1865-1940

American doctor who, enthralled by stories of polar exploration, joined Robert Edward Peary's 1891 expedition to Greenland as the ship doctor and ethnologist. After this trip, he accompanied other expeditions to Antarctica. Two of his most noteworthy claims—that in 1906 he was the first person to have climbed to the summit of Mount McKinley and that in 1908 he was the first man to the North Pole—were later considered untrue. Peary is roundly considered to be the first to the Pole.