Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 235

Price Realized: $ 1,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(EXPLORATION.) Pair of press photographs of Arctic explorer Matthew Henson. Each 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches with a 5 1/2 x 7-inch folding caption slip mounted to verso; minor wear. New York: Underwood & Underwood, circa December 1926

Additional Details

Matthew Henson (1866-1955) was Robert Peary's second in command on several polar expeditions, and most notably was one of the party of six which claimed the North Pole in April 1909. He is here shown in later life, a middle-aged man in a suit filing papers at the New York Customs House, with scenes of Inuits, icebergs, and dogsleds still dancing through his mind. The caption explains that a local Congressman was pushing through a bill to honor Henson with a medal in "belated recognition of his heroism" as "the only member of his race to have ever reached the North Pole."