Lincoln Ellsworth

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Lincoln Ellsworth
Lincoln Ellsworth
Born	May 12, 1880 (1880-05-12) Chicago, Illinois
Died	May 26, 1951(1951-05-26) (aged 71) New York City, New York
Nationality	American
Occupation	exploration
Parent(s)	James Ellsworth Eva Frances Butler

Lincoln Ellsworth (May 12, 1880 – May 26, 1951) was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History.

Biography

Lincoln Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, to James Ellsworth and Eva Frances Butler in Chicago, Illinois. He also lived in Hudson, Ohio, as a child. He attended The Hill School and took two years longer than usual to graduate, before entering the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University. His academic performance was poor, and he subsequently enrolled at Columbia University and McGill before ending his academic career.^[1]

Lincoln Ellsworth's father, James, a wealthy coal man from the United States, spent US$100,000 (~$1.74 million in 2023) to fund

flying boats, the N24 and N25, in an attempted to reach the North Pole on May 21. When one airplane lost power, both made forced landings and, as a result, became separated. It took 3 days for the crews to regroup and 7 takeoff attempts before they were able to return N25 to the air 28 days later. Ellsworth senior died in Italy on June 2, 1925, while waiting for news of his lost son.

In early March 1926, under the headline "Across the Pole by Dirigible", The New York Times announced the Amundsen-Ellsworth Expedition.^[2] A long article in the same edition (by

was sighted.

Ellsworth made four expeditions to Antarctica between 1933 and 1939 using as his aircraft transporter and base, a former Norwegian herring boat that he named Wyatt Earp after his hero.^[3] The aircraft, named Polar Star, was a Northrop Gamma outfitted with skis.

On November 23, 1935, Ellsworth discovered the

, all in Antarctica, are all named for Lincoln Ellsworth.

Honors

In 1927, the

, are nicknamed "The Explorers" after Ellsworth.

In 1928, Ellsworth was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal that honored both his 1925 and 1926 polar flights. Eight years later in 1936 he was awarded a second medal, for "his claims on behalf of the United States of approximately 350,000 square miles in Antarctica and for his 2,500-mile aerial survey of the heart of Antarctica."

The Hall of Lincoln Ellsworth at the American Museum of Natural History is dedicated to his Arctic and Antarctic voyages.^[11]

See also

• List of people on stamps of the United States – Scott catalogue
  2389, 25c stamp

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lincoln Ellsworth.

• Works by Lincoln Ellsworth at Open Library
• Works by or about Lincoln Ellsworth at Internet Archive
• Newspaper clippings about Lincoln Ellsworth in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• The Papers of Lincoln Ellsworth at Dartmouth College Library