American flag and sledges at the North Pole in April 1909 during Robert Peary's expedition.
The controversy over just who reached the North Pole first – Naval engineer, explorer and Bowdoin alumnus Robert Peary, or American adventurer Frederick Cook – is as old as their respective expeditions, which were completed just a year apart, in 1908 and 1909, earning the #9 spot on the “Top 10 Invention and Discovery Controversies.”
Upon the centennial of Peary’s claim, Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum and Arctic Studies Center Director Susan Kaplan wrote of the controversy and the epic journey taken by Peary and his crew.
