After Finding the North Pole

With Robert Peary having taken all the credit for the discovery of the North Pole in 1909, there are some people who believe that Matthew Henson should have been the one to receive the credit, awards and accolades. Afterall, Henson had been the one to break the trail ahead of Peary and reached ninety degrees North first. At the point when Peary took the measurements which proved the party had reached the North Pole, he made this realization himself and limited his contact with Henson from that day on mostly due to his selfish nature.

As Robert Bryce indicates in his introduction to the 2001 edition of A Negro Explorer at the North Pole by Matthew Henson, Henson and Peary parted ways soon after they reached the North Pole because Peary could not share the stage with anyone for fear it would detract from his popularity. Henson states that:

"Commander Peary, for all the years I have known him, has been a selfish man, after his own glory and that of nobody else.... Since he discovered the North Pole, I have had a chance to see that more plainly than ever before, and so have some others."



Image Caption: This photograph titled "Matthew Henson, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing front, holding a portrait of Robert E. Peary taken during an expedition to the North Pole" was taken in 1953 by photographer Roger Higgins for the New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper, courtesy of the Library of Congress.