Charles Francis Hall

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Charles Francis Hall
The only known photograph of Hall, late 1870
Born	Unknown date, c. 1821 Rochester, New Hampshire, U.S.
Died	November 8, 1871 (aged 50) Thank God Harbor, Greenland
Cause of death	Apoplexy (official ruling)[1] Arsenic poisoning (suspected)[2]
Occupations	Explorer author publisher engraver blacksmith
Years active	1860–1871 (as explorer)
Known for	Death during Polaris expedition
Notable work	Life with the Esquimaux (1865)
Children	Anna Sophina Hall

Charles Francis Hall (c. 1821 – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while leading the American-sponsored Polaris expedition in an attempt to be the first to reach the North Pole. The expedition was marred by insubordination, incompetence, and poor leadership.

Hall returned to the ship from an exploratory sledging journey, and promptly fell ill. Before he died, he accused members of the crew—the expedition's lead scientist, Emil Bessels, in particular—of having poisoned him. An exhumation of his body in 1968 revealed that he had ingested a large quantity of arsenic in the last two weeks of his life.