Biography : Robert Peary
Robert Peary was an American explorer, was one of the greatest Arctic travellers of all time. He became famous as the discoverer of the North Pole. However, some authorities have actualy questioned whether Peary ever reached the pole.
Peary set his life's course when he read a book on Greenland at the age of six. He led his first expedition there at the age of 30.
|
 |
Early Life
Peary was born on May 6, 1856 in Cresson, Pennsylvania. Having family in Maine, his mother brought him to live in Maine when he was three years old, after his father's death. Peary spent his childhood living in Cape Elizabeth and Portland, Maine, then graduating from Portland High School. A graduate of Bowdoin College, class of 1877, Peary studied civil engineering. After college he moved to Fryeberg, Maine, where he became the town surveyor. He was then hired as a draftsman for the Coast and Geodetic Survey and moved to Washington, DC. In 1881 Peary joined the US Navy Civil Engineers Corps. In 1884 Peary began his career of exploration as chief assistant on an expedition to Nicaragua to survey a route for the planned alternative to the Panama Canal.
Peary travelled into the interior of Greenland. This experience interested him in undertaking further expeditions to explore the uncharted Arctic regions. In 1891, the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences put him in charge of an expedition to northern Greenland. On this trip, Peary proved that Greenland is an island. Other trips between 1893 and 1897 resulted in important scientific discoveries about the polar regions. Peary published an account of these trips in 1898 in Northward over the Great Ice.
His exploration of the far North continued until 1909, when he announced that he, his assistant Matthew Henson, and the Polar Eskimos Uutaaq, Ukkujaaq, Sigluk, and Iggiannguaq were the first men to reach the North Pole.
Continue................His Voyages
|
|
