Edward Avery McIlhenny

Edward Avery "Ned" McIlhenny (1872 – 1949), son of Tabasco brand pepper sauce inventor Edmund McIlhenny, was an American businessman, explorer, and conservationist.

Born in 1872 at Avery Island, Louisiana, McIlhenny was educated privately before attending Dr. Holbrook's Military School in Sing Sing (now Ossining), New York. McIlhenny enrolled at Lehigh University, where he joined Phi Delta Theta fraternity, but he dropped out of school to join Frederick Cook's 1894 Arctic expedition as an ornithologist. In 1897 he financed his own Arctic expedition to Point Barrow, Alaska, where he helped to save over a hundred stranded whaling fleet sailors (including Japanese adventurer and entrepreneur Jujiro Wada).

McIlhenny claimed in his book The Alligator's Life History that he killed an alligator measuring over 19 feet in length — said to be the longest American alligator ever recorded.

He married Mary Givens Matthews, daughter of William Henry Matthews and Mary Campbell Given, on June 6, 1900, in New Orleans, Louisiana.

On his return to Louisiana, McIlhenny assumed control of McIlhenny Company, overseeing Tabasco sauce production as president of the organization until his death 51 years later. During his tenure, McIlhenny expanded, modernized, and standardized sauce production; and experimented with new ways of promoting the world-famous product, such as advertising on radio.

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