Peary Arctic Club

{{Short description|Club in New York City}}

{{Use American English|date=July 2024}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}

File:Peary's steamer Roosevelt, Hudson-Fulton Parade.jpg in 1909]]

File:Peary-flag-flown on SS Roosvelt.png

File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17539245423).jpg

The Peary Arctic Club was an American-based club with the goal of promoting the Arctic expeditions of Robert Peary (1856–1920).[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1777691?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Peary Arctic Club Expedition to the North Pole, 1908-9]

This association of influential persons was able to overcome the opposition of the U.S. Navy Department to grant the indispensable five–year leave for Peary's 1898 Arctic expedition.[https://collections.dartmouth.edu/arctica-beta/html/EA15-55.html Robert Edwin Peary Encyclopedia Arctica 15: Biographies]

History

The Peary Arctic Club was founded in New York City in 1898 by a group of wealthy New York people. Its members were friends of Peary.[http://learn.bowdoin.edu/arctic-museum/exhibits/pearys-north-pole-explorations/maps/1898-1902-expeditions/1898-01a-peary-arctic-club.html The Peary Arctic Club - Bowdoin College]

The idea of establishing the club had been put forward by Morris K. Jesup in the spring 1897. One year after the foundation, Morris Jesup was elected in 1899 as the first president of the club. Henry W. Cannon became treasurer, Herbert Bridgman secretary[https://www.nytimes.com/1901/06/23/archives/relief-expedition-of-peary-arctic-club-herbert-l-bridgman-will-have.html The New York Times, Relief Expedition of the Peary Arctic Club, June 23, 1901] and Frederick E. Hyde vice-president. Judge Charles P. Daly, president of the American Geographical Society was elected to the executive committee of the club.R. E. Peary, Report of RE Peary, CE, USN, on Work Done in the Arctic in 1898-1902, 1903 - JSTOR

In 1904, the club was able to raise funds to buy Peary a ship for his expeditions, the SS Roosevelt.Shona Grimbly (ed.), Atlas of Exploration, p. 224 The club's fundraising included generous gifts of $50,000 from George Crocker, the youngest son of banker Charles Crocker, and $25,000 from Morris K. Jesup.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/07/13/archives/peary-gets-50000-mk-jesup-gives-25000-fund-for-trip-to-reach-north.html|title=Peary Gets $50,000; M.K. Jesup Gives $25,000|newspaper=New York Times|date=July 13, 1905|page=7}}

Following Morris Jesup's death in 1908, Thomas Hubbard was named president of the club and Zenas Crane was given the post of vice-president.Bruce Henderson, True North: Peary, Cook, and the Race to the Pole, p. 189 The club was extinguished after Peary's death in 1920.

Prominent members

Honors

Bibliography

  • Robert E. Peary, Nearest the Pole: A Narrative of the Polar Expedition of the Peary Arctic Club in the S. S. Roosevelt, 1905 -1906.
  • Robert E. Peary, The North Pole (Illustrated)
  • Peary Arctic Club : objects of the club, plan of campaign, description of new ship. Lotus Press, New York. 1905
  • [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/north-polar-exploration-field-work-of-the-peary-arctic-club-1898-1902/ North Polar Exploration: Field Work of the Peary Arctic Club 1898-1902, Scientific American, 1904]

References

{{Reflist}}