American flag and sledges at the North Pole in April 1909.

On December 25, 1908, Robert E. Peary and his crew aboard the S.S. Roosevelt were a little more than halfway in their journey to the North Pole. The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center has digitized the crew’s journal entries. On this day 102 years ago, Donald MacMillan describes “a dark Christmas morn” and writes of activities that included tug-of-war and throwing dice for prizes, and crew members’ receiving gifts of candy and nuts from Mrs. Peary.