Building the Peary Monument

Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum & Arctic Studies Center Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum & Arctic Studies Center

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Arctic Museum main galleries

Building the Peary Monument

…since the death of my father, mother and I have hoped to realize … one of his last wishes, the erection of a permanent memorial to him in Greenland.

Marie Peary Stafford

In 1932, Robert A. Bartlett and Marie Ahnighito Peary Stafford, Robert E. Peary’s daughter, joined forces to mount an expedition to Cape York, Greenland to construct a memorial to Peary. As always on Bartlett’s expeditions, photographers documented many aspects of this remarkable work. The following images trace the expedition from its June departure from New York, to the final dedication of the monument in August, 1932. The captions are extracts from accounts of the expedition left by Bartlett, captain of the expedition vessel Effie M. Morrissey and leader of the expedition, Marie Peary Stafford, who was returning to the place of her birth, and Jack Angel, assistant engineer and sometime photographer.

The generosity of the Friends of Bowdoin College has made this exhibition possible.

We also thank the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College for use of the images and extracts from the writing of Robert A. Bartlett and Jack Angel, The Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England Libraries for extracts from Marie Peary Stafford’s account of the expedition, and Mildred Jones, a museum volunteer, for her work with this photograph collection.



Pictured above: Unknown photographer, Campsite, Cape York, Greenland, 1932. Ink jet print from black and white photograph. Robert Abram Bartlett papers, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library.

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