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Robert E. Peary's (1856-1920) obsession with discovering the North Pole touched many people in his lifetime. With his first expedition to find the North Pole behind him, Peary met Matthew Henson in 1888 by chance while he was working in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. where Peary was acquiring supplies and support for his second expedition to Nicaragua. Peary asked if Matthew would like to join him on 
this voyage as his personal servant and Henson agreed. Becoming Peary's assistant as described by Henson himself was a position that "covered a multitude of duties, abilities and responsibilities."
Peary was a goal oriented man and his obsession with finding the North Pole took him to the Arctic a total of eight times with Henson by his side for seven of them. During his time in Greenland, Peary got to know the Inuit and he would ask for Inuit men and women to join them and teach his men how to build sledges and dog sleds in addition to hunt and utilize the goods they needed to survive the biting cold. Henson took to the task of learning the language and skills necessary to get the teams through to the North Pole, he could speak the Inuit language fluently and learned how to drive the dog sleds with the best of them. According to Peary because of these acquired skills, he chose to take Henson on what would be his last expedition, a journey that reportedly took them all the way to ninety degrees North, the true North Pole.Image Caption: This photograph is titled "Robert Peary, full-length portrait, standing, facing front, in fur garments" and was taken between 1886 and 1909 after an expedition to the North Pole, courtesy of Library of Congress.
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.
Having died, February 20, 1920, just eleven years after his successful expedition to the North Pole, Robert Peary had a funeral that would rival some dignitaries. Honored with interment at Arlington National Cemetery, Peary's 
funeral included the type of distinction and ceremony he had when he returned from his most famous expedition. With a horse drawn hearse and band playing, Robert Peary was an honored explorer even in death. There is speculation that on his deathbed Peary asked to see Henson. According to Pauline Angell the author of To the Top of the World, Henson hastened to Peary's side shortly before his death. Henson was present at his side when he died and was overcome with grief and locked himself in the bathroom for fear his wife, Lucy, would see him sobbing. Lucy was unable to ever forgive Peary for his treatment of her husband after the North Pole expedition. Image Caption: This photograph titled "Funeral of Adml. Peary" was taken as part of a series of photographs on February 23, 1920 of his casket being taken from his home in Washington D.C., courtesy of the Library of Congress.
