Polar Pathways: Robert E. Peary's Arctic Expeditions
1908- New York: A Heat Wave
A crowd waves the ship farewell.
“From her berth beside the recreation pier at the foot of East Twenty-fourth Street, New York, the Roosevelt steamed north on the last expedition, about one o’clock in the afternoon of July 6th, 1908. As the ship backed out into the river, a cheer that echoed over Blackwell’s Island went up from the thousands who had gathered on the piers to see us off; while the yacht fleet, the tugboats and the ferryboats tooted their good wishes. It was an interesting coincidence that the day on which we started for the coldest spot known on earth was about the hottest which New York had known for years. There were thirteen deaths from heat and seventy-two heat prostrations recorded in Greater New York for that day, while we were bound for a region where sixty below zero is not an exceptional temperature.”– Robert E. Peary in The North Pole, published in 1910
Funding
the Expensive Expedition
The
Ship
Peary's
Party
Supplies
Crowds
of Well-Wishers
Lunch
with a President
"Recreation Pier. Foot of East 23rd Street, New York" by Donald B. MacMillan, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum Collections
