16 Facts About Alexine Tinne

Alexandrine "Alexine" Pieternella Francoise Tinne was a Dutch explorer in Africa who was the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara.

Alexine Tinne was the daughter of Philip Frederik Tinne and his second wife, Baroness Henriette van Capellen.

Philip Tinne was a Dutch merchant, who was heavily involved in the transatlantic spice trade.

Alexine Tinne worked at coffee plantations in Demerara.

Philip Alexine Tinne settled in England during the Napoleonic Wars and later returned to his native land, marrying Henriette, daughter of a Dutch Vice-Admiral, Theodorus Frederik van Capellen, and Petronella de Lange, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Sofia.

Alexine Tinne was tutored at home and showed proficiency at painting, piano, languages, photography and geography.

Alexine Tinne's father died when she was ten years old.

Alexine Tinne started experimenting with photography in her home town of The Hague and its harbour Scheveningen.

Alexine Tinne worked with several commercial photographers: Robert Jefferson Bingham, Francis Frith and the J Geiser photostudio in Algiers.

Alexine Tinne intended to investigate the reports of a vast lake in Central Africa eastwards of those already known, most likely the lake-like expanses of the middle Congo.

Alexine Tinne buried her aunt and one maid and brought the corpse of her mother and the other maid back to Cairo.

Alexine Tinne was not to be persuaded and John left with the two corpses and a large part of her ethnographic collection.

At Cairo, Alexine Tinne lived in Oriental style during the next four years, visiting Algeria, Tunisia, and other parts of the Mediterranean.

In January 1869, Alexine Tinne again made an attempt to reach the Touaregs.

Alexine Tinne started from Tripoli with a caravan, with the intention of traveling to Lake Chad, followed by Wadai, Darfur and Kordofan before reaching the upper Nile.

Alexine Tinne's photographs are at the National Archive and the Municipal Archive of The Hague.