Herbert Hoover photo

Remarks on Presenting a Special Congressional Medal to Lincoln Ellsworth.

January 16, 1931

ON BEHALF OF the Congress of the United States it gives me great pleasure to hand you this gold medal for your conspicuous courage, sagacity, and perseverance on your polar flight of 1925, and transpolar flight of 1926. Please accept my congratulations, and the congratulations of the American people.

In reading of your explorations, I learn of the noble assistance rendered you at all times by your sister, Mrs. Bernon S. Prentice. I regret that she has not lived to see you receive this medal. Her life was a fine example of the fortitude of our American women.

Note: The President spoke in a presentation ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House at 12:30 p.m. During the ceremony the President received an American flag that had been carried in the Norge.

Mr. Ellsworth was co-leader with Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile in the flight of the dirigible Norge over the North Pole in 1926. The 1925 polar flight of Ellsworth and Amundsen ended when bad weather grounded their plane.

Herbert Hoover, Remarks on Presenting a Special Congressional Medal to Lincoln Ellsworth. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/211158

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