PEARY, ROBERT EDWIN American Arctic explorer, was born at Cresson, Pa., on May 6, 1856. In 1877 he graduated at Bowdoin college. He was made a lieutenant in the U.S. navy in 1881, acting as civil engineer and was assistant engineer in the Nicaragua ship canal surveys in 1884, becoming their director in 1887-88. In 1886, however, he also made a study of the west coast of Greenland, in the region of Disco bay, with reference to its use as a base for polar exploration. In 1891 the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences put him in charge of a polar expedition of seven, including his wife. Inglefield gulf, on the north-west coast of Greenland, was the base. In the spring of 1892 he went, with the Norwegian Eivind Astrup, to the north-east coast, thereby proving that Greenland is an island. The Cape York (Smith sound) Eskimos, the most northerly people in the world, were also studied. This expedition was described by Mrs. Peary in My Arctic Journal. In the following year he organized another expedition, also from headquarters in Inglefield gulf, where Mrs. Peary gave birth to a daughter. In 1894 Peary, Matt Henson, the negro member of the expedition, and Hugh Lee, were left alone and again crossed to the east coast. In the summer three meteor ites, which the Eskimos used in making their iron implements, were found. These had been reported in 1818 by Sir John Ross. All were eventually brought to the United States. In 1898 Peary described his work to date in Northward Over the Great Ice. In that year also, with the support of the Peary Arctic Club and Morris Jesup, he started on a four year's exploring schedule. He used Eskimos in this expedition, which demonstrated, in 1900, that Greenland is bounded on the north by the polar ocean; the north coast of the island was surveyed. In 1902 Peary, with Henson and an Eskimo, advanced as far north as lat. 17' the highest point then reached in the Western Hemisphere. Lieut. Peary had now been promoted to the rank of commander, and on his return he was elected president of the American Geographical Society. In Nov. 1903 he went to England on a naval commission to inquire into the system of naval barracks in Great Britain, and was presented with the Livingstone Gold Medal of the Royal Scot tish Geographical Society. Commander Peary then began prepara
tions for another expedition by the construction of a special ship, named the "Roosevelt," the first ever built in the United States for the purpose of Arctic exploration. He sailed from New York on July 16, 1905, having two years' supplies on board. The "Roosevelt" wintered on the north coast of Grant Land, and on Feb. 21 a start was made with sleds. The party experienced serious delay owing to open water between 84° and 85°, and farther north the ice was opened up during a six days' gale, which cut off communications and destroyed the depots which had been established. A steady easterly drift was experienced. But on April 21, 1906, 87° 6' was reached—the "farthest north" attained by man—by which time Peary and his companions were suffering severe privations, and had to make the return journey in the face of great difficulties. In 1907 the narrative of his journey, Nearest the Pole, was published.
In 1908 Peary started in the "Roosevelt" on the journey which was to bring him his final success as the discoverer of the North Pole. He left Etah on Aug. 18, wintered in Grant Land, and set forward over the ice from Cape Columbia on March 1, 1909. A party of six started with him, and moved in sections, one in front of another. They were gradually sent back as supplies diminished. At the end of the month Capt. Bartlett was the only white man left with Peary, and he turned back in 87° 48' N., the highest latitude then ever reached. Peary, with Henson and four Eskimos, pushed on, and on April 6, 1909 reached the North Pole. They remained some 3o hours, took observations, and on sounding, a few miles from the pole, found no bottom at 1,500 fathoms. The party, with the exception of one drowned, returned safely to the "Roosevelt," which left her winter quarters on July 18, and reached Indian Harbour on Sept. 5. Peary's The North Pole: Its Discovery in 1909 was published in 1910.
In 1911 he was given the rank of rear-admiral and delegated to the International Polar Commission in Rome. In addition to the works already mentioned he wrote, The North Pole (1910) and Secrets of Polar Travel (1917). He died in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 20, 1920.
See Fitzhugh Green, Peary, the Man Who Refused to Fail (1926). (R. E. B.)