Born May 6, 1856,
Cresson, Pennsylvania
Died February 20, 1920,
Washington, D.C.

Robert Edwin Peary was one of the most controversial of all explorers. His quest for fame motivated him to overcome severe weather and geographical obstacles to become the first human to reach the North Pole. Peary was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, on May 6, 1856, and grew up in Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1877. Four years later he entered the U.S. Navy as a civil engineer; from 1884 to 1885 he worked as assistant to the chief engineer on a canal survey for a proposed route through Nicaragua from the Caribbean to the Pacific. The experience seems to have whetted his enthusiasm for exploration. When he left Nicaragua, he decided to explore the Arctic, perhaps inspired by the exploits of his boyhood hero, explorer Elisha Kent Kane.

Goes to Greenland

Crossing the Greenland Ice Cap was...