Lincoln Ellsworth was a polar explorer from the United States and a major benefactor of the American Museum of Natural History.
Background
He 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.
Ellsworth's mother died when he was eight years old, and except for the Exposition year of 1893, when their father kept them in Chicago, Lincoln and his younger sister Clare lived on their grandmother's farm near Hudson, Ohio.
Ellsworth's father was asked to help finance the expedition, and although he disapproved of his son's ambition to become an explorer, he reluctantly agreed to furnish $85, 000.
Education
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.
Ellsworth attended Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, then entered Hill School at Pottstown, Pennsylvania, at the age of fifteen.
In a year at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale (1900 - 1901), and two at the Columbia University School of Mines (1901 - 1903) he proved an indifferent student.
Deciding to make Arctic exploration his life's work, Ellsworth sought to prepare himself with short courses in surveying, magnetic measurements, and mapmaking.
Career
He was christened William Linn Ellsworth but changed his name to Lincoln when he was quite young.
He participated in the Canadian government's roundup of buffalo, and in 1909 prospected for gold on the Peace River in western Canada.
Around 1910 polar exploration was attracting great popular interest, with such names as Robert E. Peary, Robert F. Scott, Roald Amundsen, and Frederick A. Cook in the headlines.
He received flight training but was rejected for active duty.
After the war he applied to accompany Amundsen on the Maud and Vilhjalmur Stefansson on the Karluk, but was turned down in both cases.
Late in 1924, Ellsworth again approached Amundsen.
On May 21, 1925, Amundsen and Ellsworth took off in two Dornier-Wal seaplanes from Kings Bay, Spitsbergen, Norway, for the North Pole.
After a flight of seven hours, a motor on Amundsen's plane failed, and both planes landed amidst great ice ridges.
Ellsworth's was irreparably damaged.
After twenty-five days of effort, Amundsen's plane was repaired sufficiently to take off with all six men aboard.
Ellsworth's father died during his absence, leaving him a millionaire.
He and Amundsen obtained a dirigible, the Norge, from the Italian government.
Again setting out from Kings Bay, they reached the North Pole without difficulty at 1:15 A. M. on May 12, 1926.
Turning south, they traveled through broken fog to Point Barrow.
After a storm had driven them over Siberia, they turned eastward, reached the Alaskan coast, and descended at Teller.
The flight had proved that there was no substantial land mass north of Alaska.
After a slow voyage, the explorers reached Seattle, where they received a tumultuous welcome.
A triumphal transcontinental tour to New York followed.
In 1932, when he was fifty-two years old, Ellsworth made a trip to Zurich, Switzerland.
Ellsworth chose a 400-ton wooden vessel, which he rechristened the Wyatt Earp.
His airplane was a low-wing, ski-equipped Northrop monoplane, the Polar Star.
In 1933 the party reached the Bay of Whales, where the plane's undercarriage was severely damaged.
They then sailed to New Zealand.
From there the Polar Star was sent to the United States for repairs.
In September 1934 Ellsworth set forth on his second attempt.
The third attempt was successful.
On November 3, 1935, Ellsworth, with Herbert Hollick-Kenyon as pilot, took off from Dundee Island for Little America.
Thirteen hours after takeoff they landed to obtain their position.
Weather conditions grounded them once for three days and again for seven days.
On December 5 they landed, out of fuel, sixteen miles from Little America, but they wandered on snowshoes for ten days before discovering it.
Ellsworth's last Antarctic expedition was to the Indian Ocean coast, south of Australia.
He planned to fly across Antarctica to Little America.
Difficult ice conditions delayed the expedition past the best flying months.
After three reconnaissance flights, on January 11, 1939, Ellsworth flew 240 miles inland along the meridian of 79 degrees east longitude, and then returned.
On this trip also he claimed a sizable area for the United States.
In World War II, Ellsworth was commissioned a lieutenant-commander in the United States Naval Reserve.
Achievements
He discovered an unknown mountain range that he named "Eternity Range" and claimed a wide area of land--estimated at 300, 000 to 350, 000 square miles--for the United States.
He also became the first man to cross both the top and the bottom of the world.
Religion
In the summer of 1931 Ellsworth represented the American Geographical Society on a flight of the dirigible Graf Zeppelin to Severnaya Zemlya in the Soviet Arctic.
Politics
In 1903 he obtained work surveying for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company, largely in western Canada.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Wilkins wrote of him: "His was, to the end, a lovable, boyish character; shy and reserved, with high ideals, yet somewhat vain, petulant and possessive, and with an enjoyment of notoriety. "
Connections
By the end of his two-week stay, they were engaged, and on May 23, 1933, they were married.
After the war, he and his wife continued to unite travel and science.
There he met Mary Louise Ulmer, daughter of a Pennsylvania industrialist.
for "his claims on behalf of the United States of approximately 350
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
500-mile aerial survey of the heart of Antarctica."
He thus became one of only four people to be awarded two Congressional Gold Medals. The Antarctic base Ellsworth Station was named after him.
In 1937 he was awarded the Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his improvements in the technique of polar aerial navigation.
500-mile aerial survey of the heart of Antarctica."
He thus became one of only four people to be awarded two Congressional Gold Medals. The Antarctic base Ellsworth Station was named after him.
In 1937 he was awarded the Patron's Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society for his improvements in the technique of polar aerial navigation.
