Peary, Robert E.

Peary, Robert E. (Edwin) (1856–1920) explorer, naval officer; born in Cresson, Pa. He graduated from Bowdoin College and joined the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1879. He surveyed a proposed ship canal through Nicaragua (1884–88) and began his Arctic journeys during a six-month leave in 1886. He traveled through Greenland (1891, 1893–95, 1896, 1897) and then named the North Pole as his goal. He surveyed northern routes and passages (1898–1902) and sledged to within 175 miles of the Pole in 1906. On his final Arctic journey (1908–09), he, Matthew Henson, and four Eskimos reached the North Pole on April 6, 1909. On returning to the U.S.A. he learned that Frederick A. Cook claimed to have reached the Pole one year earlier. Peary's claim was eventually vindicated and he received the thanks of Congress and the rank of rear admiral. He became interested in aviation and organized the National Aerial Coast Patrol Commission at the start of World War I. In the 1980s it was revealed that he and Matthew Henson had fathered children by Eskimo women during their years in the Arctic.