A Gold Brick

The tiny village population three hundred finds itself at the center of a media frenzy it hasn't seen before or since. Against a backdrop of fishing boats bobbing expectantly in the harbor, dozens of reporters wearing hats and long thick coats to guard against the chill, have descended on the wooden dock

waiting for a press conference with Robert E. Peary. These men have one goal to get the scoop from Perry on the historic first conquest of the North Pole, and they want to know if Perry believes another explorer, Frederick A. Cook, has beaten him to it. Perry's assistant, Donald Baxter McMillan later sums up what so many are thinking geographers, scientists,

students of Arctic literature. All had questioned the possibility of ever reaching the pole, And two men within five days of each other, we're claiming to have done that very thing. Was this a practical joke? For Peary, the situation is deadly serious, though he tries not to show it. A few weeks earlier, while still in Greenland, he had learned that Cook was claiming he'd reached the North Pole on April twe almost a full year before Peery himself reached it.

By coincidence, Cook had arrived in the Shetland Islands and sent word of his conquest to newspapers only about a week earlier, on September one, five days before Perry made his announcement from the telegraph office in Indian Harbor, Labrador. As Peri's controversial news bounces from one tiny telegraph office to another before finally reaching newspapers, it begins to seem like Cook has stolen not just Peri's thunder. His claim of being first to the poll threatens to nullify Perry's

entire Arctic career and his shot at fame. But in front of the media, Peery appears confident in his success. A reporter asks how he felt upon reaching the top of the world. Pierry stands up, shoulders back, and in a steady voice, answers, can't you imagine how a man feels after spending twenty three years of the best years of his life, who had given parts of his body the body God gave him, and accomplishing his ambition when

he attains it. The room falls silent. Meanwhile, Battle Harbor's telegraph operator is overwhelmed with messages from news organizations, all demanding Peri's comment on Cook. Perry is determined to fight for his honor. To the New York Times, which paid four thousand dollars for his story, Peery writes, do not trouble about cook story or attempt to explain any discrepancies in his statements. The affair will settle itself. He has not been at the poll on April one, or at

any other time. He has simply handed the public a gold brick. The next day, the New York Times publishes a front page article presenting both explorers stories and Peri, accusing Cook of giving the public a bait and switch. By the time the Roosevelt reaches Sydney, Nova Scotia. The Cook Pery controversy is the leading topic of the day, McMillan wrote. Later, newspaper readers received thousands of postcards in the mail asking them are you for Cook or Perry.

Reporters found each of the explorers for proof of his claim, while newspapers fanned the controversy. Though they couldn't have foreseen this turn of events, Peery and Cook are now locked in a fierce battle for the title of first man at the North Pole. When they returned to the United States after their Arctic adventures, they trade insults in the press and muster their influential supporters to argue their cases. Other explorers and scientists scrutinize their records and choose sides.

In this episode, we'll see why everyone was asking not just who reached the pole first, but whether either of them had reached it at all. From Mental Floss and I Heart Radio, this is the Quest for the North Pole. I'm your host, Cat Long, Science editor at Mental Loss and this is episode seven. A gold brick. September nine wasn't the first time Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary had cross paths. Born in tiny Hortonville, New York.

In eighteen sixty five, Cook moved from his hometown near the Delaware River to New York City to attend medical school. He supported his studies with a milk delivery business he ran with his brother Theodore. Around eighteen ninety, he opened his own medical practice, but he didn't have many patients. When he read in the New York Herald the Robert Peery was planning an expedition to northern Greenland for the summer of eight he to offer his services. Peery hired

him as a surgeon on the trip. Cook was charismatic, amiable, and a good doctor, but neither Peery nor his senior assistant, Matthew Henson, were impressed with his wilderness skills. He was, to put it bluntly, a hot mess, according to Henson's biographer Bradley Robinson. On a hunt, Cook scared away the reindeer by complaining too loudly. On a different hunt, he missed his target and shot a hole through the side

of a whale boat. When Cook asked to accompany Henson on one of his walrus hunts, in which one wrong move could mean being stabbed by a tusk, Henson turned him down. If dr Cook was to have a gun in his hand, Matt preferred not to be nearby, his biographer wrote, Following his expedition with Peery, Cook headed all the way south, he signed up as a surgeon on the Belgian and Arctic Expedition, lasting from eight the first of what historians later dubbed the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration.

Among his crewmates was the Norwegian explorer Roald Amondson, who later became the first European to sail the entire Northwest Passage and the first person to stand at the South Pole. Though he failed to win over Pierry in Henson, Cook's reputation as a bold adventurer was growing. In three he attempted to climb Mount McKinley, now called the Nali, which, at twenty thousand, three hundred and ten feet in elevation,

is North America's highest mountain. While he had to settle for circumnavigating its base, Cook gave lectures to mountaineering clubs upon his return to New York and impressed the right people like Robert Pierry. Cook soon gathered around him a coterie of well connected comrades to support his adventures. The Cook's group was more democratic and focused on research then

the Periarctic Club, which existed to fundraise. Cook's group, called the Explorers Club, included fellow explorer and author Henry Collins Walsh, Adolphus Greeley and David Brainerd of the notorious eighty one Greeley Expedition, and Frank Chapman, then the Associate Curator of Birds and Mammals at the American Museum of Natural History. In nineteen o six, accompanied by members of the Explorers Club,

Cooke returned to Alaska. This time he claimed to have made the first ascent of Denali, but this may have been a case of Cook's daring ambition overshadowing his skills. Members of his own climbing team later said that they didn't get anywhere near the top, and the photographic evidence Cook revealed from the expedition wasn't sufficient to decide the case. But it didn't matter. Cooke had earned the public's recognition. With his new status as an audacious outdoor hero, he

set his sights on the North Pole. A Florida casino magnate named John R. Bradley agreed to give Cook ten thousand dollars, which would be roughly two dred and eighty one thousand today to organize a big game hunting trip to Greenland, which Cook would use as a starting point for a push to the Pole. The expedition just Cook at eleven crew members aboard a former fishing schooner named for Bradley, who would join them in Newfoundland, departed from Gloucester, Massachusetts,

on July three. Unlike Robert Pierry's departure, complete with boat parades and thousands of cheering fans, hardly anyone noticed Cook leaving. An Arctic expedition had been born without the usual clamor. Cook wrote in My Attainment of the Poll is account that argues his case and takes numerous swipes at Perry. Prepared in one month and financed by a sportsman whose only mission was to hunt game animals in North No

press campaign heralded our project. No government aid had been asked, nor had large contributions been sought from private individuals to purchase luxuries for a pullman jaunt of a large party. Pollward here was nonsense, and Perry's idea of a pare down expedition taken to the extreme. Cook wrote that he wasn't even sure he'd actually try for the pole until he got to Greenland, but just in case, he brought a long wood for sledges, appropriate clothing, and one thousand

pounds of pemmican manufactured by Armoring Company of Chicago. One resource he didn't bring was a trusted companion like Matthew Henson who could accompany him to the poll. Basically, he was just gonna wing it. They initially followed the American route to Cape York in northwest Greenland. They paused at inuite villages along the Greenland coast to hunt Walrus's seals

and ducks. But while Bradley was mainly interested in the game, Cook's dreams of making history took shape as the little schooner pulled into a harbor at Anoatok, the northernmost village in Greenland. Normally there were hardly more than a couple of tents constituting the village, but now a large group of families had gathered to initiate the winter bear hunt. It came strongly to me that this was the spot

to make the base for a polar dash. Here were Eskimo helpers, strong, hefty natives from whom I could select the best to accompany me, Cook wrote, with a definite air of entitlement. Here, by a fortunate chance, were the best dog teams. Here were plenty of furs for clothing, and here was unlimited food. These supplies, combined with supplies on the schooner, would give all that was needed for

the campaign. Nothing could have been more ideal. When Cook informed Bradley of his plans, the two men parted ways. Bradley left Cook with supplies from the ship and one of the ship's crew, a German assistant named Rudolph Franca. Cook obtained the rest of his equipment with the help of the Innuit. He instructed them in making sledges out of the tough hickory planks he brought on the Bradley, and they hunted an astounding number of animals for winter

provisions and for the pole journey in spring. From August seven to May nine. According to Cook, they captured two thousand, four hundred and twenty two birds, three hundred and eleven Arctic hares, three hundred and twenty foxes, thirty six reindeer, twenty two polar bears, fifty two seals, seventy three walruses, twenty one nar Walls, three Belugas, and two hundred and six Muskoks. Cook, Franca and nine Inuit assistants departed a

Noah Talk on February. They drove a convoy of eleven dog sleds, weighed down with six thousand pounds of equipment and provisions. Instead of heading north through Kane Basin and up Kennedy Channel towards Cape Sheridan, as naires and period had done, Cook traveled west, crossing Smith's Sound to Ellesmere Island.

His rationale was that he could replenish the food supply for his party and dogs by hunting game in the valleys west of Ellesmere, which Auto spare Drop had mapped in his extensive explorations at the end of the nineteenth century. They could also lay caches of supplies for Cooke's return journey. The party continued across the island towards Greeley Fiord, which

connected with the head of Nonsen Sound. The sounds other end met the Arctic Ocean at Cape Thomas Hubbard, a few hundred miles west from Cape Sheridan along the coast of Ellesmere Island. There, Cook decided to split up the party and make a break for the pole. He chose two young Inuit, it took a shoe and a ella, and paired down his gear to only the barest minimum of food, shelter, clothing, and navigational equipment to sustain them for eighty days. They left land on March eighteenth, with

a journey of five hundred miles ahead of them. Unlike Peery, Cook didn't send advance parties ahead of his own sledge to build igloos and lay down supplies at the end of each march. The three men had to build shelter and tend to their gear and dogs. Yet they clocked one hundred miles and crossed the Big Lead, the treacherous expanse of water and shifting ice that had held Perry up for nearly a week, in just five days. Cook

spurred on his Inuit companions by fudging their position. Both a wella and ittook a shoe were sure of a constant nearness to land. Cook wrote, because of the native panic out of its reassuring site, I encouraged this daily chance of s being new Land, as I did concerning every other possible sign of land further northward. I knew that only by encouraging a delusion of nearness to land could I urge them ever farther in the face of

the hardships that must inevitably come. Cook may have thought he was fooling them, But the new Weeks surely new land. When they saw it. They could tell the difference between land and some clouds or an expanse of ice. This was, after all, their neck of the woods. And what's more, Cook believed he did spot a new land mass he named Bradley Land between eight four eight five parallels, which

it turns out didn't exist. Cook's ploy to deceive his companions and his apparent willingness to lie about their position, would come back to haunt him. The trio pushed on as days stretched into the polar spring. In mid April. Cook's navigational readings suggested that the pole was near. He wrote, climbing the long ladder of latitudes, there was always the feeling that each hour's work was bringing us nearer the pole, the poll which men had sought for three centuries, and

which fortune favoring should be mine. On April one, Cook believed he had reached his destination. My relief was indescribable. He wrote, the prize of an international marathon was ours. Pinning the stars and stripes to a tent pole. I asserted the achievement in the name of the ninety millions of countrymen who swear fealty to that flag. Before he could share the news of his feet, Cook and his

team had to survive the trip home. This proved to be more difficult than anything they had encountered so far. Drifting ice slowed their progress and diverted them from their planned route of return, and they were forced to spend the dark pole Older winter of nineteen o eight nineteen o nine in a cave on Canada's Devon Island, just

north of Lancaster Sound. Polar bears stalked them closely. They endured storms and ran out of food several times, only to be rescued from starvation by the fortunate capture of a hare or bird. When Cook it took a shoe and Alulla did manage to sledge their way back to a Noah Talk. In April nineteen o nine, he ran into Harry Whitney, the American big game hunter who had come up with perious supply ship the previous year. He

told Whitney of his claim and desperate journey. After several days of rest, Cook and an Inuit companion, departed by dogs, led to the Danish outpost of Upernibuk, about seven miles to the south, the fastest way of getting back to his own civilization and to spread the word of his conquest. But an explicable lee, he left the proof of that

conquest behind. The journey, Cook wrote, involved difficulties and risk, the climbing of mountains and glaciers, the crossing of open leads of water late in the season when the ice is in motion and the snow is falling, and the dragging of sledges through slush and water. Mr Whitney, in view of these dangers, offered to take care of my instruments, notebooks and flag, and to take them south on his ship.

Cook arrived a new Parentavook on May and remained there until he could board a steamer to Copenhagen in late August. On the way, he sent a telegram from the Shetland Islands. On September one, reached North Pole April one, discovered land far north, returned to Copenhagen by steamer Hans Agel. Frederick Cook, the new York Tribune splashed Cook's triumph across its front page the following morning. For several days, Frederick was the

uncontested discoverer of the holy Grail of the Arctic. As they neared Copenhagen, Cook was mobbed by reporters in Danish dignitaries congratulating him on his success. Telegrams and letters poured in. European Royalty, British journalists, and US officials met Cook as he debarked from the steamer. I became a helpless leaf on a whirlwind of excitement, Cook wrote. Then Pieris telegram came through. Let's take a break here. We'll be right back.

On September, the New York Times ran with the headline Peery discovers the North Pole after eight trials in twenty three years. A week earlier, though the competing New York Herald had gone with the North Pole as discovered by doctor Frederick A. Cook. The closer Perry's ship, the Roosevelt got to New York, the more Peery realized that Cook's

story wasn't going away. He and Matthew Henson may have found Cook's claim ludicrous, but the world at large didn't Parry was greeted by crowds at the ports the Roosevelt pulled into, but Cook had his own fans. Thousands of New York City came out to catch a glimpse of the charismatic doctor they believed was the first man to set foot at the North Pole. The press couldn't get enough of him. He spent hours with reporters, regaling them

with stories of his polar plate. Newspapers in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio ran a pole about which explorer people believed actually reached the North Pole first. The majority of readers had sided with Cook initial. Cook was unfazed by Perry's announcement. He was apparently happy to hear that another American had reached the North Pole, or perhaps discovered some unknown land for the benefit of the United States. There is glory enough for all, he told reporters. Peery and his wealthy

backers felt exactly the opposite way. With his rival's account gaining momentum, Peery realized his future, his fame, and his legacy were now in jeopardy. He is under assault because Frederick Cook has claimed to have reached the Pole a year earlier, so Peery is desperate and furious because he believes that Frederick Cook, you know, has stolen the glory. That's Susan Kaplan, a professor of anthropology and the director

of the Pierry McMillan Arctic Museum at Bowden College. I mean Frederick Cook had been celebrated in Denmark, where he had announced that he had gotten to the poll in Peery claimed to get there in nine and so you know where Peery was ready to come back and just be showered with celebration. He came back to this country into controversy. So I think that there was a lot of anger and turning inwards that he did. As the controversy boiled, the Peri Arctic Club challenged Cook's claims and

hinted that Perry had proof of his life. Late in September, Thomas Hubbard, one of the club's officers, sent a letter to the press concerning Dr Cook. He said, let him submit his records and data to some competent authority, and let that authority draw its own conclusions from the notes and records. What proof Commander Peery has that Dr Cook was not at the poll may be submitted later. The New York Times would had paid handsomely for Peri's scoop

painted him as a trustworthy and accomplished explorer. The Times article from September seven contrasted Peri's highly publicized quest for the poll with Cook's under the radar expedition and abrupt announcement. The next day, the paper fully shifted to team Perry. An article revealed that Cook had given a lecture in front of the King of Denmark and the Danish Geographical Society about killing bears with slingshots and a boat that

hadn't appeared in previous versions of the story. The Times wrote that Cook's lecture proves conclusively that his claim to have reached the North Pole belongs to the realm of fairy tales. Meanwhile, The New York Herald went all in for Cook. It had reportedly paid the enormous sum of twenty four thousand dollars for his exclusive that's almost seven

hundred thousand dollars today. The Herald serialized cook story on its front page for two weeks straight and illustrated it with his photographs, maps, and flattering portraits of the explorer. The National Geographic Society, one of Perry's sources of funding, employed a subcommittee to examine the evidence. With so much time and money invested in the expedition, they demanded answers. Cook's lack of evidence didn't help his case. He had left all of the instruments and notebooks he had in

Greenland with the wealthy hunter Harry Whitney. When Perry's ship, the S. S. Roosevelt, returned to Greenland in August nine, Whitney asked for a ride home, and, as Henson wrote in a diary entry dated August nine, the Commander will not permit Mr Whitney to bring any of the doctor cook effects aboard the Roosevelt, and they have been left in a cash on shore. Cook's case was further weakened by it took a shoe and owela that two a New Week guides who had traveled with him the previous year.

When Henson and Donald Baxter McMillan heard about Cook's claim of the poll they tracked them down to ask them about the expedition. Henson spoke to the guides and innuctitude. According to the men, Cook never reached his destination. Henson recounted the conversation in his diary. Professor McMillan and I have talked to his two boys and have learned there

is no foundation in fact for such a statement. And the captain and others of the expedition have questioned them, and if they were out on the ice of the Arctic Ocean, it was only for a very short distance, not more than twenty or twenty five miles. The boys are positive in this statement, and my own boys, utah and Quia, have talked to them also and get the same replies. It's a fact they had a very hard time and were reduced to low limits, but they have

not been any distance north. Let's paw u to note that Utah Uquia and the other Inu Wheat were adults, not boys. Henson, despite his interest in a new white culture, sometimes referred to the new Wheat as uncivilized. He viewed them as less evolved than Americans, though perhaps not as condescendingly as Perry did. One difference between the two explorers is that Henson believed the Innu Wheat were honest, while

Perry trusted their honesty mostly when it benefited him. Later, Henson told reporters that the two guides never lost sight of land, which meant they couldn't have traveled as far north as Cook claimed in his account of the expedition, published in four McMillan says the same thing. Perhaps surprisingly, people accepted Henson's account and the testimony of a touk Ashu and a Willa. It was a time when the word of a white man always superseded that of a

black or indigenous man. But Nson's reputation as Perry's loyal and honest assistant may have swayed public opinion, and his history with the New Wheae people also made his story convincing. His good relations with the community were well known, and he confirmed with The New York Times that he personally knew the two young men Cook took with him up north. And maybe Henson's account was taken at face value because a white man's reputation rested on it. Plus Cook didn't

have anyone else to back him up. While discrediting Cook, Perry may have thought that his own records and journal entries would support his claim of the poll. Unfortunately for him, his proof wasn't much stronger. Here's Edward J. Larson, historian and author of To the Edges of the Earth nine, The Race for the Three Polls and the climax of

the age of exploration. One of the big problems with exploration back then would since you didn't have, you know, satellites to tell you where you are, only your accomplishments were based on your work, and of course people could question your word. And so Amondson and Shackleton and even Scott these people, and I could keep naming others. These people always brought along independently credible Europeans of cultural status and dependability that if they separately calculated the location, you

could trust him. Terry never had anyone like that. He always only had people along who couldn't calculate, who didn't have authority. Matthew Henson was an amazing guy, but he wasn't scientifically credible in that world. Terry's critics and even some of his supporters questioned why he chose Henson over Captain Robert Bartlett to accompany him to the poll. Bartlett was a skilled navigator, tough and searless, the passic image

of the hearty explorer destined for greatness. He broke trail over hundreds of miles of featureless ice for Pierry's team on the North Pole journey. He would have been an admirable choice for the Polar Party. But if Perry had been concerned that he wouldn't make it to the Pole and that his only option was to fudge his evidence, Bartlett would have found him out. So Peery may have chosen to bring equally tough companions because they wouldn't question

his calculations. And that's why in the end, all of his claims were based on his own words, and that word was often doubted. And there may have been another more nefarious reason, which will get to in a moment. At any rate, even without hard evidence, Pierry held onto the public's favor. In a subcommittee of the National Geographic Society announced that they had found nothing that contradicted his claim.

Several members of Congress introduced bills to promote Perry to rear admiral and honor his discovery of the North Pole. On March third leven, the House passed Senate bill sur conforming his promotion, and the next day President Taft signed it into law. Perry's story had received the government stamp of approval, and it looked as though he could finally bask in the blated glory of his accomplishment. But the case wasn't closed just yet. There was still a third

party vying for a piece of the recognition. Perry refused to share his own assistant, Matthew Henson, We'll be right back. As newspapers pitted Cook against Pie, Henson was largely left out of the narrative. Reporters described him as Pierrie's valet, and the public mistakenly assumed him to be a servant with a small to non existent part in conquering the poll. When books and newspapers incorrectly described Henson as his quote colored valet instead of his senior assistant, Perry made no

effort to correct them. In reality, Henson had played a monumental role. He was Pieri's second in command, serving as a crucial conduit between the Inwhite and the rest of the team. He was also the only non in New White explorer to accompany Peery all the way to the

North Pole. According to some accounts, Henson may have actually arrived at the poll before Pery after overshooting the journey, but getting the public to consider a black man reaching that milestone in an arrow, and scientists doubted black people's ability to withstand cold temperatures was unlikely justifying his presence in the Polar Party was hard enough. From the moment Perry announced his discovery of the poll, his decision to

bring Henson along was scrutinized. We mentioned earlier that Perry might have had his reasons to avoid taking a skilled navigator with him to the poll. Now the racist public couldn't understand why he would choose a black man to accompany him on the final leg of his journey instead of any one of the five white men who were available. In their eyes, not having another white man at the poll to back up his story tarnished his credibility. Some

relied on common racist stereotypes to rationalize the choice. They viewed Perry's own description of his party as loyal and responsive to my will as the fingers of my bright hand, as evidence that Henson was except only submissive to his commander. Perry addressed this question in his book The North Pole, Its Discovery in nineteen o nine under the auspices of the Perio Arctic Club. He started by praising his assistant

for his experience and mastery of the elements. At this time, it may be appropriate to say a word regarding my reasons for selecting Henson as my fellow traveler to the pole itself. Perry wrote in this selection, I acted exactly as I have done on all my expeditions for the last fifteen years. He has, in those years always been

with me at my point farthest north. Moreover, Hanson was the best man I had with me for this kind of work, with the exception of the Eskimos, who, with their racial inheritance of ice technique and their ability to handle sledges and dogs, were more necessary to me as members of my own individual party than any white man could have been. But period didn't stop there. Instead of dismissing Henson's racist critics, he added fuel to their fire

and contradicted himself while doing so. He continued. The second reason was that while Henson was more useful to me than any other member of my expedition, when it came to traveling with my last party over the polar ice, he would not have been so competent as the white members of the expedition in getting himself and his party

back to the land. If Henson had been sent back with one of the supporting parties from a distance far out on the ice, and if he had encountered conditions similar to those which we had to face on the return journey in nineteen o six, he and his party would never have reached the land. While faithful to me and when with me, more effective in covering distance with a sledge than any of the others. He had not as a racial inheritance the daring and initiative of Bartlett

or Marvin mc milon or bore Up. I owed it to him not to subject him to dangers and responsibilities which he was temperamentally unfit to face. So was Henson the best man for this kind of work where someone who couldn't be trusted purely because of his race to find his way home. If Peery truly believed that Henson was less motivated and competent than his white team members, then choosing to explore the Arctic with him for nearly two decades wouldn't make much sense. Here's what Susan Kaplan

has to say. I think what we learned in talking to the New Weed and in reading some of the journals is that Robert Bartlett was a terrible dog sled driver, where Matthew Henson was an expert. So there's also the factor of skill. What Peery did was he was sort of watching how people were forming as they were relaying supplies back and forth across the Polar Sea, and in the end he picked the most talented inu Wheat. He then had them look and pick the strongest dogs from

all these teams. And if he was going to choose someone, it makes sense that he's going to choose Matthew Henson because of Matthew Henson's ability to communicate with the in New Wheat, their respect of him, and Matthew Henson's traveling abilities,

which are all characteristics that Bartlett did not have. Donald McMillan painted a similar picture of how Perry viewed his right hand man, the expedition member who had to turn back from the quest early due to frostbite, recalled a moment inside the S. S. Roosevelt as Peary was preparing to set off on his journey. He carefully weighed the value of each man for the dash to the pole. A knock on my door, Perry entered and sat down

on my bunk. He spoke of Bartlett, of Ross Marvin, of George Borup, of the surgeon John Goodzell, of the part each one was to play in this my last attempt. When each man has fed me and my men up to a certain point within striking distance of the poll, their work is done. They shall be no longer needed. Perry sat there thinking for a moment, and then added, but Henson is not to return. I can't get along without him. I think that here is the greatest compliment

that Perry has ever paid to any man. Perry knew matt Henson's real worth, and so did we from the day we joined the ship at the foot of East twenty three Street in New York. Matthew Henson went to the poll with Peerry because he was a better man than any one of us. Many accounts of Henson, including McMillan's, described him as friendly, hard working, and kind. Henson certainly faced more pressure to be agreeable than his white peers.

Here's James Edward Mills, a freelance journalist, independent producer, and faculty assistant at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin and the author of the adventure Gap Changing the Face of the Outdoors. The Innuit people described him as Henson the kind one you know, so whether he was doing it for show or not. You know, people who had no vested interest in allowing him to pull the wool over their eyes or the seal bowl

to make a pun. He didn't pull them a very at least he was wildly successful at pulling them if it was an act. But I mean, but frankly, I don't think that in that situation it would be really hard. I think, you know, to put on a cheerful face that wasn't genuine under those circumstances. Another more sinister factory have motivated Perry to bring him to the North Pole over his white crew members. Peery was determined to be

the first person to conquer the poll and honor. He didn't plan on sharing with the five other people with him. By being the only white man in the party, he may have betted on the public viewing him as the one true conquering hero. Here's kaplan. He had done all the planning, and this was his idea, and so he wanted the glory. That's the ego that worked into the story. There has been a lot of discussion about the makeup

of the North Pole team. In the end, it was Peery and Hansen and four in New Wheat and all the other in New Wheat and Western crew were sent back to the base camp after the had done a certain number of relays and left cashes of food and equipment on the sea ice so that Peery's team could use them and not have to carry all those supplies

with them. And there's been a great deal of discussion about why he sent Robert Bartlett, who was captain of the Roosevelt, and why he sent Bartlett back, and some people feel it's because Bartlett was not an American, he was a Newfoundlander, and that Peery did not want a white person who was not from the United States at the North Pole. Other people feel that perhaps Bartlett would know if they weren't at the North Pole, with Peery

said they were. But there is also that sense that Peery wanted to be the lone white Westerner at the pole. Contrast that racially tinged hunger for glory with Hinson's possible reasons for seeking the poll. Here's James Edward Mills. I want to believe that Himston was doing it share adventure because it apparently wasn gonna get any credit for it. But for Perry, it was all about the credit. That's what was motivating him. And I think that that's how

at least for me personally. You know, I think that when you had that as your primary coal you're not going to be successful in the greatest scheme of things. Yeah. Sure, you might put your flag on the top, you might be able to you know, get your picture of the paper and so forth, but you start to live with yourself.

And I think that, um, that to me is a failing of a lot of people who do great things early in life or at at some point in their lives, and they basically spent the rest of their lives living up to that. And typically you failed because I mean, how do you maintained that for the rest of your life?

Because we all get old, we all get infirmed. You know, I kind of got the impression because I mean, Henson lived, you know, almost thirty years longer than Perry did, and I want to believe that it was his good attitude that made that possible. Perry's lust for fame didn't end when he took the poll. Back at home, Perry went out of his way to keep Henson and the rest of the party out of his spotlight. If any expedition members wanted to capitalize on their experiences on the journey.

They needed to get Perry's approval first, and meanwhile, Henson did whatever he could to make a living. Henson had taken one and twenty photographs on the expedition, and he turned all of them over to Perry as part of their partnership agreement. Originally, Perry was supposed to pay for any pictures he wanted to feature on his lecture tour and give back the rest. While he did return the photos he didn't use, he never paid for the ones

he kept, despite Henson's many letters requesting restitution. Henson also requested to in his own lecture tour, but Peery never responded, so Henson signed on with an agent and began giving talks in northeastern cities. In October nine nine, as he was planning his first event, Peery sent a telegram to Henson asking him to stop sharing pictures from the expedition. His white benefactors already didn't approve of his decision to have a black man accompany him to the poll, and

Pierry wanted the controversy to go away. Keeping Henson out of the public eye was one way to make that happen. At a lecture in Syracuse, New York, on March tenth, Henson revealed to a local reporter that he hadn't heard as much as a peep barring the telegram asking him not to pursue the lectures from his former commander since the Roosevelt had arrived in New York the previous October.

Henson expressed disappointment at having seemingly been forgotten, but Henson's wife, Lucy, who was with her husband at the lecture venue, really lit into Perry. She told Syracuse's Post Standard regarding what Mr Peerry has done for Matt since they returned from

the poll, just one word can express that nothing. Mr Peerry has dropped Matt entirely, and has held no communication with him or done a single thing in recognition of his twenty three years of faithful service, to say nothing of Matt having saved Mr Peery's life on more than one occasion. It seems to me that such treatment is not fair, she continued. So far as Mr Peery knows or cares for all the interest he's shown, Matt might

be starving to death. I doubt if Mr Peerry knows where Matt is at present, and such quick ingratitude, perhaps I should not use so strong a word, even if his treatment of Matt does warrant it is pretty hard. Probably Mr Peery, who was getting all the glory any one man can reasonably hope to get in his lifetime, has no time to think of Matt, to who much

of the success of the expedition was due. With few other options, Henson took odd jobs to get by, working at the post office and as a handyman in a Brooklyn garage. In President William Howard Taft learned of his troubles and signed an executive order appointing him as a messenger and then as a clerk at the U. S Custom Service. For the next twenty three years, he worked

on the third floor of the Customs House in Lower Manhattan. Meanwhile, the white members of the North Pole Expedition were showered with praise. Perry and the others received awards and were honored at ceremonies that Henson couldn't even attend because of his race. Donald McMillan, who became Henson's close friend, and a few accomplices, allegedly tried to sneak Henson into a New York event by disguising him as an Arab dignitary.

While white society and Peary himself failed to recognize or honor Henson's achievements, the African American community hailed him as a hero. Upon his return from the Arctic, black leaders held a glamorous dinner in his honor at Tuxedo Hall in Midtown Manhattan. More than two hundred people attended. Peary sent a congratulatory telegram from Maine. Henson was given a diamond studded gold Tiffany watch inscribed with the initials M. A. H.

Nineteen o nine. The guests enjoyed a sumptuous dinner including blue point oysters, kennebec salmon, tenderloin of beef, numerous side dishes, and sorbet allah Henson. Speeches were made celebrating his achievement. The dinner's host, the powerful federal official Charles w Anderson, announced, whatever may be said in the controversy as to which white man discovered the pole, there is not a shadow of a doubt as to which black man got there. When it was his turn to speak, Henson reflected on

the criticisms he faced before his journey. When I went to Greenland, they said I never would come back. They told me I couldn't stand the cold, that no black man could. I said I was willing to die if necessary to show them I survived, all right, And here I am. Here's Susan Kaplan. The irony here is that once the North Pole crew returned to Canada and then the United States, the racism in this country was such that Matthew Henson did not get the recognition that he

absolutely deserved. And Peery can be faulted in that he did not insist that Matthew Henson got that recognition. So they had an interesting relationship. I can't say that they had a warm relationship, at least not from anything that we've been able to discover. You know, they were not best friends, but certainly Peery did resuspect him and rely on him. Their relationship remained frozen, pardon the pun, until

Peery's death on February at age sixty four. In the days that followed, the New York Times ran several stories dedicated to his life and legacy. There was an outpouring of adulation from his peers, including polar explorers Ernest Shackleton and Villamour Stephenson. Stephenson said Peery was easily the foremost of all polar explorers, both north and south. President Waldrow Wilson also expressed his admiration in a condolence telegram to

Peery's widow, Josephine. He wrote, Mrs Wilson joins me and extending our warmest sympathy to you and your children, and the death of your distinguished husband made the memory of his intrepid and indefatigable efforts and cause of science do much to assuade your grief. Peary was given a hero's burial at Arlington National Cemetery with a level of grandeur The Times called unusual. His casket, draped with the American flag that flew at the North Pole, was sent off

by a naval firing squad and bugler. Honorary pall bearers included the US Vice President, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the French ambassador to the US, Villamour Stephenson, Alexander Graham Bell, and North Pole expedition members Donald McMillan and Robert Bartlett. Notably, Henson was not among them, or at least not mentioned in the many news reports. Peary's

legacy had been encoded in United States history. After his death, newspapers and the white public forgot about Henson, but his African American supporters never did. Henson retired from his customs house job in nineteen thirty six on a clerk's pension of eighty seven dollars and twenty seven cents a month. Adjusted for inflation, that would be worth roughly one thousand, five hundred fifty dollars a month or eighteen thousand, six

hundred dollars a year today. African American leaders petitioned Congress multiple times to recognize Henson's polar accomplishments with an appropriate pension. Characteristically, Henson responded to their efforts by saying, I could use the money. I think that I deserve it, but I will never ask the government nor anybody else for anything. I have worked sixty of the seventy years of my life, so I guess I can make out on the eight

seven twenty seven a month pension I've earned. Here. After several bills were introduced and killed in committee, lawmakers presented House Resolution one to three eight eight, which would have secured Henson a gold medal and a pension. The black leaders who argued for the legislation, pointed out that Peery had received numerous awards and a generous pension, and if Henson had been white, he would have already been recognized. The bill was approved by the House, but didn't make

it past the Senate. As black run newspapers and magazines covered him. In the decades following the North Pole trip, his public profile grew. In seven, Henson did receive one long overdue honor. The Explorers Club elected him to be their first African American life member. Two years later, the club extended honorary membership to another integral but overlooked member of the North Pole Journey, Utah Perry's long time lead

guide and driver in Greenland. In Congress established the Peery Polar Expedition and Medal to commemorate the expedition of nineteen

o eight to nineteen o nine. According to citations accompanying the medal, it recognized outstanding service to the Government of the United States in the field of science and for the cause of polar exploration and exceptional fortitude, superb seamanship, and fearless determination on the important and difficult mission of Perie's five main Western expedition members Donald McMillan, Robert Bartlett,

and Henson were still alive. Ross Marvin had drowned during the expedition and George Borup had drowned in a boating accident in nineteen twelve, but only McMillan and Bartlett received their medals in an event in May aboard Bartlett's schooner, the F. E. M. Morrissey, since renamed the Ernestina, at the Boston Army Base. At the ceremony, McMillan said, I guess Matt will receive his medal by mail. Actually, the Navy invited Henson to its downtown New York office, where

a captain read a citation and bestowed the medal. Hardly the grand reception that the other explorers received, but at least he didn't receive it in the mail. McMillan showed up again to lobby the Geographic Society of Chicago to recognize Henson for his polar contributions. He was joined in the effort by Eugene F. McDonald Jr. The leader of the Zenith Corporation and an admirer of Henson's. Society honored the explorer with its gold medal. Henson considered it his

most prize possession. To historically black universities, Morgan State in Baltimore and Howard University in Washington, d C awarded Henson honorary master's degrees. He also donated the snowshoes, parka and sealskin boots he wore on the North Pole journey to Dillard University, historically black college in New Orleans. The school showed its gratitude by renaming a hall after him. Here's

Susan Kaplan. Certainly, the other crew members were very concerned that Matthew Henson was not getting the recognition he deserved, and many years later a number of them lobby various geographical societies, and Matthew Henson is while he's still alive, is awarded many of the medals that the other crew

members had been given that had been denied him. At long last, Henson's contributions were recognized by the highest office in the country, President Dwight Eisenhower invited him to the White House in April in honor of the forty five anniversary of the North Pole Expedition. An ap photographer was the are to document the meeting, and an image of Henson and the President, pointing out the north pole on

a globe was seen in newspapers across the country. In nineteen fifty four, at age eight, Henson celebrated his exploring days with one last party. He was among the guests of honor at the Explorers Club's fiftieth anniversary dinner and the Grand ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria in New York. His old friend Utah was also invited, but he was unable to travel due to an illness. The club's annual banquet had become one of New York City's premier social events.

Stephenson described the scene. Tables are bought up a year in advance by the friends and admirers of the Exploring Brotherhood. They do this for many reasons, not the least of which is to see again the old timers, particularly those who sit with the speakers of the evening at the long table on the rostrum. In nineteen fifty four, one those old timers was Matthew Henson. Stephenson wrote, where Matt sets among the guests of honor is always one of

the most popular spots of the rostrum. Some of history's most rugged explorers were in attendance at one point, Henson shared a lengthy toast in Inuctitute with Peter Frekin, the towering Danish polar adventurer. Appropriately, the ice and their Scotch highballs had been chipped from the massive T three iceberg, where the U S had recently set up an Arctic research base and flown to New York just for the event. As Frikan finished his toast, he poked a finger into

a Scotch and flipped out the cubes. I drink it without ice, he said. Befriended by his new white partners, respected by his fellow explorers, and honored by the black community, Matthew Henson left a unique and multifaceted legacy. He died on March nine, at age eight of a cerebral hemorrhage at St. Clair's Hospital, Manhattan. Compared to the hero's funeral pery received, Henson's death was little noticed in white America. The black community, however, came out in droves to celebrate

his life. His funeral was held at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, of which Henson and his wife Lucy were longtime members. According to the Amsterdam News, thousands of people attended the Service led by Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. While eulogizing Henson, Powell compared his achievements to those of Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan. Henson's paul thereers included Peter Frekin and other members of the Explorers Club. Lacking money for a grand burial, Lucy had him laid to rest

near her mother in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In the decades that fall, load henson supporters continued to fight for his recognition. His friend and fellow explorer, Herbert Frisbie, successfully petitioned the State of Maryland to declare April sixth, nineteen fifty nine, the fiftieth anniversary of the North Pole

Achievement Matthew Alexander Henson Day. In nineteen sixty one, a bronze plaque honoring Henson at the Maryland State House became the first state sponsored memorial to an African American person in Maryland's history. Since then, Maryland has named a state park, a hiking trail, and multiple schools after the explorer. Perhaps the most poetic justice for Henson arrived forty five years

after his death. The National Geographic Society awarded Henson the Hubbard Medal, its highest honor, for his contributions to geographical knowledge. Way back in nineteen o six, Pierry had been the Hubbard Medal's inaugural recipient. Back then, President the at Or Roosevelt personally gave a speech honoring the explorers farthest north. The ceremony honoring Henson and his long ago triumphs wasn't

as glitzy, but it righted a historic wrong. Even after Peery, Cook, and Henson were gone, the argument over who reached the North Pole first wasn't settled. A TV docu drama that made the case for Cook stirred up the controversy in the nineteen eighties and forced Peerie's descendants into the conversation. For decades, they had kept his expedition journals at the National Archives locked away from curious researchers. In light of the attack on Peri's legacy, his family begrudgingly made the

papers available to the public. The National Geographic Society commissioned polar adventurer Wally Herbert to analyze the data, and in he concluded in a bombshell National Geographic article that Peery likely hadn't made it to the poll. Cook supporters were ecstatic. After years it seemed he had finally been vindigated. But while the National Geographic report didn't look good for Peery, it didn't confirm Cook's alleged achievement. The case had not

been solved. The National Geographic Society then commissioned nonpartisan experts at the Navigation Foundation to analyze the Perry expedition a second time in December. They found that Perry's claim was genuine. But the popular consensus among polar historians today is that Peery came pretty close to the North Pole, definitely closer than any other explorer had at the time. Well Cook came nowhere near it. Just how close each of them

were may never be known. It wouldn't be until the nineteen sixties that anyone could truly, indisputably claim to have the long, hard journey across the ice to stand at the North Pole. And that person was about as far from the heroic image embodied by Polar conquerors William Edward Perry, fritz Off Nonsen, or Robert Peary as can be conceived. The Quest for the North Pole is hosted by me cat Long. This episode was researched by me and written

by Michelle Bebcheck, with fact checking by Austin Thompson. The executive producers are Aaron McCarthy and Tyler Clang. The supervising producer is Dylan Fagan. The show is edited by Dylan Fagan. Thanks to our experts Edward Larson, Susan Kaplan, and James Edward Mill For transcripts, a glossary, and to learn more about this episode, visit Mental flaws dot com slash podcast. The Quest for the North Pole is a production of

I Heart Radio and Mental Flaws. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, check out the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.