Happy Birthday, Matthew Henson!

I was browsing tumblr the other day and I came across a post by the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum Tumblr, where I found these fantastic and rarely shared photos and illustrations of Commander Robert Edwin Peary’s Right Hand, Matthew Henson.

As the blog pointed out, Matthew Henson “accompanied Peary on six different Arctic Expeditions over 20 years”. Henson was talented at dog driving, navigation, seafaring skills and generally getting Peary out of trouble.

Much has been said about Henson’s contributions to Arctic Exploration, but it is widely accepted that Matthew Henson was the first man to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909 with Peary and party (Inuits Ootah, Egingwah, Seegloo, and Ooqueah) arriving a few moments later.

As a lifetime explorer and dreamer, Matthew Henson was fluent in local languages and interested in indigenous culture. Inuit team members would call him Miy Paluk, (“Matthew, the Kind One”). After the 1909 expedition, Henson and Peary made the rounds at both the National and Royal Geographic Societies presenting photographic slides and giving popular lectures about their adventures in the North.

In 1912, Henson published his autobiography “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole” with an introduction by Booker T. Washington and a forward by Robert Peary.

In 1949, Matthew Henson was commended at the White House by President Eisenhower ‘for his significant contributions to the success of the discovery of the North Pole”.

Henson passed away in 1955, and is remembered today as “one of the most talented Arctic explorers of his time, and certainly as a pioneering black American.” He is now buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Happy Birthday Matthew Henson and big thanks to the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum Tumblr for their wonderful post and images!