WASHINGTON—The National Geographic Society will award its highest honor, the Hubbard Medal, posthumously to Matthew Henson, who with Robert Peary led the 1909 American expedition to the North Pole.

The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at the dedication of the Matthew Henson Earth Conservation Center along the banks of the Anacostia River in Southwest Washington, D.C. Named for the renowned self-taught naturalist and proud local resident, the Henson Center will reconnect Washington youth with the wonders of nature. When complete, the center will be maintained by Earth Conservation Corps (ECC) members from the surrounding public housing communities.

Matthew Henson’s great-niece, Audrey Mebane, will accept the Hubbard Medal—the first presented posthumously by the Society. Mrs. Mebane is a lifetime resident of Washington, D.C.

“It is fitting that the National Geographic Society recognize Matthew Henson with its most prestigious honor,” said Society President John Fahey. “The Hubbard Medal is awarded for distinction in exploration, discovery and research, and Henson embodies what this award stands for. The honor is long overdue.”

Henson, who was born in Maryland, was a store clerk in Washington when he met Peary in 1887. They were soon inseparable, and Henson became Peary’s most loyal and trusted traveling companion for more than 20 years. As a U.S. Navy steward, Henson accompanied Commander Peary on several arctic expeditions, including the one to the North Pole in 1909. He died in 1955 and was buried in New York City. In 1988, by order of President Ronald Reagan and at the request of Henson historian Allen Counter of Harvard University, he was reinterred in Arlington National Cemetery.

The National Geographic Society awarded Peary its first Hubbard Medal, for arctic exploration, in 1906. Peary received the Society’s Special Medal of Honor for the discovery of the North Pole in 1909. Another member of Peary's 1909 team, Robert Bartlett, received the Hubbard Medal that year.

The Hubbard Medal has been presented 33 times in the past. Recipients include polar explorers Roald Amundsen in 1907, Sir Ernest Shackleton in 1910 and Richard Byrd in 1926; aviators Charles Lindbergh in 1927 and Anne Morrow Lindbergh in 1934; anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey in 1962; Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins in 1970; anthropologist Richard Leakey in 1994; conservationist Jane Goodall in 1995; underwater explorer Robert Ballard in 1996; and balloonists Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in 1999.

At Henson’s award ceremony, the National Geographic Society’s Education Foundation will give a $50,000 grant to the Earth Conservation Corps for classroom and field equipment, including microscopes, water quality monitoring kits and computers, for the Henson Earth Conservation Center. The Society also will announce the establishment of a Matthew Henson college scholarship.

The Earth Conservation Corps is a non-profit organization founded in 1989. Its mission is to restore and reclaim two of the nation’s most threatened resources: the environment and disadvantaged youth. “The ECC provides young adults with limited opportunities the chance to make something of themselves in the face of violence, alienation, abandonment and uncertain futures,” said ECC Executive Director Robert Nixon. “Through environmental education and restoration, they are instilled with an ethic of community service and they develop a sense of pride in themselves and their surroundings.”

The building where the Henson Center will be housed was formerly the Pepco Buzzard Point pumping station. Built in 1933, the building was given to the ECC by Pepco in 1999. The U.S. Navy Mobile Construction Battalion 23 (Seabees) donated 2,200 man-days to transform the structure into a new educational facility and gateway to the Anacostia River. The Seabees worked with volunteers from the Sustainable Washington Alliance, using green building practices, including the creation of a green roof that will filter stormwater before it runs into the river.

Environmental education programs at the center will enable thousands of schoolchildren to explore and learn more about the Anacostia River and its ecosystem. A sturgeon-rearing program that aims to return sturgeon to the Anacostia for the first time in 70 years will offer students an opportunity for hands-on science education. A section of the center will house injured birds of prey while they recuperate.

“Thanks to all our dedicated partners, the Matthew Henson Earth Conservation Center will soon be the doorway through which thousands of schoolchildren will gain a connection to the inspiring force of nature,” said Nixon. “We recognize the challenges we and our neighbors in the Anacostia River communities face: poverty, unemployment, environmental neglect, crime and violence, that has claimed the lives of seven of our Corps members since we began. But we believe the power of collaboration is stronger than these challenges.”

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