Ellsworth, Lincoln (1880-1951), an American civil engineer and polar explorer, became the first person to fly across both the Arctic Ocean and Antarctica. He was a mining engineer in Canada and Alaska and a field assistant with the United States Biological Survey. In 1925, he and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen made the first aerial crossing of the North Polar Basin, in a dirigible.
Ellsworth was co-leader in 1926 of the Amundsen-Ellsworth-Nobile Transpolar Flight across the North Pole. He participated in the Graf Zeppelin dirigible flight to the Arctic in 1931. In 1935 and 1939, Ellsworth made flights across Antarctica. Each time, he claimed large new territories for the United States (see Antarctica ).
Ellsworth was born on May 12, 1880, in Chicago. He studied at Columbia and Yale universities. Ellsworth’s books include Search (1932) and Beyond Horizons (1938). He died on May 26, 1951. Antarctica’s Ellsworth Land and Ellsworth Mountains are named after him.
