Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary (May 22, 1863 – December 19, 1955) was an American author and arctic explorer. She was the wife of Robert Peary, who claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

Early life

Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary was born Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch in on May 22, 1863 on a farm in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. Her mother, Magdalena Augusta Schmid Diebitsch, was from

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

. Her father, Hermann Henry Diebitsch, was a military officer from

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, the Diebitsch family farm was destroyed, which led the family to relocate to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Hermann was a clerk at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. 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 Spencerian Business College is the name of various business schools established in the 19th century by Platt R. Spencer, his son Robert C. Spencer, or by Enos Spencer (whose relation to the other two Spencers is unclear), sometimes in associatio ...

and graduated as the class valedictorian in 1880. She found herself qualified and on track for a copyist, clerk, and tallyist position at the

and the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

. 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 SS ...

Marriage and Family

Josephine first met Robert Peary 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

. 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 neighborhood of

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 Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

, 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