Lincoln Ellsworth

Born in Chicago in 1880, Lincoln Ellsworth grew up with the means to pursue big ambitions and eventually turned that freedom toward exploration. He served in the Army during World War I, but he is best remembered for the way he pushed into places that were still little known to the outside world.

Ellsworth made his name through Arctic and Antarctic expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s, working with other major explorers of the era and helping prove what aircraft could do in the polar regions. He took part in the 1926 airship flight of the Norge over the Arctic and later led Antarctic flights that brought back new geographic knowledge, including a 1935 trans-Antarctic journey that became one of his landmark achievements.

He died in 1951, but his reputation lasted as that of a determined, well-funded adventurer who used new technology to go farther than earlier generations could. For listeners interested in exploration history, his life offers a vivid glimpse of the moment when the age of heroic travel met the age of flight.