Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary (May 22, 1863 – December 19, 1955) was an American author and

arctic explorer Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth. It refers to the historical period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle. Historical records suggest that humankind have explored ...

. She was the wife of

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in Apri ...

, who claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole.

Early life

Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary was born Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch in on May 22, 1863 on a farm in Maryland. Her mother, Magdalena Augusta Schmid Diebitsch, was from Saxony. Her father, Hermann Henry Diebitsch, was a military officer from Prussia. During the American Civil War, the Diebitsch family farm was destroyed, which led the family to relocate to Washington, D.C. Hermann was a clerk at the Smithsonian Institution. She had a brother, Emil Diebitsch, who later became the mayor of Nutley, New Jersey, and a sister Miss Marie Diebitsch. Josephine attended Spencerian Business College and graduated as the class valedictorian in 1880. She found herself qualified and on track for a copyist, clerk, and tallyist position at the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Department of the Interior. Josephine wrote ''My Arctic Journal'' (1893) during the

Peary expedition to Greenland of 1891–1892 The Peary expedition to Greenland of 1891–1892 was where Robert Edwin Peary, Sr. set out to determine if Greenland was an island, or was a peninsula of the North Pole. History Peary sailed from Brooklyn, New York on June 6, 1891 aboard the S ...

Marriage and Family

Josephine first met

in 1885 while she was attending dancing school. They got engaged in 1886, at which time she resigned from the Smithsonian Institution. She married him on August 11, 1888. She often accompanied him on his northern travels, where she traveled farther North over the ice fields than any white woman had before. Her eagerness to explore the world prompted her to accompany her husband on the

. She accompanied him on six of his Arctic expeditions and was considered a First Lady of the Arctic. While they were married, in 1909, Robert Peary claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole. At that time, Josephine stayed home on Eagle Island in Casco Bay, Maine, which Robert bought in 1877. Josephine and Robert had two children: Marie Ahnighito Peary born in 1893, who became known as "Snow Baby", was born less than thirteen degrees from the North Pole, and a son, Robert E. Peary Jr. Although both children were Arctic adventurers, Robert Jr. became a construction engineer. They also had three grandchildren, Edward Peary Stafford, Robert E. Peary III, and Peary Diebitsch Stafford.

Later life and death

In 1914, the Pearys bought the house at 1831 Wyoming Avenue NW in the

Adams Morgan Adams Morgan is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., centered at the intersection of 18th Street NW and Columbia Road, about 1.5 miles (2.54 km) north of the White House. Notable establishments in the neighborhood include the ...

neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Robert Peary began renovating the house in 1920, shortly before his death, after which the renovation was taken over by Josephine. Josephine sold the house in 1927, receiving a $12,000 promissory note. She moved to Portland, Maine, in 1932. She died on December 19, 1955, at the age of 92.

Works

* My Arctic Journal (1893) * The Snow Baby (1901) * Children of the Arctic (1903)

Awards and Accomplishments

* Granted the National Geographic Society's highest honor, the Medal of Achievement, for her Arctic accomplishments. * A charter member of the Philadelphia Geographic Society as well as the Appalachian Mountain Club. * An honorary member of a Woman Geographers Club.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peary, Josephine Diebitsch 1863 births 1955 deaths American polar explorers Explorers of the Arctic Female explorers People from Adams Morgan Writers from Maryland