#operti

[curiouscatalog]

Pop-up illustration by Albert Operti

McIlhenny’s Tabasco. New Iberia, La. : E. McIlhenny’s Son, 1900

HD9330.S364 M45 1900

[arcticmuseum]

To mark the beginning of African American History Month, here is Matthew Henson, the first African American Arctic explorer.

This 1910 cigarette card is one of the earliest popular tributes to Henson. It features a painting of Henson by artist Albert Operti and always strikes me as especially important. Operti had been on expeditions with Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson, and so knew Henson personally.  Operti created a whole series of great explorer cards, but Henson is the only African American, and the only person who was not an expedition leader or holder of some significant record, that he included. Although he describes Henson as a servant and bodyguard I can only think that Operti included him out of respect for Henson’s many accomplishments, which he had experienced first hand.