LB2016.15.506

LB2016.15.506

Admiral Robert E. Peary, posing with several sled dogs on the deck of his ship, the ROOSEVELT. Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in April 1909, leading an expedition that claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole. Peary was born in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, but, following his father's death at a young age, was raised in Portland, Maine. He attended Bowdoin College, then joined the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey as a draftsman. SS Roosevelt was an American steamship of the early 20th century. She was designed and constructed specifically for Robert Peary?s polar exploration expeditions, and she supported the 1908 expedition in which he claimed to have discovered the North Pole. After her career with Peary, Roosevelt saw commercial use as a tug. She also operated as a United States Bureau of Fisheries supply ship and served as a United States Navy patrol vessel during World War I.