How Peary the 'Philanthropist' lined his pockets

During most of the time that Robert Peary was active in northern Greenland, a period of almost 20 years, he was also engaged in a lucrative business dealing in furs and walrus and narwhal tusks.

Usually the goods were consigned to the American Museum of Natural History as scientific objects; as such they were not subject to any import duties. The museum would then release the items to the Peary Arctic Club, which would give them either to Peary's patrons in return for generous donations to the club, or to Peary's sales agent.

The biggest prizes of all, for Peary, were the three meteorites that he hauled away from Cape York. As soon as he set eyes on them, he determined that they would have a home in the American Museum of Natural History, and that he would be paid handsomely for them.

He set the stage for the museum's acquisition of the treasures by taking along with him on two of his expeditions an artist, Albert Operti, who would plan a museum setting that would have all the Cape York meteorites displayed with scenes from the lives of the Inuit.

The meteorites arrived at the museum amidst much publicity. Of course the public saw them as a generous gift from a man dedicated to the cause of Arctic science. What they did not know was that the meteorites were merely on long-term loan, pending a sale.

In 1907, Peary was still negotiating with Morris Jesup, the museum's president, over the sale of the meteorites, which had reposed at the museum for over a decade. A letter from Jesup to Peary is instructive, because it illustrates the manner in which the Peary trail to the museum was often covered.

"I have offered the three meteorites now at the Museum to a friend, to be offered to another friend, the same for purchase at fifty thousand dollars, to be presented to the Museum," wrote Jesup, adding that if that plan failed, "that your desire is that I have them at the price that may be agreed upon between us, for presentation to the Museum."

"A friend of a friend" had been offered a chance, for $50,000, to become a patron of the museum, and the money, were it forthcoming, would go straight into Robert Peary's pockets.

To the dismay of both men, the friend did not take up Jesup's offer. And to the dismay of Robert Peary, Morris Jesup died in January of 1908 before any deal had been concluded for the sale of the meteorites. With Jesup gone, there was a good chance that the transaction would never be completed.

But soon, while Peary himself was busy with the organization of what would be his final Arctic expedition, his wife Josephine took up the challenge of selling the meteorites directly to the museum. In a letter to the institution's new president, Henry F. Osborn, she was uncharacteristically blunt in stressing her financial need. "I think it only fair to state that the meteorites are my property," she wrote, "and that the money obtained for them will not be expended in Arctic Exploration. It is all I have with which to educate my children in the event of anything happening to my husband. Of this Mr. Jesup was cognizant and he approved entirely my keeping the proceeds as a nest egg."

The Pearys had constantly stressed, both to Jesup and to their many other patrons, that they were poor folk, living on the kindness of their benefactors while Peary devoted all his energies toward his polar goal. But the Peary family papers, now in the United States national archives, tell a different story, of a family that was financially comfortable.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Peary's tear-jerking letter to Osborn paid off. A year later she sold the meteorites to the American Museum of Natural History for $50,000. This was a fabulous sum almost a century ago.

But there was no publicity accompanying this major museum acquisition, for the public had thought all along that the museum already owned the exhibits which attracted so many visitors. The Pearys had quietly gotten paid.

Taissumani recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.