Embankment, London, the remodelling of the interiors of Clieveden House (1893) and No. 18 Carlton House Terrace (1894), with many parsonages, show his aptitude for domestic architecture. In general design he first aimed at form, embracing both proportion and contour; and his work may be recognized by accurate scholarship coupled with harmonious detail. Its keynotes are cautiousness and refinement rather than boldness. He died on the 11th of December 1897, and was buried in the nave of Westminster Abbey, where his grave is marked by the appropriate motto Sustinuat et abstinuit. He was elected A.R.A. in 1874, R.A. in 1880, was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a fellow and member of the Council of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
The following are some of Pearson’s more important works, not already named. Ferriby church (1846); Stow, Lincolnshire (restoration, 1850); Weybridge, St James’s (1853); Freeland church, parsonage and schools (1866), Kilbuin, St Peter’s Home (1868), Wentworth church (1872), Horsforth church (1874); Cullercoats, St George’s (1882); Chiswick, St Michael’s (restoration, 1882); Great Yarmouth church (restoration, 1883); Liverpool, St Agnes' (1883); Woking Convalescent Home (1884); Headingley church (1884), Torquay, All Saints (1884); Maidstone, All Saints (restoration, 1885), Shrewsbury Abbey (1886); Ayr, Holy Trmity (1886); Hythe church (restoration, 1887); Oxford, New College, reredos (completion, 1889); Cambridge University Library (additions, 1889); Friern Barnet, St John’s (1890); Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College (additions, 1890); Middlesex Hospital chapel (1890); Bisho sgate, St Helen’s (restoration, 1891); Maida Hill (Irvingite) church 3891); Barking, All Hallows (restoration, 1893); Cambridge, Emmanuel College (additions, 1893); Ledbury, St M1chael’s (restoration, 1894); Malta, Memorial church (1894); Port Talbot church (1895). (W. D. C.)
PEARY, ROBERT EDWIN (1856–), American Arctic
explorer, was born at Cresson, Pennsylvania, on the 6th of May 1856. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1877, and in 1881 became a civil engineer in the U.S. navy with the rank of lieutenant. In 1884 he was appointed assistant-engineer in connexion with the surveys for the Nicaragua Ship Canal, and in 1887–1888 he was in charge of these surveys. In 1886 he obtained leave of absence for a summer excursion to Disco Bay on the west coast
of Greenland. From this point he made a journey of nearly a
hundred miles into the interior, and the experience impressed
him with the practicability of using this so-called inland ice-cap
as a highway for exploration. In 1891 he organized an expedition
under the auspices of the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia. The party of seven included Lieut. Peary’s
wife, the first white woman to accompany an Arctic expedition.
After wintering in Inglefield Gulf on the north-west
coast of Greenland, in the following spring Lieut. Peary,
with a young Norwegian, Eivind Astrup, crossed the inland
ice-cap along its northern limit to the north-east of Greenland
and back. The practical geographical result of this journey
was to establish the insularity of Greenland. Valuable
work was also performed by the expedition in the close
study which was made of the isolated tribe of the Cape
York or Smith Sound Eskimos, the most northerly people in
the world[1] Lieut. Peary was able to fit out another Arctic
expedition in 1893, and was again accompanied by Mrs Peary,
who gave birth to a daughter at the winter quarters in Inglefield
Gulf. The expedition returned in the season of 1894, leaving
Peary with his coloured servant Henson and Mr Hugh G. Lee
to renew the attempt to cross the inland ice in the next year.
This they succeeded in doing, but without being able to carry
the work of exploration any farther on the opposite side of
Greenland. During a summer excursion to Melville Bay in
1894, Peary discovered three large meteorites, which supplied
the Eskimos with the material for their iron implements, as
reported by Sir John Ross in 1818, and on his return in 1895
he brought the two smaller ones with him. The remaining
meteorite was brought to New York in 1897. In 1898 Lieut.
Peary published Northward over the Great Ice, a record of all his
expeditions up to that time, and in the same year he started
on another expedition to the Arctic regions. In this and subsequent
expeditions he received financial aid from Mr Morris
Jesup and the Peary Arctic Club. The greatest forethought
was bestowed upon the organization of the expedition, a four years
programme being laid down at the outset and a system
of relief expeditions provided for. A distinctive feature was
the utilization of a company of Eskimos. Although unsuccessful
as regards the North Pole, the expedition achieved the accurate
survey (1900) of the northern limit of the Greenland continent
and the demonstration that beyond it lay a Polar ocean.
In 1902 Peary with Henson and an Eskimo advanced as
far north as lat. 84° 17′ 27″, the highest point then reached
in the western hemisphere. Lieut. Peary had now been
promoted to the rank of Commander, and on his return he
was elected president of the American Geographical Society.
In November 1903 he went to England on a naval commission
to inquire into the system of naval barracks in Great
Britain, and was presented with the Livingstone Gold Medal
of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Commander Peary
then began preparations for another expedition by the construction
of a special ship, named the “Roosevelt,” the first
ever built in the United States for the purpose of Arctic
exploration. He sailed from New York on the 16th of July
1905, having two years' supplies on board. The “Roosevelt”
wintered on the north coast of Grant Land, and on the 21st of
February a start was made with sledges. The party experienced
serious delay owing to open Water between 84° and 85°, and
farther north the ice was opened up during a six days' gale,
which cut off communications and destroyed the depots which
had been established. A steady easterly drift was experienced.
But on the 21st of April, 1906, 87° 6′ was reached-the “farthest
north” attained by man–by which time Peary and his companions
were suffering severe privations, and had to make the
return journey in the face of great difficulties. They reached
the north coast of Greenland and subsequently rejoined the ship,
from which, after a week's rest, Peary made a sledge journey
along the north coast of Grant Land. Returning home, the
expedition reached Hebron, Labrador, on the 13th of October,
the “Roosevelt” having been nearly wrecked en route. In 1907
the narrative of this journey, Nearest the Pole, was published.
In 1908 Peary started in the “Roosevelt” on the journey
which was to bring him his final success. He left Etah on the
18th of August, wintered in Grant Land, and set forward over the
ice from Cape Columbia on the 1st of March 1909. A party of
six started with him, and moved in sections, one in front of
another. They were gradually sent back as supplies diminished.
At the end of the month Captain Bartlett was the only white
man left with Peary, and he turned back in 87° 48′ N., the highest
latitude then ever reached. Peary, with his negro servant and
four Eskimos, pushed on, and on the 6th of April 1909 reached
the North Pole. They remained some thirty hours, took observations,
and on sounding, a few miles from the pole, found no
bottom at 1500 fathoms The party, with the exception of one
drowned, returned safely to the “Roosevelt,” which left her
winter quarters on the 18th of July and reached Indian Harbour
on the 5th of September Peary’s The North Pole: Its Discovery
in 1909 was published in 1910.
Just before the news came of Peary's success another American explorer, Dr F. A. Cook (b. 1865), returning from Greenland to Europe on a Danish ship, claimed that he had reached the North Pole on the 21st of April 1908. He had accompanied an expedition northward in 1907, prepared to attempt to reach the Pole if opportunity offered, and according to his own story had done so, leaving his party and taking only some Eskimos, early in 1908. Nothing had been heard of him since March of that year, and it was supposed that he had perished. Cook's claim to have forestalled Peary was at first credited in various circles, and he was given a rapturous reception at Copenhagen, but scientific opinion in England and America was more reserved, and eventually, after a prolonged dispute, a special committee of the university of Copenhagen, to whom his documents were submitted, declared that they
- ↑ A narrative of the expedition written by Mrs Peary, and containing an account of the “Great White journey across Greenland,” by her husband, was published under the title of My Arctic Journal.
