Matthew Henson Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Matthew Henson
OCCUPATION: Explorer
BIRTH DATE: August 08, 1866
DEATH DATE: March 09, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH: Charles County, Maryland

PLACE OF DEATH: New York, New York

more about Matthew

Best Known For

Matthew Henson started as valet to explorer Robert Edwin Peary, and ended up as one of the first men to reach the North Pole with Peary in 1909.

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Matthew Henson

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Synopsis

African American Matthew Henson was born August 8, 1866 in Maryland. He was hired as valet to explorer Robert Edwin Peary, and soon impressed his employer with his abilities. Henson accompanied Peary on his expeditions to Nicaragua and the Arctic. In 1909

Profile

(born Aug. 8, 1866, Charles county, Md., U.S.—died March 9, 1955, New York, N.Y.) American black explorer who accompanied Robert E. Peary on most of his expeditions, including that to the North Pole in 1909.

Orphaned as a youth, Henson went to sea at the age of 12 as a cabin boy on the sailing ship Katie Hines. Later, while working in a store in Washington, D.C., he met Peary, who hired him as a valet for his next expedition to Nicaragua (1888). Peary, impressed with Henson's ability and resourcefulness, employed him as an attendant on his seven subsequent expeditions to the Arctic (1891–92; 1893–95; 1896; 1897; 1898–1902; 1905–06; 1908–09). In 1909 Peary and Henson, accompanied by four Eskimos, became the first men to reach the North Pole, the rest of the crew having turned back earlier. Henson's account of the journey, A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, appeared in 1912. The following year, by order of President William Howard Taft, Henson was appointed a clerk in the U.S. Customs House in New York City, a post he held until his retirement in 1936. Henson received the Congressional medal awarded all members of the Peary expedition (1944).