From Hero to Humbug

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.

In the latest book on the Polar Controversy, author Darrell Hartman focuses on the Press’ role in making the 1909 dispute between Cook and Peary a national obsession. He agrees with me [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.
There can be no doubt that Frederick Cook intended to make a real attempt to reach the North Pole. Numerous accounts by others recall him saying it was his “life’s ambition.” When [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.
We have now come to the penultimate installment of this series, having examined the first leg of Cook’s journey from Annoatok to Cape Thomas Hubbard and the third leg of his journey from his [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.
Immediately upon the publication of Peary’s statement about what Cook’s Inuit said appeared, partisans of both sides noticed the extreme differences in the route on Peary’s map compared to the one published by Cook [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.
A further assurance that the Inuit did not draw the first leg of the journey from Annoatok to Cape Thomas Hubbard on Peary’s map is that nowhere along that route do they indicate any [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.

Because, as we have seen, the existing evidence of what the Inuit said to others about their journey with Dr. Cook varies, and is sometimes contradictory, we will now examine how these accounts [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.
We have now examined all the known relevant testimony surrounding what Dr. Cook’s two Inuit companions had to say to others concerning the journey on which they accompanied him. The various versions [...]

The ongoing series on the “Eskimo Testimony” will resume next month.
In early 1997 I was asked to submit a paper for a symposium to be held at Ohio State University in Columbus. The aim of the symposium was to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, led by Adrien de Gerlache. [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.
There are four other miscellaneous accounts that do not fit into the narrative up to now, but I will now mention for the sake of completeness.   The first is that of Paul Rainey, who [...]

This is the latest in a series of posts that publish for the first time significant documents related to the Polar Controversy.
The publication of Hall’s monumental study of the Polar Controversy in 1917, although flawed by his severe animus against Peary, was a turning point in the history of this long-lasting geographical dispute. But [...]