Collection Guide
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Cook (Frederick A.) and Peary (Robert E.) Collection
MSS.2017.07.14
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Archives & Special Collections, Santa Clara University Library
Title: The Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary Collection
creator:
Cook, Frederick , 1865-1940
creator:
Hubbard, Bernard Rosecrans, S.J.
Identifier/Call Number: MSS.2017.07.14
Physical Description:
0.42 linear feet
(2 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1904-1960
Abstract: The Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary Collection, 1904-1960, documents the controversy surrounding the dual claims of
the discovery of the North Pole by Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary. The bulk of the collection consists of multiple
drafts of articles written by William Shea, a Cook supporter who began writing about him after meeting with him. A portion
of the collection is dedicated to articles written by various authors expressing their beliefs on the issue, and newspaper
clippings regarding Cook and Peary. The records also consist of congressional hearing records regarding the debate, and correspondence
discussing the controversy sent to Father Bernard Hubbard, a priest, lecturer, and Alaskan explorer who reignited the issue
during his lectures in the mid-twentieth century. Fr. Hubbard was of the belief that Cook was successful in the discovery
of the North Pole as opposed to Peary, and most of the correspondence sent to him agrees with this sentiment. This collection
is arranged into one series: Series I. Cook-Peary Controversy (1904-1960).
Language of Material: English.
Physical Location: This collection is located in Santa Clara University Library's Archives & Special Collections.
The collection is open for research.
SERIES I: Cook-Peary Controversy (1904-1960).
This series documents the controversy regarding the discovery of the North Pole as claimed by Cook and Peary. The bulk of
the series consists of multiple drafts of articles written by William Shea, along with a few single articles written by various
authors. The records also consist of congressional hearing records regarding the debate and correspondence discussing the
controversy sent to Father Bernard Hubbard.
This series is arranged by format.
Frederick Albert Cook was born in Callicoon, New York, in 1865. He received his M.D. from New York Medical School in 1890,
and soon used his newly acquired skills to become a surgeon for Robert Peary’s 1891-1892 Arctic expedition, where he proved
to be a valuable asset in preventing scurvy among the explorers. During his time on Adrien de Gerlache’s Belgian Antarctic
Expedition of 1897-1899, he visited Tierra del Fuego, where he met Anglican missionary Thomas Bridges, who had prepared a
dictionary in Yahgan. Cook borrowed this dictionary and never returned it, later attempting to publish it as his own work.
In 1903, he became his own explorer during a trip to the area surrounding Mount Denali, previously known as Mount McKinley,
and later returned to supposedly climb it in 1906. Though he claimed he was the first to scale the mountain, Peary supporters
during the North Pole debacle noted that he reached the wrong summit, a spot now known as Fake Peak. In 1907, Cook announced
he was determined to discover the North Pole, and claimed to have reached it after a 14-month disappearance. Robert Peary
then claimed in 1909 to have truly discovered it first. While Cook originally congratulated Peary, Peary purposefully campaigned
to discredit Cook’s claims, since Cook had no navigational records of his trip to prove his achievement. After reviewing Cook's
limited records, a commission of the University of Copenhagen ruled in December 1909 that he had not proven that he reached
the pole. In 1911, Cook published a memoir of his expedition, continuing to assert his success. His reputation as an explorer
never recovered, and he died in 1940.
Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania in 1856. He earned a civil engineering degree from Bowdoin College
in 1877, and later joined as an engineer for the United States Navy in 1881. During his time with the Navy in 1885, he noted
in his diary that he would be the first man to reach the North Pole. His first expedition took place across Greenland by dog
sled in 1886, and served as a learning experience for future endeavours. He returned to Greenland in 1891 on a larger, more
difficult expedition to see if Greenland extended as a land mass to the North Pole. Using Inuit survival techniques, he was
able to complete a few more Greenland expeditions before attempting his final expedition from Ellesmere Island to the North
Pole in 1909. During this time, he established “Camp Jesup,” allegedly within 5 miles of the pole. However, upon returning
from his expedition, he learned that Frederick Cook, a surgeon from one of his previous expeditions, claimed to have reached
the North Pole a year prior in 1908. Peary campaigned to discredit Cook, and after a trial at the University of Copenhagen,
Peary was proved correct and Cook’s claim was disproved after he failed to supply proof (though Peary himself refused to submit
his records, and the National Geographic Society forbade researchers from seeing them). Later on, Peary would become the leader
of the Explorers Club and the Aero Club of America, along with proposing air mail routes that became the genesis of the U.S.
Postal Service’s air mail system. He died a successful man in 1920.
Santa Clara University was founded in 1851 by the Society of Jesus as Santa Clara College and is California’s oldest operating
institution of higher learning. It was established on the grounds of Mission Santa Clara de Asìs, the eighth of the original
21 California missions. The college originally operated as a preparatory school and did not offer courses of collegiate rank
until 1853. The institution became known as the University of Santa Clara in 1912, when the schools of engineering and law
were added. For 110 years, Santa Clara University was an all-male school. In 1961, women were accepted as undergraduates and
Santa Clara University became the first coeducational Catholic university in California. The number of students and faculty
tripled over the next decade and the university began the largest building program in school history with eight residence
halls, a student union, and an athletic stadium. In the early 1970s, the Board of Trustees voted to limit the size of the
undergraduate population, an action that was intended to preserve the character and ensure the quality of the university for
generations to come. In 1985, the university adopted Santa Clara University as its official name.
Bibliography: Santa Clara University. “About SCU – History.” www.scu.edu/about/history.cfm (Accessed Nov. 23, 2010) McKevitt, Gerald, S.J.
The University of Santa Clara: A History, 1851-1977. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1979.
Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary Papers, MSS.2017.7.14. Santa Clara University Library, Archives & Special Collections.
Collection processed by Daniel Morales and finding aid EAD encoded by Michelle Runyon in 2017. Additional descriptive information
added by Mia Hope in 2018.
Bernard R. Hubbard, S.J., Papers, Santa Clara University. University Archives.
Bryce, Robert M., Cook & Peary: The Polar Controversy, Resolved. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1997.
https://sculib.scu.edu/record=b1782737
Gibbins, Russell W., An Historical Evaluation of the Cook-Peary Controversy: A Critique of the Acceptance by History and Reference
Works of the Claims of Robert Edwin Peary Against Those of Frederick Albert Cook as to the Discovery of the North Pole, 1908-09.
Ada, Ohio: Department of History, Ohio Northern University, 1954.
https://sculib.scu.edu/record=b1296681
Peary, Robert E., Secrets of Polar Travel. New York, New York: Century, 1917.
https://sculib.scu.edu/record=b1574839
Peary, Robert E., The North Pole : Its Discovery in 1909 Under the Auspices of the Peary Arctic Club. New York, New York:
Frederick A. Stokes Co., 1910.
https://sculib.scu.edu/record=b1261119
Hall, Thomas F., Has the North Pole Been Discovered?: An Analytical and Synthetical Review of the Published Narratives of
the Two Arctic explorers, Dr. Frederick A. Cook and Civil Engineer Robert E. Peary, U.S.N.. Boston, Massachussetts: R.G.
Badger, 1917.
https://sculib.scu.edu/record=b1232741
Morris, Charles. Discovery of the North Pole; Dr. Frederick A. Cook's Own Story of How He Reached the North Pole, April 21,
1908, the Story of Commander Peary's Discovery, April 6, 1909. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: G.A. Parker, 1909.
https://sculib.scu.edu/record=b1104193
Scope and Content of the Collection
The Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary Collection, 1904-1960, documents the controversy surrounding the dual claims of
the discovery of the North Pole by Frederick A. Cook and Robert E. Peary. The bulk of the collection consists of multiple
drafts of articles written by William Shea, a Cook supporter who began writing about him after meeting with him. A portion
of the collection is dedicated to articles written by various authors expressing their beliefs on the issue, and newspaper
clippings regarding Cook and Peary. The records also consist of congressional hearing records regarding the debate, and correspondence
discussing the controversy sent to Father Bernard Hubbard.
This collection is arranged into one series: Series I. Cook-Peary Controversy (1904-1960).
Materials in Archives & Special Collections may be subject to copyright. All requests for permission to publish from manuscripts
must be submitted in writing to the University Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Archives & Special
Collections as the owner of the physical materials, and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital reproductions of the original materials.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Hubbard, Bernard R. (Bernard Rosecrans), 1888-1962
North Pole (Alaska)
Discovery and Exploration
Explorers -- United States -- Biography
Cook, Frederick Albert, 1865-1940
Peary, Robert E. (Robert Edwin), 1856-1920