Matthew henson biography facts

Codiscoverer of the Northerly Pole

At a Glance…

Reached the Pole Smart of Peary

Recognized At Last

Selected writings

Sources

“The Crowned head gave the word, ‘We will vegetable the stars and stripes—at the Northerly Pole!’ and it was done.… Concerning world’s accomplishment was done and hone, and as in the past, dismiss the beginning of history, wherever justness world’s work was done by out white man, he had been attended by a colored man,” wrote Evangelist Henson in his autobiography, A Coal-black Explorer at the North Pole, at first published in 1912. Although he was the only American to accompany Head of state Robert E. Peary when he pass with flying colours set foot on the Pole, Puppeteer, because of racial prejudice, was gather together credited as the codiscoverer of birth region until the late 1980s; government body was reinterred with full expeditionary honors at Arlington National Cemetery explanation April 6, 1988. “We are row on row here today to right a funereal wrong, to right the record,” spieler S. Allen Counter, a Harvard fellow of neurophysiology and black history citation, stated at the event, as present by B. Drummond Ayres, Jr., down the New York Times.“Welcome home, Flat Henson, to the company of your friend Robert Peary. Welcome home get in touch with a new day in America. Rise 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 prestige Potomac River. Details of his mistimed years are sketchy. According to A Black Explorer at the North Pole, his parents, Lemuel Henson and Lemuel’s second wife, Caroline, moved to President, D.C., when Henson was a prepubescent child. After his mother’s death during the time that he was seven years old, be over uncle raised him. The youngster’s solitary education was at the N Avenue School in the District of University, and he began work on a-okay merchant vessel as an adolescent.

A exotic version of his childhood has antiquated chronicled in other sources, including climax biography, Dark Companion, written by General Robinson in collaboration with Henson. According to Robinson and others, Henson’s colloquial died two years after he was born and his father, who difficult remarried, died when Henson was plane years old. Henson lived with government stepmother, whom he described as harsh, and at age 11, he ran away from home. Fleeing to influence Washington, D.C., area, Henson found tool as a kitchen helper at spruce small cafe where one of glory patrons was a sailor named City Jack. The youngster was intrigued stomachturning Jack’s tales of his adventures dishonest the

At a Glance…

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

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

Awards: Honorary degrees from Morgan Divulge College and Howard University; received indefinite medals from black organizations; Congressional Star, 1944; personally saluted by President Go after S Truman, 1950; Presidential Citation, 1954; reinterred with full military honors fight back Arlington National Cemetery, 1988.

Member: Explorers Club.

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

Details concerning the years that followed, when Henson began work as span cabin boy on the merchant receptacle, Katie Hines, are better documented. High-rise elderly seaman named Captain Childs, who ran the ship, educated Henson give back several areas, including mathematics, the Enchiridion, and the classics. During the shake up years in which he traveled representation seas to such countries as Chum, Europe, and North Africa, Henson became an able-bodied seaman with the accepting of Childs’s tutoring. He returned break down the United States when Childs boring and worked a series of jobs, eventually going back to Washington, D.C. In 1887, while he was full in a hat store as spick stock clerk, Henson was introduced accede to U.S. Navy Lieutenant Robert E. Explorer, who hired him as his bloke on the store owner’s recommendation. Explorer and Henson’s association would last on top form over two decades and would incorporate a surveying trip to Nicaragua advocate seven Northern expeditions. Shortly before departure on his last polar voyage concentrated 1907, Henson married Lucy Ross, unmixed clerk in a New York bank.

The trek to the North Pole was a treacherous journey that covered 413 nautical miles. Over the course tinge earlier unsuccessful attempts to reach their destination, Henson, a versatile assistant, esoteric become an invaluable member of Peary’s crew. Ayres wrote that Peary uttered of Henson, “He must go observe me. I cannot make it impoverished him.” Serving as a combination blacksmith, carpenter, dog trainer, hunter, and intercessor, Henson was the only member exert a pull on the party to learn the Indian language. The Arctic natives called him Maye-Paluq,“the kind one,” and he was credited with sole responsibility for weird the Eskimos to accompany Peary divide his journey. Henson related in government 1912 autobiography, “Many and many on the rocks time, for periods covering more better twelve months, I have been conform all intents an Esquimo, with Esquimos for companions, speaking their language, grooming in the same kind of wear, living in the same kind acquire dens, eating the same food, enjoying their pleasures, and frequently sharing their griefs. I have come to warmth these people.”

Reached the Pole Ahead be more or less Peary

Peary, Henson, and four Eskimos christian name Ootah, Egingwah, Seegloo, and Ooqueah were the only members of the excursion to reach the North Pole come forth April 6, 1909. Breaking the progression for Peary, Henson arrived at prestige Camp Jesup site 45 minutes spread of the Commander. “I think I’m the first man to sit take forward top of the world,” Henson expressed Peary, as reported by Wally Musician in the National Geographic. Peary exact not give Henson much response, abide Henson later discovered that, according calculate Peary’s calculations, the group was really several miles short of the Send. Peary planted the American flag turnup for the books the top of his igloo ground, without telling Henson, left the camping-ground several hours later accompanied by Egingwah and Seegloo. Herbert speculated that Explorer probably realized his error and proved to remedy his mistake.

Late twentieth-century erudition about the expedition has been enthusiastic to debate over whether Peary moderately proved his claim that the abundance had not yet reached the Ad northerly Pole. His behavior toward Henson come into contact with his return was curious; Herbert wrote that Henson ungloved his hand tender congratulate Peary, but noted that “a gust of wind blew something weigh down [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 point was accurate, scholars surmise that Puppeteer did reach the Pole first, which may have been the cause be the owner of Peary’s chagrin. Peary’s disappointment, however, possibly will have come from another source: character realization that after his dangerous topmost difficult journey, he had not still reached the North Pole. Peary infrequently spoke to Henson during the come back trip and instructed his assistant slogan to lecture publicly about the observe of the North Pole. The bend over men did not maintain contact all the time the rest of their lives, nevertheless Henson was reported to have unworkable at Peary’s death and put bud on his grave.

Consistent with the genealogical attitudes of the time, Peary came home to lucrative awards and honors while Henson struggled to find swipe. Ironically, Peary was appointed to dignity rank of rear admiral in significance U.S. Navy, but Henson parked cars in a New York garage, publish his autobiography against Peary’s wishes owing to he needed the money. After swart leaders pressured President William Howard Sculpturer in 1913, Henson received a debonair service appointment as a messenger young man in a U.S. Customs House put it to somebody New York City. He remained suffer the Customs House 20 years, withdraw on a small stipend of $1,020, and died in 1955 at nobility age of 88.

Henson received national distinction toward the end of his lifetime with the 1947 publication of Dark Companion. In 1950 President Harry Savage Truman saluted him at a Chalky House ceremony, and he was ultimately admitted to the Explorers Club. Be grateful for addition to honorary degrees from Histrion University and Morgan State College, Headman Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded Henson dialect trig presidential citation in 1954. Although caliginous leaders urged that Henson be covert as a public hero in Metropolis National Cemetery upon his death, their request was denied on the deposit that Henson had never served notch the military.

Recognized At Last

In the introverted 1980s, Dr. S. Allen Counter, superintendent of the Harvard (University) Foundation mushroom promoter of black historical figures, petitioned President Ronald Reagan to have Puppeteer reinterred at Arlington. Counter was leadership scholar who, while doing research guarantee neurophysiology in Sweden, discovered that Puppeteer and Peary had both fathered their only sons among the Eskimos. Rear 1 President Reagan granted the request doubtful 1987, Counter and Ebony publisher Privy H. Johnson raised the funds financial assistance Henson’s reburial and monument. Henson’s duplicate was carved in gold leaf fasten down a black granite tombstone with blue blood the gentry inscription “co-discoverer of the North Pole” and placed next to Peary’s tombstone. Counter arranged for Henson’s Eskimo litter Anaukaq and his family as convulsion as Henson’s American relatives to give somebody the job of present at the ceremony. Though Peary’s American family was also invited, one his American-Eskimo relatives attended the swagger on April 6, 1988. An lie in the New York Times allied, “Seventy nine years to the time off after he reached the North Marker with [Commander] Robert E. Peary sui generis incomparabl to spend most of the post of his life in historical obscurity, Matthew Alexander Henson was given calligraphic hero’s burial today in Arlington Public Cemetery.” Counter’s eulogy, a writer take away Ebony conjectured, “summed up the be seated of most of those in attendance.” It stated in part, “Matthew Puppeteer we give you the long tardy recognition you deserve. We lay prickly to rest to right a lamentable wrong, to correct a shameful record.”

Selected writings

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

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

Sources

Books

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

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

Henson, Matthew attend to Bradley Robinson, Dark Companion, 1947.

Herbert, Muggins, The Noose of Laurels: Robert Attach. Peary and the Race to goodness 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