The American Museum Journal 



Vol. TX NOVEMBER. 1909 No. 7 



ACHIEVEMEKT IN POLAR EXPLORATION. 



The Exhibit of the Peary Arctic Club. 



FOR several years a record of Polar exploration has been on exhibi- 

 tion at the Museum in the east corridor immediately off the 

 main foyer. Here, on two fifteen foot maps painted on seg- 

 ments of a globe fastened to the wall have been indicated the routes of 

 Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. 



On September 6 the Arctic map showed Xansen's farthest north, 

 86° 14', reached in 1895, the Duke of the Abruzzi's (Cagni's) record, 

 86° 33', made in 1900, and the northernmost point of all, 87° 6', gained 

 bv Peary on April 26, 1906, but the routes went no nearer the Pole than 

 these points, and from them stretched untraversed a region known to be 

 more than two himdred miles wide on all sides of the Pole. On Septem- 

 ber 7, 1909, however, the red cord marking Peary's latest expedition 

 spanned this remaining distance and a small flag floated at the center of 

 the Arctic map to bear record to the larger American flag that was left 

 on April 6, 1909, waving over the drifting ice where half the year is 

 day and half is night. 



This achievement, striven for by many men of many nations, marks 

 an event in history. It closes a century of Arctic research, which century 

 in turn was the culmination of a period of three centuries of exploration, 

 if we count the exploits of whaling and sealing vessels and the early 

 expeditions in search of a short water-route from western Europe to the 

 Orient. Some facts have been discovered, some things proved not true, 

 and the field is clear for new achievement along other lines, to the end 

 that man may have a fairer understanding of the Universe in which he 

 finds himself. 



On the morning of October 12, an exhibition by the Peary Arctic 

 Club was opened in the west wing of the ^Museum. The presentation 



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