Matthew Henson #1334

Caption from poster__     “ Matthew Henson    A Negro Explorer at the North Pole.”   From the time we knew we were at the Pole Commander Peary  scarcely spoke to me.  It  nearly broke my heart...that he would  slip away on the homeward trail without rapping on the ice for  me, as was the established custom.”    " I think I'm the first man to sit on top of the world." Matthew Henson (1866-1955) Matthew Henson is not the first colored man who ... has made himself the trusty companion of the men who have explored and opened up the western continent. Even in the days when the Negro had little or no opportunity to show his ability as a leader ... there are few great adventures in which the American white man has engaged where he has not been accompanied by a colored man. —Booker T. Washington When Robert E. Peary purportedly discovered the North Pole, the person standing beside him was a black man—Matthew A. Henson. Matthew A. Henson was born in Charles County, Maryland on August 8th