims he died 19.2.1854) and the mother settled in Paris to avoid the Civil War. Studies…