From Hero to Humbug

This is the 17th in a series examining significant unpublished documents related to the Polar Controversy.
Of all the bizarre incidents of the Polar Controversy, perhaps none has more unanswered questions surrounding it than the Dunkle-Loose affidavits. On December 7, 1909, the day after the so-called “proofs” of Dr. Cook’s polar attainment had been locked [...]

Happy 113th Anniversary of Dr. Cook’s non-arrival at the North Pole.
Of all the souvenirs that were marketed in the wake of the Polar Controversy, perhaps the most artistic are the porcelain items produced in Germany, then a leading exporter of such wares. The two character mugs have already been highlighted in the February 2022 [...]

In 1909, the rival claims of Cook and Peary to have reached the North Pole produced scores of individual postcards, many pairs of related designs and several series. By far the largest was that issued by Kawin & Co., mostly known for its stereopticon views, based in Chicago. It issued a series of [...]

Twenty-five years ago today, February 17, 1997, Cook & Peary, the Polar Controversy, resolved, was published.
I’d first taken an interest in the titanic dispute over who first reached the North Pole in the mid-1970’s and read the narratives Cook and Peary had written about their attainments of the North Pole. I also made an [...]

Among the handsomest items that was marketed in the wake of the Cook-Peary dispute were small portrait mugs of the explorers made in Germany. Germany was the leading exporter of inexpensive bisque and decorative pottery items at the beginning of the 20th century.
The mugs are made of glazed pottery and hand decorated. The one of [...]

Dr. Cook returned to America aboard S. S. Oscar II after a week of adulation in Denmark. At half-past midnight the ship proceeded to quarantine, arriving at 4 AM. There she was dressed in flags to meet the reception committee aboard The Grand Republic, chartered by the secretary of the Arctic Club, B.S. Osbon. [...]

In the summer of 1893, after his return from Greenland where he had been surgeon to Peary’s North Greenland Expedition, Frederick Cook was hired to be “guide” for a tour of Greenland aboard the yacht Zeta. The ship had been chartered by a Yale professor on behalf of his half-addled son, who had developed [...]

In too many instances modern interpretations of history ignore the true context of events. Individuals’ attitudes and actions are today often criticized or condemned because they do not conform to current thinking on social or moral norms. But to treat the past as if it were the present, completely distorts history and thwarts [...]

The Polar Controversy spawned an avalanche of items designed to take advantage of the intense public interest in the dispute between September and December 1909. Most of these were ephemeral items, but they were so numerous that many of them have survived. One such item was a statuette of each of the two [...]

The case drug on for another three years. In June 1911, a commission was sent to Canada and the United States to investigate and take testimony from several witnesses including Joe White and Henry Johnson, mentioned in Franke’s complaint. Both men were originally members of the Roosevelt’s crew, but they and all other [...]