Matthew Henson was an American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary, most famously on an expedition intended to reach the Geographic North Pole in 1909. Due to his being black and his status as Peary's employee, he never reached the same fame as Peary in an America where racist views were still common. Peary first employed Henson on his 1888 mission to Nicaragua. Henson accompanied Peary on his next seven voyages to the Arctic as well. On April 6, 1909, Henson, Peary, and four Inuit Indigenous peoples, became the first men to reach the North Pole.

In 1912, Henson wrote A Negro Explorer at the North Pole, a book that details his experiences on his journey, and in 1913, he was appointed clerk in the U.S. Customs House in New York City by President Taft. Henson retired in 1936, and in 1944 he was awarded the Congressional Medal given to all of the members of the 1909 expedition. In 1947 Henson collaborated with Bradley Robinson on Dark Companion, Robinson’s biography of Henson. The explorer died in New York City in 1955, and in 1988 Henson was re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery near Peary's monument. Many members from his American family and his Inuit family (children he produced with Inuit girlfriend Anauakaq) were in attendance. In 1996, the U.S. Navy commissioned the U.S.N.S. Henson, a T-AGS 63 class oceanographic explorer ship, in honor of Matthew Henson. In 2000, the National Geographic Society awarded the Hubbard Medal to Matthew A. Henson posthumously.