TITLE: LINCOLN ELLSWORTH #2; NORTH AND SOUTH
8/2004 27X39 INCHES

Lincoln Ellsworth:
1880 – 1951 American explorer.

"…one has to have something to build on …"

His father was a wealthy Pennsylvania mining man. Wealthy to the extent that
he would go off to Europe to purchase a Rembrant painting and a castle in
Switzerland. The castle had a drawbridge and more than 100 clocks that chimed
the hour at the same time. In 1929, after his father’s death, Lincoln Ellsworth
lived in the castle, furnishing it with his trophies of the American West
including paintings by Frederick Remington. His collection of firearms included
a rifle owned by Nansen and Amundsen as well as a revolver belonging to the
gun slinging U.S. Marshall, Wyatt Earp. His inherited wealth allowed him to
live a bizarre and adventurous life with an intense focus on Polar exploration.

Like Byrd and Wilkins, Ellsworth explored the Arctic and the Antarctic from
the air. He had an advantage over the others in that he financed his
expeditions himself. In 1926 he was the first to fly over the North Pole in a
dirigible with Amundsen and Noblie. In 1935 he was the first to fly by plane across
the Antarctic continent. He named his ship the Wyatt Earp. He also carried
Earp’s gun belt and wedding ring to the Antarctic, just for luck!