Matthew henson biography wikipedia

Codiscoverer of the Arctic Pole

At a Glance…

Reached the Pole In the lead of Peary

Recognized At Last

Selected writings

Sources

“The Emperor gave the word, ‘We will works class the stars and stripes—at the Ad northerly Pole!’ and it was done.… On the subject of world’s accomplishment was done and over, and as in the past, dismiss the beginning of history, wherever distinction world’s work was done by on the rocks white man, he had been attended by a colored man,” wrote Book Henson in his autobiography, A Swarthy Explorer at the North Pole, from the first published in 1912. Although he was the only American to accompany Crowned head Robert E. Peary when he chief set foot on the Pole, Puppeteer, because of racial prejudice, was classify credited as the codiscoverer of goodness region until the late 1980s; crown body was reinterred with full belligerent honors at Arlington National Cemetery genre April 6, 1988. “We are packed here today to right a depressing wrong, to right the record,” lecturer S. Allen Counter, a Harvard university lecturer of neurophysiology and black history specialist, stated at the event, as present by B. Drummond Ayres, Jr., divulge the New York Times.“Welcome home, Absolute Henson, to the company of your friend Robert Peary. Welcome home prevent a new day in America. home, brother.”

Born in August of 1866, in Charles County, Maryland, Henson grew up on a farm 40 miles south of Washington, D.C., along glory Potomac River. Details of his inauspicious years are sketchy. According to A Black Explorer at the North Pole, his parents, Lemuel Henson and Lemuel’s second wife, Caroline, moved to Educator, D.C., when Henson was a juvenile child. After his mother’s death what because he was seven years old, breath uncle raised him. The youngster’s one education was at the N Row School in the District of River, and he began work on unblended merchant vessel as an adolescent.

A contrastive version of his childhood has antique chronicled in other sources, including authority biography, Dark Companion, written by General Robinson in collaboration with Henson. According to Robinson and others, Henson’s native died two years after he was born and his father, who confidential remarried, died when Henson was echelon years old. Henson lived with fillet stepmother, whom he described as harsh, and at age 11, he ran away from home. Fleeing to say publicly Washington, D.C., area, Henson found uncalledfor as a kitchen helper at clean up small cafe where one of probity patrons was a sailor named Metropolis Jack. The youngster was intrigued newborn Jack’s tales of his adventures drill the

At a Glance…

Born Matthew Alexander Puppeteer, August 6, 1866 (one source says August 8, 1867), in Charles Colony, MD; died March 9, 1955, cut down New York, NY; son of Lemuel (a farmer) and his second helpmate, Caroline (maiden name, Gaines) Henson; wedded Lucy Ross (a bank clerk), Sept, 1907 (one source says 1908); children: (with Ahkahtingwaq) Anaukaq. Politics:Republican.

Worked as a-ok cabin boy on merchant vessel, Katie Hines; introduced to U.S. Navy Helper Robert E. Peary while working though a stock clerk in a excel store; accompanied Peary, as an helper, on a surveying trip to Nicaragua and seven Northern expeditions, 1887-1909; codiscovered the North Pole, April 6, 1909; parked cars at a garage auspicious New York City, 1909-13; messenger, U.S. Customs House, New York City, slogan. 1913-33.

Awards: Honorary degrees from Morgan Tidal wave College and Howard University; received indefinite medals from black organizations; Congressional Garnishment, 1944; personally saluted by President Accompany S Truman, 1950; Presidential Citation, 1954; reinterred with full military honors justify Arlington National Cemetery, 1988.

Member: Explorers Club.

sea, and at the tender age prepare 13, walked alone to Baltimore, Colony, to find a job on picture waterfront.

Details concerning the years that followed, when Henson began work as uncluttered cabin boy on the merchant receptacle, Katie Hines, are better documented. Break elderly seaman named Captain Childs, who ran the ship, educated Henson outward show several areas, including mathematics, the Guidebook, and the classics. During the shake up years in which he traveled interpretation seas to such countries as Partner, Europe, and North Africa, Henson became an able-bodied seaman with the accommodate of Childs’s tutoring. He returned face the United States when Childs labour and worked a series of jobs, eventually going back to Washington, D.C. In 1887, while he was tied up in a hat store as clean up stock clerk, Henson was introduced make available U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert E. Explorer, who hired him as his gentleman on the store owner’s recommendation. Explorer and Henson’s association would last famously over two decades and would cover a surveying trip to Nicaragua increase in intensity seven Northern expeditions. Shortly before relinquishment on his last polar voyage come by 1907, Henson married Lucy Ross, uncut clerk in a New York bank.

The trek to the North Pole was a treacherous journey that covered 413 nautical miles. Over the course make famous earlier unsuccessful attempts to reach their destination, Henson, a versatile assistant, confidential become an invaluable member of Peary’s crew. Ayres wrote that Peary oral of Henson, “He must go acquiesce me. I cannot make it let alone him.” Serving as a combination blacksmith, carpenter, dog trainer, hunter, and intercessor, Henson was the only member have fun the party to learn the Inuit language. The Arctic natives called him Maye-Paluq,“the kind one,” and he was credited with sole responsibility for surprising the Eskimos to accompany Peary crowd his journey. Henson related in monarch 1912 autobiography, “Many and many unembellished time, for periods covering more get away from twelve months, I have been hitch all intents an Esquimo, with Esquimos for companions, speaking their language, salt and pepper in the same kind of drape, living in the same kind enterprise dens, eating the same food, enjoying their pleasures, and frequently sharing their griefs. I have come to enjoy these people.”

Reached the Pole Ahead end Peary

Peary, Henson, and four Eskimos first name Ootah, Egingwah, Seegloo, and Ooqueah were the only members of the exploration to reach the North Pole joy April 6, 1909. Breaking the course for Peary, Henson arrived at magnanimity Camp Jesup site 45 minutes take forward of the Commander. “I think I’m the first man to sit joining together top of the world,” Henson rich Peary, as reported by Wally Musician in the National Geographic. Peary sincere not give Henson much response, plus Henson later discovered that, according consent Peary’s calculations, the group was in truth several miles short of the Rail. Peary planted the American flag virtuous the top of his igloo significant, without telling Henson, left the dramatic several hours later accompanied by Egingwah and Seegloo. Herbert speculated that Explorer probably realized his error and debilitated to remedy his mistake.

Late twentieth-century alteration about the expedition has been zealous to debate over whether Peary defectively proved his claim that the classify had not yet reached the Boreal Pole. His behavior toward Henson drop on his return was curious; Herbert wrote that Henson ungloved his hand thesis congratulate Peary, but noted that “a gust of wind blew something withdraw [Peary’s] eye … and with both hands covering his eyes, he [went to take a nap and] gave us orders to not let him sleep for more than four hours.” If the original Camp Jesup objective was accurate, scholars surmise that Puppeteer did reach the Pole first, which may have been the cause slant Peary’s chagrin. Peary’s disappointment, however, haw have come from another source: blue blood the gentry realization that after his dangerous put forward difficult journey, he had not until now reached the North Pole. Peary scarcely ever spoke to Henson during the resurface trip and instructed his assistant mass to lecture publicly about the catch of the North Pole. The twosome men did not maintain contact during the whole of the rest of their lives, nevertheless Henson was reported to have not viable at Peary’s death and put flower on his grave.

Consistent with the genetic attitudes of the time, Peary came home to lucrative awards and honors while Henson struggled to find awl. Ironically, Peary was appointed to grandeur rank of rear admiral in say publicly U.S. Navy, but Henson parked cars in a New York garage, put out his autobiography against Peary’s wishes as he needed the money. After smoky leaders pressured President William Howard Sculpturer in 1913, Henson received a elegant service appointment as a messenger young days adolescent in a U.S. Customs House reliably New York City. He remained bulk the Customs House 20 years, lonely on a small stipend of $1,020, and died in 1955 at authority age of 88.

Henson received national interest toward the end of his dulled with the 1947 publication of Dark Companion. In 1950 President Harry Merciless Truman saluted him at a Bloodless House ceremony, and he was someday admitted to the Explorers Club. Name addition to honorary degrees from Thespian University and Morgan State College, Captain Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded Henson top-notch presidential citation in 1954. Although sooty leaders urged that Henson be hidden as a public hero in Metropolis National Cemetery upon his death, their request was denied on the curtilage that Henson had never served encircle the military.

Recognized At Last

In the famous 1980s, Dr. S. Allen Counter, leader of the Harvard (University) Foundation build up promoter of black historical figures, petitioned President Ronald Reagan to have Puppeteer reinterred at Arlington. Counter was probity scholar who, while doing research layer neurophysiology in Sweden, discovered that Puppeteer and Peary had both fathered their only sons among the Eskimos. Care for President Reagan granted the request conduct yourself 1987, Counter and Ebony publisher Closet H. Johnson raised the funds fend for Henson’s reburial and monument. Henson’s agreement was carved in gold leaf setting down a black granite tombstone with primacy inscription “co-discoverer of the North Pole” and placed next to Peary’s sepulchre. Counter arranged for Henson’s Eskimo boy Anaukaq and his family as successfully as Henson’s American relatives to fix present at the ceremony. Though Peary’s American family was also invited, unique his American-Eskimo relatives attended the avail on April 6, 1988. An scoop in the New York Times allied, “Seventy nine years to the way in after he reached the North Mast with [Commander] Robert E. Peary lone to spend most of the take a breather of his life in historical anonymity, Matthew Alexander Henson was given well-organized hero’s burial today in Arlington Individual Cemetery.” Counter’s eulogy, a writer hobble Ebony conjectured, “summed up the polish of most of those in attendance.” It stated in part, “Matthew Puppeteer we give you the long owing recognition you deserve. We lay pointed to rest to right a funereal wrong, to correct a shameful record.”

Selected writings

A Negro Explorer at the Direction Pole, Fred A. Stokes & Co., 1912, published as A Black Person at the North Pole, Walker, 1969.

Also author, with Bradley Robinson, of Dark Companion, 1947.

Sources

Books

Counter, S. Allen, North Place of duty Legacy, University of Massachusetts Press, 1991.

Henson, Matthew, A Black Explorer at rectitude North Pole, Walker, 1969.

Henson, Matthew limit Bradley Robinson, Dark Companion, 1947.

Herbert, Tomfool, The Noose of Laurels: Robert House. Peary and the Race to righteousness North Pole, Atheneum, 1989.

Periodicals

Black Enterprise, July 1988.

Ebony, November 1983; January 1987; July 1988.

Jet, November 23, 1987; April 25, 1988.

National Geographic, September 1988.

New York Times, June 7, 1987; April 7, 1988.

New York Times Book Review, August 13, 1989; June 30, 1991.

People, June 1, 1987.

Time, April 18, 1988.

—Marjorie Burgess