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Bowdoin's Mascot: The Polar Bear

Bowdoin's mascot, the Polar Bear, symbolizes the spirit of Arctic exploration in which the College played an active role for well over 100 years. Bowdoin has often been called the "Explorers' College" because of its long association with exploration of the Arctic.

Bowdoin Polar Bear Scores of Bowdoin faculty members, students and alumni have voyaged to the icy North on scientific and exploration missions. The most famous were Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary of Bowdoin's Class
of 1877, who in 1909 became the first man to reach the North Pole; and his chief assistant on that historic expedition, Rear Admiral Donald B. MacMillan of the Class of 1898, who later made 26 voyages of his
own to the frozen North.

Thus, it was only natural that the great white bear of the Far North be adopted as the emblem of Maine's oldest institution of higher learning. The move toward this was made by Admiral MacMillan, who in 1915 presented a mounted polar bear to Bowdoin as a mascot. It is there today, preserved in a large glass case in the lobby of the College's Morrell Gymnasium.

A life-size statue of a polar bear stands in front of Bowdoin's Sargent Gymnasium, where it attracts the eye from the main gateways to the campus. The statue, erected in 1937, was the gift of the class of 1912 as a memorial to its deceased members. The base and statue were carved by sculptor Frederick George Richard Roth.

In 1967 the College constructed an Arctic Museum -- named in honor of Peary and MacMillan -- in the main reading room of Hubbard Hall, the old Bowdoin library building named for General Thomas Hubbard of the Class of 1857, a generous benefactor of Bowdoin and a major financial supporter of Admiral Peary's Arctic ventures.