Peary is a towering if controversial figure in the history of Polar exploration. By 1908-9 he was a veteran Polar explorer and the man who proved that Greenland was an island. The expedition mapped on this map is his eighth journey to the Pole. Upon his return, he claimed to have been the first person to have reached the geographical North Pole. This claim was disputed by Frederick Cook, his bitter rival who ascertained that he first reached the Pole in April of 1908, a full year before Peary’s claim.

The affair was referred to several learned bodies, particularly the University of Copenhagen, which came to the conclusion that Cook’s claim could not be confirmed therefore Peary was the first person to have reached the Pole.

Ironically, the Polar explorer Wally Herbert studied Peary’s expedition diaries extensively in 1988 and has come to the conclusion that it was unlikely that Peary reached the Pole in 1909, a view that is now shared by most learned bodies.

Original colour. [POLAR587]