After 18 years of attempts, the Robert Peary Expedition claims to be at the North Pole. Matthew Henson (1866-1955) is the first in the party to reach the Pole.
Born in Nanjemoy, Charles County, to sharecroppers, Henson and his family flee racial violence and move to Washington, DC, where Henson spends most of his youth. Working as a sales clerk, Henson meets Robert Peary, becoming his personal valet in 1887. He accompanies Peary on many expeditions.
When the Arctic forays begin in 1890-91, Henson learns Inuit survival techniques to deal with the cold and becomes Peary’s most trusted partner. The world accepts Peary’s 1909 claim but research in 1989 discovers that his expedition may have missed the North Pole by 60 miles.
Matthew Henson achieves fame when he writes a memoir in 1912, ” A Negro Explorer at the North Pole.” He becomes the first African American member of the famed Explorers Club in 1937. After being awarded a Polar Expedition Medal in 1944, he is welcomed at the White House by Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. In 2000, Henson is posthumously awarded the National Geographic’s highest award and has a lunar crater named for him in 2021.
