Josephine Peary

Josephine Peary (1863–1955)

Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary (born May 22, 1863 in Forestville , Maryland , † December 19, 1955 in Portland , Maine ) was an American polar explorer and writer . She is considered to be the first white woman to winter in the Arctic . Her book My Arctic Journal - a Year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos was published in 1893 . She was the wife of Robert E. Peary , whom she actively supported in his attempts to reach the North Pole . In 1955, the National Geographic Society honored her with the Medal of Achievement for her contributions to the Arctic. Isabel Coixet directed the feature film Nobody Wants the Night with Juliette Binoche in the lead role in 2014 through Josephine Peary .

Life

Josephine Peary was born in the United States on May 22, 1863 as the daughter of German immigrants. Her father worked at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. At 19, while taking a dance class, she fell in love with Robert E. Peary , the man who was obsessed with the idea of being the first to get to the North Pole. They became a couple. He said of her: “I know that she loves me; that she can make me happy, I think; that she will hinder me less than any other woman I've met - of that I'm sure. ”He was right about that. Josephine quickly realized that she wasn't going to get this man to live a normal family life. She decided to go with him.

Expeditions to the Arctic

In 1891 Josephine Peary joined Robert E. Peary's expedition team and wintered with the men in the Arctic. In 1893, during Peary's second Greenland expedition, she gave birth to her daughter Marie Ahnighito (1893–1978) in the expedition hut. The Inuit could hardly believe the miracle: the child was so white that they called it the snow baby. The following winter Peary sent his wife and child home. Josephine was deeply hurt that he didn't want her with him anymore. But it stayed the same: He in the ice, she at home.

In 1900 she could no longer endure the situation and set out on her own to Greenland to look for Robert E. Peary. The trip turned out to be a disaster for her because Peary had meanwhile started a second family with Aleqasina, an Inuit woman he shared with her husband Piuaiittuq Ulloriaq. Josephine Peary met this woman who held out a baby to her with innocent pride. His baby. Josephine was angry. She wrote him a 26-page letter: "To think that she was lying in your arms, received your caresses, heard your cries of love - just thinking about it I would like to die ... You gave me three years of the best pleasure, that a woman can have; after that I felt pleasure and pain in equal parts - until now, when everything is just pain except the memory of what was. ”She wanted to leave the letter on Greenland and go back home without waiting for Peary. But the arctic winter thwarted her plans. The ship she was traveling on was stuck in the ice. When Peary came to the area the following spring, the Inuit told him that Mitty Peary was on board and gave him the letter. He read and scheduled his visit on board for his own birthday to take the wind out of her sails a little. What he succeeded.

Wife of the Pole Explorer

In the years that followed, Josephine found herself in a new role: That she would always be number two in Peary's life. Number one was the Arctic. The pursuit of the pole. Nothing could stop him. Nevertheless, she did her best to help him in his attempts to reach the Pole. When he was physically and mentally down, she did everything to care for and re-motivate him. On September 5, 1909, Josephine finally had a telegram in her hands. "I have the DOP (Damned Old Pole). At the well. Will wire again from Chateau. Bert. “What came next is history: The dispute over whether Peary or his one-time travel companion Frederick Cook was the first man at the North Pole lasted for years. Peary had to stay home to fight this out. Josephine had what she had always wanted: her husband by her side. She never expressed doubts, but fought until her death in 1955 to have Robert E. Peary recognized as the discoverer of the North Pole. She died on December 19, 1955.

Services

The Snow Baby , cover (1901)

Josephine's diary, My Arctic Journal , published in 1893, shows her very independent view of the Arctic. During the expedition, she was oriented towards the house through her role as a woman - a primitive hut built in the snow. She lived in close contact with the Inuit women. Together they made seals and arctic fox fur dresses to equip the men. This opened up a perspective that does not appear in the men's expedition reports.

In 1901 her children's book The Snow Baby was published . It tells the story of her daughter Marie Ahnighito, who was born in the polar night. In 1903 the sequel Children of the Arctic appeared . Here too, Marie Ahnighito is the main character who winters in the ice with the Inuit children. Both books are richly illustrated with photos.

With diplomatic skills, Josephine Peary made a significant contribution to attracting sponsors who finance Robert E. Peary's expeditions. While he is out and about in the ice, she gave lectures, gave interviews and stayed in contact with sponsors. In 1909 she managed to sell the large meteorite that Peary had loaded at Cape York to the American Museum of Natural History . The meteorite is still an attraction of the museum today.

filming

The Spanish director Isabel Coixet took the story of Josephine Peary as the starting point for her film Nobody Wants the Night , which had its world premiere at the Berlinale in February 2015 . Juliette Binoche and Rinko Kikuchi can be seen in the leading roles . The film tells of Josephine Peary's trip to Greenland, where she wants to meet her husband and spends a winter with the Inuit woman Allaka.

Works

My Arctic Journal - A Year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos. New York 1893. New edition with a foreword by Robert M. Bryce: Cooper Square Press, New York 2002, ISBN 0-8154-1198-7 .
The Snow Baby: A True Story With True Pictures. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 1901 (German translation by Franziska Boas: Das Schneekind: an experienced story with pictures after life . Schaffstein, Cologne 1901). New edition Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 978-1-161-74888-8 .
Children of the Arctic. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 1903. New edition: Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 978-0-548-83751-1 .

literature

Cornelia Gerlach: Arctic pioneer. Josephine Peary's journeys into the eternal ice. Kindler-Verlag, Reinbek 2012, ISBN 978-3-463-40629-9 .
Kari Herbert: Polar women. Courageous companions of great explorers. Munich 2010.
Katherine Kirkpatrick: The Snow Baby. The Arctic Childhood of Admiral Robert E. Peary's Daring Daughter. New York 2007.

Web links

Commons : Josephine Diebitsch Peary - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ http://www.une.edu/node/903/josephine-diebitsch-peary
^ Emersleben, Otto: Robert Edwin Peary. An American dream of the pole. Berlin 1991, page 85
^ My Arctic Journal. A Year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos.
^ The Snow Baby: A True Story With True Pictures. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 1901. Kessinger Publishing reissued, ISBN 978-1-161-74888-8 .
^ New York Times, October 7, 1894
↑ Jean Malaurie: Myth of the North Pole. 200 years of expedition history . National Geographic Germany, 2003. ISBN 3-936559-20-1 , p. 250.
^ Letter that was auctioned on March 24, 2005 and has been in private hands since then. Quoted from http://www.hcaauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?inventoryid=6761 , last visited on February 1, 2015
^ From Robert M. Bryce's foreword to "My Arctic Journal," Cooper Square Press, New York 2002, p. Xix.
↑ Based on the original archived in the Maine Women Writers Collection.
^ Bryce, Robert M., Cook & Peary, The Polar Controversy, Resolved. Mechanicsburg 1997, 392 ff
↑ http://www.une.edu/node/903/josephine-diebitsch-peary
^ Wally Herbert: The Noose of Laurels. The Discovery of the North Pole. Sydney, Auckland, Toronto 1989, 207
↑ http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/earth-and-planetary-sciences-halls/arthur-ross-hall-of-meteorites
↑ Archive link ( Memento from February 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

personal data
SURNAME	Peary, Josephine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Peary, Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American polar explorer and writer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 22, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH	Forestville , Maryland
DATE OF DEATH	December 19, 1955
Place of death	Portland , Maine

[1] ttp://www.une.edu/node/903/josephine-diebitsch-peary

[2] Emersleben, Otto: Robert Edwin Peary. An American dream of the pole. Berlin 1991, page 85

[3] My Arctic Journal. A Year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos.

[4] The Snow Baby: A True Story With True Pictures. Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 1901. Kessinger Publishing reissued, ISBN 978-1-161-74888-8 .

[5] New York Times, October 7, 1894

[6] Jean Malaurie: Myth of the North Pole. 200 years of expedition history . National Geographic Germany, 2003. ISBN 3-936559-20-1 , p. 250.

[7] Letter that was auctioned on March 24, 2005 and has been in private hands since then. Quoted from http://www.hcaauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?inventoryid=6761 , last visited on February 1, 2015

[8] From Robert M. Bryce's foreword to "My Arctic Journal," Cooper Square Press, New York 2002, p. Xix.

[9] Based on the original archived in the Maine Women Writers Collection.

[10] Bryce, Robert M., Cook & Peary, The Polar Controversy, Resolved. Mechanicsburg 1997, 392 ff

[11] ttp://www.une.edu/node/903/josephine-diebitsch-peary

[12] Wally Herbert: The Noose of Laurels. The Discovery of the North Pole. Sydney, Auckland, Toronto 1989, 207

[13] ttp://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent-exhibitions/earth-and-planetary-sciences-halls/arthur-ross-hall-of-meteorites

[14] Archive link ( Memento from February 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )