Ellsworth, Lincoln, 1880-1951

Lincoln Ellsworth (b. May 12, 1880, Chicago, Illinois-d. May 26, 1951, New York City), American explorer, engineer, and scientist. Ellsworth led the first trans-Arctic (1926) and trans-Antarctic (1935) air crossings. He first attempted to fly over the North Pole in 1925 with Roald Amundsen. Their planes were forced down onto the ice short of their goal, and the explorers spent 30 days trapped on the surface. In 1926, Ellsworth accompanied Amundsen on his second effort to fly over the Pole in the airship Norge, designed and piloted by the Italian engineer Umberto Nobile, in a flight from Svalbard to Alaska. On May 12, they made the first undisputed sigthing of the Geographic North Pole.

Ellsworth made four expeditions to Antarctica between 1933 and 1939, attempting twice (in 1933 and 1934) to cross the continent before succeeding the following year. In all four, he used as his aircraft transporter and base a former Norwegian herring boat that he named Wyatt Earp after his hero. On November 23, 1935, Ellsworth discovered the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica when he made a trans-Antarctic flight from Dundee Island to the Ross Ice Shelf. He gave the descriptive name Sentinel Range, which was later named for the northern half of the Ellsworth Mountains. Ellsworth was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History.

He studied both at Yale and Columbia University. After college he was a surveyor for the Grand Trunk Pacific Railroad. His true passion, however, was exploration. In 1925, he participated in his first Arctic expedition, which was to travel to the North Pole. It was the Amundsen-Ellsworth expedition, which only lasted 25 days although they never reached the North Pole. A year later, he tried the expedition to the North Pole again and finally reached it on May 12, 1926. He wanted to be the first to reach the North Pole, but the U.S. Navy beat him by three days. By the end of his career he traveled to Antarctica. On November 23, 1935, he successfully made his trans-Antarctic flight, becoming the first man to fly across Antarctica. On May 29, 1929, before he made his trans-Antarctic flight, he was honored the Congressional Gold Medal for his North Pole expedition. He died in New York City on May 26, 1951.