Matthew Henson was born in Maryland in 1866 and went to sea as a cabin boy. In 1887 he met the explorer Robert Peary, and together they made seven expeditions to the Arctic. Henson learned the Inuit language and became an expert dog-sled driver. On April 6, 1909, Peary's team said they had reached the North Pole, and Henson was there. Whether they reached the exact Pole is still debated.

Peary got the fame. Henson spent decades as a clerk in New York. In 1937 the Explorers Club finally made him a member, and in 1988 he was reburied at Arlington National Cemetery, near Peary.