Born in Lübeck (Germany), Henrik Bernard Oldenland was a physician, botanist and surveyor who trained at Leiden University, a student of Paul Hermann. He was employed by the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company) and based at the company's re-supply base at the Cape Colony. He participated in his first plant-collecting expedition into the interior in 1689, under the command of Ensign Isaq Schrijver.

The governor of the Cape Colony, Simon van der Stel, recognised Oldenland's training and ability and made him master-gardener and surveyor for the colony including becoming superintendent of the botanical garden of the Dutch East India Company. He developed the company gardens with his assistant, Jan Hartog, and sent seeds of indigenous plants to Paul Hermann. Many of the records of South African plants being forwarded to Leiden around this period, from governors Simon van der Stel and his successor William Adriaan van der Stel, probably originated from the work of Oldenland and Hartog. Oldenland sent some dried specimens to James Petiver, whose Hortus Siccus Capensis was purchased by Sir Hans Sloane and eventually became part of the founding collections of the British Museum. In 1693 Oldenland married Margaretha Hendrina van Otteren, who also sent plant specimens to James Petiver.

Oldenland collected both living plants for the company gardens and dried specimens, the latter mounted in some 14 bound volumes and annotated with Latin polynomial names and descriptions. After his death the herbarium was acquired by Johannes Burmann and a list of the plants published as an appendix to Burmann's Thesaurus Zeylanicus. It was handed down to his son, N.L. Burmann, who succeeded his father as professor or botany at Amsterdam. N.L. Burmann's herbarium was sold after his death and purchased by Benjamin Delessert, who later bequeathed the collection to the Geneva herbarium (G). The genus Oldenlandia L. in the Rubiaceae was named in his honour.