Robert E. Peary: Arctic Explorer and Collector 

 for the World's Columbian Exposition 



by 

 James W. Van Stone 



Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology 





18 



The Polar Eskimos of Smith Sound, northwest Green- 

 land, have long been famous as the most northern 

 peoples in the world. When first contacted by the British 

 explorer John Ross in 1818, they had lived in isolation 

 for so long that they believed themselves to be the only 

 people in the world. It is therefore remarkable that Field 

 Museum possesses the earliest ethnographic collection 

 from these remote peoples, acquired at the time the 



institution was established following the close of the 

 World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. The means by 

 which this collection was obtained represents an inter- 

 esting footnote to the early history of Field Museum's 

 ethnographic holdings. 



In 1891, Frederic Ward Putnam, curator of the Pea- 

 body Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 

 at Harvard University, was appointed chief of the 



