| Year |
Recipient |
Reason
|
| 1829 |
Captain John Franklin |
for his voyage to the North Polar region
|
| 1830 |
René Caillié and Major Alexander Gordon Laing |
for their journey to Timbuktu
|
| 1832 |
Jean Baptiste Douville |
for his journey to the Congo and in equatorial Africa
|
| 1834 |
Captain John Ross |
for his voyages in the Polar seas
|
| 1835 |
Alcide d'Orbigny |
for his journeys in southern America
|
| 1836 |
Captain Camille Callier |
for his journeys in the Orient (Middle East)
|
| 1837 |
Captain George Back |
for his voyages in the Arctic region
|
| 1838 |
Frédéric DuBois de Montperreux [fr] |
for his journey in the Caucasus region
|
| 1841 |
Rear-admiral Dumont d'Urville |
for his voyage to the South Pole and Oceania
|
| 1843 |
James Clark Ross |
for his discoveries in the Antarctic seas
|
| 1844 |
Xavier Hommaire de Hell |
for his voyage on the Caspian Sea
|
| Joseph-Pons d'Arnaud [fr] |
for his journey towards the source of the White Nile
|
| 1845 |
Claude Gay |
for his journey to Chile
|
| Pierre Victor Ferret [fr] and Joseph Galinier [fr] |
for their journey in Abyssinia
|
| 1846 |
Charles Tilstone Beke and Théophile Lefebvre [fr] |
for their journey in Abyssinia (medal returned by Beke)
|
| 1847 |
Ludwig Leichhardt |
for his journey in Australia
|
| Rochet d'Héricourt [fr] |
for his journey in Choa
|
| 1850 |
Antoine and Arnaud-Michel d'Abbadie |
for their journey in Abyssinia
|
| 1855 |
Captain Robert McClure |
for discovering the North-west Passage
|
| 1856 |
Henry Barth |
for his journey to Timbuktu
|
| 1857 |
David Livingstone |
for his journeys across southern Africa
|
| 1858 |
Elisha Kent Kane |
for his journey to the Arctic regions
|
| 1859 |
Hermann, Robert and Adolf von Schlagintweit |
for their explorations in Tibet and Turkestan
|
| 1860 |
Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke |
for their exploration of the great lakes of east Africa
|
| 1861 |
Nicolas de Khanikof [de] |
for his exploration of the Khorassan
|
| 1864 |
Henri Duveyrier |
for his exploration of the Algerian Sahara and the country of the Touareg
|
| 1867 |
Sir Samuel White Baker |
for his journey in equatorial Africa
|
| 1869 |
Ernest Doudart de Lagrée and Francis Garnier |
for their exploration of Indo-China
|
| 1872 |
Alfred Grandidier |
for his exploration of Madagascar
|
| 1876 |
Gustav Nachtigal |
for his journey across central Africa
|
| 1877 |
Verney Lovett Cameron |
for his journey across equatorial Africa
|
| 1878 |
Henry Morton Stanley |
for his journey across equatorial Africa
|
| 1879 |
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza |
for his exploration of the Upper Ogoue
|
| 1880 |
Adolf Nordenskjold |
the Northwest Passage
|
| 1881 |
Major Alexandre de Serpa Pinto |
for his journey across Africa
|
| 1884 |
Alphonse Milne-Edwards |
for underwater surveying and dredging from the ships Travailleur and Talisman
|
| 1886 |
Hermenegildo de Brito Capelo |
for his journey across southern Africa
|
| 1890 |
Captain Louis Gustave Binger |
for his journey of exploration from the Upper Niger to the Gulf of Guinea
|
| 1891 |
Gabriel Bonvalot |
for his journey from Siberia to Tonkin via Tibet
|
| 1893 |
Parfait-Louis Monteil |
for his journey from Senegal to Tripoli via Chad
|
| 1896 |
Prince Henri of Orléans |
for his journey from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Gulf of Bombay, 1895
|
| 1897 |
Fridtjof Nansen |
for his crossing of the Arctic Sea, 1893–1896
|
| 1898 |
Édouard Foà [fr] |
for his crossing of equatorial Africa, 1894–1897
|
| 1899 |
Emile Gentil |
for exploration in Africa, from the Congo to Chad, 1895–1898
|
| 1900 |
Jean-Baptiste Marchand |
for the Congo-Nile expedition, 1896–1899
|
| 1901 |
Fernand Foureau |
for the (Foureau-Lamy) trans-Sahara expedition, 1898–1900
|
| 1902 |
Captain Paul Joalland |
for the (Joalland-Meynier) expedition to central Africa, 1899–1901
|
| 1903 |
Auguste Pavie |
for his exploration of Indo-China, 1879–1895
|
| 1904 |
Sven Hedin |
for his explorations in central Asia, 1894–1902
|
| 1907 |
Colonel Robert Emile Bourgeois [fr] |
for his geodesic expedition at the Equator
|
| 1910 |
Sir Ernest Shackleton |
for exploration of Antarctica
|
| 1912 |
Jean-Baptiste Charcot |
for his Antarctic expeditions
|
| 1913 |
Raoul Amundsen |
for the discovery of the South Pole
|
| 1914 |
Admiral Robert E. Peary |
for the discovery of the North Pole
|
| 1918 |
Jean Tilho [fr] |
for the expedition to central Africa
|
| 1922 |
Charles Howard-Bury |
for the Everest Expedition of 1921
|
| Charles Granville Bruce |
for the Everest Expedition of 1922
|
| 1923 |
Sir Aurel Stein |
for explorations in central Asia
|
| Rosita Forbes |
for her exploration of the Kufra oasis
|
| 1924 |
Ole Olufsen |
for his journey to the French Sahara
|
| Bruneau de Laborie [fr] |
for the journey from Cameroon to Cairo via Lake Tchad and the Libyan desert
|
| 1925 |
Baron Adrien de Guerlache de Gomery |
for the Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897–1899 and 1905: 07–09
|
| 1927 |
Charles Lindbergh |
for the first crossing of the Atlantic by aeroplane
|
| 1928 |
Jacques de Rohan-Chabot [fr] |
for exploration in Angola
|
| 1929 |
Ahmed Hassanein and Prince Kamal el Dine Hussein |
for their exploration of the eastern Sahara
|
| 1932 |
Wickliffe Preston Draper |
for the Augiéras-Draper Expedition (Southern Sahara), 1927–1928
|
| 1933 |
Georges-Marie Haardt [fr] and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil [fr] |
for the Citroën Expedition to Central Asia, 1931–1932
|
| 1939 |
Alexander Hamilton Rice |
for his exploration of the Amazon Basin
|
| 1950 |
French expedition to the Himalayas and Maurice Herzog |
for the first ascent of Annapurna
|
| 1952 |
Théodore Monod |
for expeditions and studies in Africa
|
| 1953 |
Augustin Lombard |
for his study trip up Mount Everest
|
| 1954 |
Georges Houot and Pierre Willm |
for the first dive into the deep ocean in a Bathyscaphe
|
| 1955 |
John Hunt, Baron Hunt, Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay |
for the first ascent of Mount Everest
|
| 1957 |
Henri Lhote |
for his travel and archaeological work in the Sahara
|
| 1958 |
Vivian Fuchs |
for the first transantarctic expedition and complete crossing of the continent
|
| 1970 |
Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins |
for the first landing on the Moon
|
| 1977 |
Germaine Dieterlen |
for Ethnology, especially the black civilisations (Dogon, Molinké and Bambara)
|
| 1979 |
Norbert Casteret |
for Speleology
|
| 1991 |
Jean-Louis Étienne |
for his transantarctic expedition
|
| 1998 |
Patrice Franceschi |
for his New Guinea expedition
|
| 1999 |
Georges Pernoud |
for his television series Thalassa
|
| 2001 |
Yann Arthus-Bertrand |
for the sum of his photographic work
|
| 2002 |
Jean-Yves Empereur |
for his archaeological discoveries in Egypt, notably in the port of Alexandria (underwater archaeology)
|
| 2003 |
Nicolas Hulot |
for his expeditions, his television programs and his works
|
| 2004 |
Gilles Elkaim [fr] |
for his Arctic expedition of 2000–2004
|
| 2005 |
Jean-Marc Pineau |
for having retraced on foot the journey of René Caillié and his account of the journey Sur les pas de René Caillié
|
| 2006 |
Érik Orsenna |
for the sum of his work, Salut au Grand Sud and Voyages aux Pays du Coton
|
| 2007 |
Jean Raspail |
for the sum of his work
|
