Matthew Henson

Henson married a woman named Eva Flint in 1891. Their marriage became strained due to his long absences from home and ended in divorce in 1897.

He tied the knot with Lucy Ross in 1906.

He developed relationships with Inuit women on his voyages and fathered a son named Anauakaq with a woman called Akatingwah around 1906. He did not play any role in the upbringing of his son.

Matthew Alexander Henson was born on August 8, 1866, in Maryland. His parents were free people of color who worked as sharecroppers. He had three sisters. His mother died when he was just two and his father remarried and fathered more children. Unfortunately his father too died when Matthew was still a young boy.

Orphaned, he went to live with relatives. He spent a few years in the care of his uncle, but he too died not too long after.

Left to fend for himself, he left home and found a job as a cabin boy on a merchant ship named Katie Hines. The ship’s captain, Childs, took young Matthew under his wing. He treated him like a son and taught him to read and write.

The two developed a close bond and sailed around the world together, visiting countries like Japan, China, France, Africa, and the Philippines. Matthew became a skilled navigator as a result of these worldwide travelling experiences.

His mentor Childs died around 1883 and Henson worked as a seaman for sometime before taking up a job as a clerk at a Washington D.C. clothing store, B.H.Stinemetz and sons.

In November 1887, he met Commander Robert Edwin Peary, an explorer and officer in the U.S. Navy Corps of Civil Engineers. Peary was looking for an aide to accompany him on his future expeditions and when he learned of Henson’s experiences at the sea, he immediately hired him as a valet.

Henson first accompanied Peary on his voyage and surveying expedition to Nicaragua in 1888, where Peary supervised 45 engineers on the canal survey. Henson proved to be a capable seaman on that trip and impressed by him, Peary recruited him as a colleague.

In 1891, Peary and Henson embarked on a Greenland expedition. It was an arduous trip, and several members of the team abandoned the trip long before its actual completion. On this trip Henson learned about the local Eskimo culture and the natives' Arctic survival skills.

They started out on another trip to Greenland in 1895. This time the duo planned to chart the entire ice cap. This journey proved to be very difficult as the team found itself on the brink of starvation at one point and had to resort to killing and eating their sled dogs. Eventually they managed to survive and returned home.

Matthew Henson is best known as the aide of explorer Robert Peary who he accompanied on several arctic explorations, including the famous 1909 expedition to Greenland during which they became the first to reach the Geographic North Pole.