In June 1926, sixteen men crossed the North Pole from Norway to Alaska in the airship 'Norge' as part of a joint Norwegian-American-Italian venture. The group was headed by polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Lincoln Ellsworth, and the dirigible was designed and piloted by Umberto Nobile. On their way back to Europe, the men stopped in Seattle, where they were greeted by over 5,000 cheering people. This photo of Nobile holding his dog was taken from that day, June 27, 1926. Nobile's second polar adventure in the airship Italia in 1928 ended in tragedy. The airship crashed on the ice floes northeast of Spitzbergen (Svalbard), Norway stranding the crew and resulting in a lengthy multi-national rescue effort in which one pilot crashed and needed rescue and Amundsen died in a plane crash en route to the rescue. The remaining survivors, including Nobile and his dog Titiana, were rescued seven weeks later by a Russian icebreaker.

Caption information sources: Umberto Nobile-The North Pole Flights; MOHAI's photo database.

• Subjects (LCTGM): Explorers--Washington (State)--Seattle; Dogs--Washington (State)--Seattle
• People: Nobile, Umberto, 1885-1978