The North Pole!

The 1908-1909 North Pole expedition was broken into multiple sections or marches. At each camp there was a group sent back along the blazed trail to leave supplies in determined locations for the last parties' return. Peary ultimately had a choice between taking Captain Robert Bartlett or Matthew Henson with him for the last march. Citing that they had been together for over twenty years, Peary chose Henson and four Eskimos Seeglo, Ooqueah, Egingwah and Ootah to accompany him.

There has been some speculation that Peary did not choose Captain Bartlett to join him on the last march so that he could receive all the recognition. Conversely, according to Elysa Engelman in the article Black Hands, Blue Seas: Matthew Henson at the North Pole, racists assumed the reason for Peary to have chosen Henson and the four Inuit was because being men of color they "lacked the intelligence or ability to contradict his claims."




Image Caption: This photograph titled "The five flags at the Pole" was taken in 1909 once the Peary expedition made it to ninety degrees North. Matthew Henson is in the center holding the American flag with, from left, Ooqueah, Ootah, Henson, Egingwah, and Seeglo (presumably in this order) holding flags from the Daughters of the Revolution Peace Society, one with the Navy League emblem and two with Peary's college fraternity emblems, Peary is the photographer, courtesy of the Library of Congress.