Matthew Henson

Matthew Alexander Henson, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front, wearing his fur suit

“I think I’m the first man to sit on top of the world.” - Matthew Henson

Matthew Henson (1866-1955) was the first African American to reach the North Pole.

At the early age of 12 Henson signed up to be a cabin boy for the next 6 years aboard a sailing ship called the Katie Hines. Under the mentorship of Captain Childs, Henson learned technical skills, received an education, traveled around the world, and became a competent sailor.

After Captain Childs died in 1887, Henson took a job as a shop clerk in D.C. This is where he met naval officer Robert Peary who had just arrived from an expedition to Greenland. Robert was impressed with Henson’s sailing enthusiasm/experience, and hired Henson as his assistant.

They began their adventures exploring the Nicaraguan jungles, and then expanded their travels to Greenland. In 1891 the companions began an 18-year partnership of Arctic exploration, completely mapping the Greenland ice cap as well as recovering three enormous meteor fragments.

Restored 1947 map from Dark Companion, Bradley Robinson

In 1906, Peary and Henson managed to get within 174 miles of the North Pole by ship using a state-of-the-art icebreaker, Peary and Henson made it closer to the pole than on any expedition to date.

Matthew Henson (center) and four Inuit guides (Ooqeah, Ootah, Egingwah, and Seeglo) in 1908, taken by Robert Peary

Two years later, (1908), Henson and Peary made their eighth and last attempt to reach the North Pole. On April 6, 1909, Henson, Peary, Ooqueah, Ootah, Egingwah, and Seegloo, with 40 dogs (the trip had begun with 24 men, 19 sledges and 133 dogs) finally arrived at the North Pole.

Following this expedition, Henson’s accomplishments were largely overlooked. He spent the next three decades working as a clerk in a New York federal customs house, but recorded his Arctic memoirs in his 1912 book “A Negro Explorer at the North Pole”.

Matthew Henson, right, at the White House in 1954 with his wife, and President Dwight Eisenhower. Photograph: Bettmann Archive

In 1937 at 70 years old Henson was accepted as an honorary member in the highly regarded Explorers Club in New York. Then, in 1944, he and other expedition members were finally awarded a Congressional medal.

Image by Frederick Cook & The Smithsonian