Alexandrine Tinné
Encyclopedia
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
explorer in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
. She was born at The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Netherlands.
Early life and education
Alexandrine was the daughter of Philip Frederik Tinne, a Dutch merchant who settled in England during the Napoleonic wars and later returned to his native land, and of Baroness Henriette van Capellen. Henriette, daughter of a famous Dutch Vice-Admiral, Theodorus Frederik van CapellenTheodorus Frederik van Capellen
Vice-admiral Jonkheer Theodorus Frederik van Capellen, GCMWO, KCB was a Dutch naval officer. He was married to Petronella de Lange . Alexandrine Tinné, female explorer and pioneering photographer, was his granddaughter.-Career:Van Capellen entered service in 1781 in the navy of the Dutch Republic...
, was Philip's second wife, and Alexandrine was born when he was sixty-three.
Young Alexandrine was tutored at home, and showed a proficiency at piano. When her wealthy father died when she was ten years old, it left her the richest heiress in the Netherlands.
Travels in North Eastern and Central Africa
She and her mother travelled extensively in NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and the Middle East, and visited Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. She is best known for her ascents of the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
river near Gondokoro
Gondokoro
Gondokoro was a trading-station on the east bank of the White Nile in Southern Sudan, 750 miles south of Khartoum. Its importance lay in the fact that it was within a few miles of the limit of navigability of the Nile from Khartoum upstream...
, joining in the search for the source. Miss Tinne became an excellent photographer in the early years of glass-plate photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
and left Europe again in 1861 for the Nile regions. Staying at the famous Shepheard's Hotel
Shepheard's Hotel
Shepheard's Hotel was the leading hotel in Cairo and one of the most celebrated hotels in the world between the middle of the 19th century and 1952....
in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, and accompanied by her mother and her aunt, she set out on January 9, 1862. After a short stay at Khartum the party ascended the White Nile
White Nile
The White Nile is a river of Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile from Egypt, the other being the Blue Nile. In the strict meaning, "White Nile" refers to the river formed at Lake No at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers...
to a point above Gondokoro, and explored a part of the Sobat, returning to Khartum in November. Theodor von Heuglin
Theodor von Heuglin
Martin Theodor von Heuglin , was a German explorer and ornithologist.-Biography:...
and Hermann Steudner
Hermann Steudner
Carl Theodor Hermann Steudner was a botanist and an explorer of Africa.- Education and early work :Steudner was born in Greiffenberg, located in Silesia, but grew up in Görlitz. He studied in Berlin and Würzburg botany, mineralogy and medicine...
having meantime joined the women at Khartum, the whole party set out in February 1863 for the uncharted Bahr-el-Ghazal. The intention was to explore that region and ascertain how far westward the Nile basin extended; also to investigate the reports of a vast lake in Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
eastwards of those already known, most likely the lake-like expanses of the middle Congo.
Ascending the Bahr-el-Ghazal, the limit of navigation was reached on March 10. From Meshra-er-Rek a journey was made overland, across the Bahr Jur
Jur River
The Jur River is a river in western South Sudan, flowing through the Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions. About long, it flows north and northeast, joining the Bahr el Ghazal River on the western side of the Sudd wetlands. The Jur River is part of the Nile basin, as the Bahr al-Ghazal flows into...
and south-west by the Bahr Kosango, to Jebel Kosango, on the borders of the Niam-Niam country. During the journey all the travellers suffered severely from fever. Steudner died in April and Madame Tinne, Alexandrine's mother, in June, and after many fatigues and dangers the remainder of the party reached Khartum in July 1864, where Miss Tinné's aunt died. Miss Tinne was devastated by the deaths, and returned to Cairo by Berber
Berber, Sudan
Berber is a town in the Nile state of northern Sudan, 50 km north of Atbara, near the junction of the Atbara River and the Nile.The town was the starting-point of the old caravan route across the Nubian Desert to the Red Sea at Suakin....
and Suakin
Suakin
Suakin or Sawakin is a port in north-eastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea. In 1983 it had a population of 18,030 and the 2009 estimate is 43, 337.It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about 30 miles north. The old city built of coral is in ruins...
, taking with her the corpses of her aunt and her mother, who were later buried at the Oud Eik en Duinen cemetery in The Hague.
The geographical and scientific results of the expedition were highly important, as will be seen in Heuglin's Die Tinnésche Expedition im westlichen Nilgebiet (1863-1864 (Gotha, 1865), and Reise in das Gebiet des Weissen Nils Leipzig, 1869). A description, by T Kotschy and J Peyritsch, of some of the plants discovered by the expedition was published at Vienna in 1867 under the title of Plantes Tinnaennes, and introduced 24 new species to science, including 19 species in the mint family.
At Cairo Miss Tinne lived in Oriental style during the next four years, visiting Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
and other parts of the Mediterranean. She laughed at her fathers funeral
Saharan expedition and death
In January 1869 she started from TripoliTripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
with a caravan, intending to proceed to Lake Chad
Lake Chad
Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...
, and thence by Wadai
Ouaddai Kingdom
The Ouaddai Empire was originally a non-Muslim kingdom, located to the east of Lake Chad in present-day Chad...
, Darfur
Darfur
Darfur is a region in western Sudan. An independent sultanate for several hundred years, it was incorporated into Sudan by Anglo-Egyptian forces in 1916. The region is divided into three federal states: West Darfur, South Darfur, and North Darfur...
and Kordofan to the upper Nile. In Murzuq she met the German explorer Gustav Nachtigal
Gustav Nachtigal
Gustav Nachtigal was a German explorer of Central and West Africa. He is further known as the German Empire's consul-general for Tunisia and Commissioner for West Africa. His mission as commissioner resulted in Togoland and Kamerun becoming the first colonies of a German colonial empire...
, with whom she intended to cross the desert. As Nachtigal wanted to go to the Tibesti Mountains first, she set out for the South on her own.
On 1 August, however, on the route from Murzuk
Murzuk
Murzuk is an oasis town and the capital of the Murzuq District in the Fezzan region of southwest Libya. Murzuk lies on the northern edge of the Murzuq Desert, a desert of ergs or great sand dunes, and section of the Sahara Desert.-History:...
to Ghat
Ghat
Ghat is the capital of the Ghat District in the Fezzan region of southwestern Libya.-History:In historical times, Ghat was a major terminal point on the Trans-Saharan trade route and a major administrative center in the Fezzan...
, she was murdered together with two Dutch sailors in her party, allegedly by Tuareg in league with her escort. Her attackers chopped off her hand and left her to bleed to death. There are several theories as to motive, none of them proven. One is that her guides believed that her iron water tanks were filled with gold. It is also possible that her death came as a result of an internal political conflict between local Tuareg chiefs. Another explorer, Erwin von Bary, who visited the same area in the 1870s, met participants of the assault and learnt that it had been a blow against the "great old man" of the Northern Tuareg, Ikhenukhen, who was to be removed from his powerful position, and the means was to be the killing of the Christians—just to prove that Ikhenukhen was too weak to protect travellers any more. In the context of the internal strife between the Northern Tuareg that lasted until the Ottoman occupation of the Fezzan Province (Southern Libya) this version is the most probable explanation of the otherwise unmotivated massacre.
Her collections of ethnographic specimens housed in Liverpool, England were destroyed in the bombing raids of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and the church built in her memory in The Hague was similarly destroyed. A small marker near Juba in Sudan commemorating the great Nile explorers of the 19th century bears her name, as well as a window plaque in Tangiers. Many of her remaining papers, including most of her letters from Africa, are stored at the Nationaal Archive in The Hague. Her photographs are at the Haags Gemeentearchief (Municipal Archive of The Hague).
Alternate spellings: Alexine Tinne, Alexandrine Tinné.
Further reading
- 'The Fataful Journey'. The Expedition of Alexine Tinne and Theodor von Heuglin in Sudan (1863-1864) by Robert Joost Willink (Amsterdam, 2011) ISBN 9789089643520
- Geographical Notes of an Expedition in Central Africa by three Dutch Ladies, John A Tinné (Liverpool, 1864)
- Travels of Alexine, Penelope Gladstone (London, 1970)
- Tochter des Sultans, Die Reisen der Alexandrine Tinne (in German only), Wilfried Westphal (Stuttgart, 2002)
- The Nile Quest, ch. xvi. Sir HH Johnston, (London, 1903).
- Die Tuareg. Herren der Sahara. Ausstellung der Heinrich-Barth-Gesellschaft (in German only), Cornelius Trebbin & Peter Kremer (Düsseldorf 1986)
- Alexandrine Tinne (1835-1869) - Afrikareisende des 19. Jahrhunderts. Zur Geschichte des Reisens, Antje Köhlerschmidt (Magdeburg 1994; Ph. D. thesis.) - Hitherto the only serious and scholarly account of Alexine's travels and achievements in the context of 19th century African exploration.
- McLoone, Margo, Women explorers in Africa: Christina DodwellChristina DodwellChristina Dodwell FRGS is a British explorer, travel writer, and lecturer. She is Chairman of the Dodwell Trust and was awarded the Mungo Park Medal in 1989....
, Delia AkeleyDelia AkeleyDelia Julia Akeley , commonly known by her nickname, Mickie, was an American explorer. She was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a daughter of Patrick and Margaret Denning, Irish immigrants....
, Mary KingsleyMary KingsleyMary Henrietta Kingsley was an English writer and explorer who greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and African people.-Early life:Kingsley was born in Islington, London on 13 October 1862...
, Florence von Sass BakerSamuel BakerSir Samuel White Baker, KCB, FRS, FRGS was a British explorer, officer, naturalist, big game hunter, engineer, writer and abolitionist. He also held the titles of Pasha and Major-General in the Ottoman Empire and Egypt. He served as the Governor-General of the Equatorial Nile Basin between Apr....
, and Alexandrine TinneAlexandrine TinnéAlexandrine Petronella Francina Tinne was a Dutch explorer in Africa and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara...
(Capstone Press, 1997)