In honor of Black History Month, we will be posting weekly about the life and accomplishments of the first person to set foot at the North Pole… It is Matt Henson Monday!
Matthew Alexander Henson was born August 8, 1866 in Nanjemoy, Maryland. His parents died while he was still a boy and he studied for six years at the N Street School in Washington, D.C. At the age of 12 years, he moved to Baltimore where he found employment as cabin boy under Captain Childs on the steamship Katie Hines, bound first for China. Henson traveled widely aboard the Katie Hines, proving himself not only to be a capable seaman but also a talented linguist.
Back in Washington D.C. in 1887, working as a store clerk, Henson first met Robert E. Peary, who hired him as a “body-servant“ for a surveying trip in Nicaragua. Henson showed his skill and capacity again in this new environment and his responsibilities grew in turn over the course of the trip.
Matthew Henson apparently made an impression. As Peary planned for his North Greenland Expedition in 1890, he called on Henson once again. This time they were heading North…