Matthew Henson

Matthew Henson was orphaned young and went to sea as a cabin boy at age twelve, where he learned navigation, carpentry, and seamanship from a ship's captain who took him under his wing. This training later proved essential to a career of Arctic exploration few could match.

Henson met naval officer Robert Peary in 1887 and began a partnership that would span more than two decades and seven Arctic expeditions. Far more than an assistant, Henson learned Inuktitut, built sledges, trained sled dogs, and was widely regarded by the expedition's Inuit guides as the most skilled member of the team, indispensable to the group's survival in brutal conditions.

On April 6, 1909, Henson was the lead member of the party that reached the vicinity of the North Pole, arriving ahead of Peary due to trail conditions. For decades Peary received sole public credit for the achievement while Henson's contribution went largely unrecognised; only much later in his life did he receive formal honours, including a Congressional medal in 1944 and, posthumously in 2000, the National Geographic Society's highest honour and reburial with full honours at Arlington National Cemetery.