This article is the third in a six part article series that will feature famous historical black figures for the month of February. This week’s feature will cover the historic landmarks made by Matthew Henson.

In 1909, Matthew Alexander Henson became the first black man to reach the North Pole.

Born Aug. 8, 1866, Henson was born to free Black American sharecroppers before the civil war. He spent most of his youth in Washington D.C., and ran away from his foster parents at the age of 12 to be a cabin boy for the vessel Katie Hines. During their travels, they got stuck in the Baltic Sea for several months which Henson had his first experience with a prolonged amount of time with cold weather. 

After working as a cabin boy for a couple years he returned to Washington D.C. to work at a department store as a sales clerk. While working at the department store, he came across Robert Peary. In 1887 Robert Peary hired him as a personal valet because of his experience with sailing. Henson impressed Peary which caused him to be promoted to a long term position.

Their first expedition was to the Arctic in 1891 to 1892. Henson was Peary’s navigator and craftsman, also known as Peary’s first man. He became famous for being a participant in the expedition and in 1912, he published a memoir titled “A Black Explorer at the North Pole”. As he got older his expeditions got more and renewed attention because people became more curious and interested in a black mans expeditions. He was the first African American to be made a life member of The Explorers Club, eventually rising to the highest level of membership in 1948. 

Henson got many awards for his expeditions like the Peary Polar Expedition Medal and was even received at the White House by Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhowe. In 2000, he posthumously was awarded the Hubbard Medal by the National Geographic Society for exploring new land and in 2021, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named a lunar crafter after him.