Robert E. Peary made several expeditions to the Arctic between 1891-1909. A description of each expedition is in RG 401, Series XPGS ("Robert E. Peary Family Collection: Lantern Slides Relating to the Arctic Expeditions of Robert E. Peary").
With the exception of seven of the images in this series, these photographic prints appear to be the "outtakes" from the hundreds of photographs taken during the series of journeys Peary undertook between 1891 and 1897. Only a few of the prints have captions supplied by Peary or his assistants. The aforementioned seven images appear in whole or cropped in Peary's published account, Northward Over the 'Great Ice'." Captions from that publication were added to the NARA created finding aid.
Occasionally the prints are annotated with "omitted" or "Discarded." Many of the prints have faded greatly, or were improperly developed and/or printed.
The primary subjects of these prints can be categorized as: Animals of the Artic: Walruses, Musk Oxen, Polar Bears, Hares, Birds; Boats: Rowboats, Steam Launch, Kayaks; The Crew; Dogs: individually and as teams; Equipment: Skis, and Instruments; Eskimos; Icebergs; Landscapes: Shorelines, Islands, Glaciers; Meteorites: In Situ, Transporting; Ships: Onboard, At anchor, Underway; Sledges: and Structures: Tupiks, the Great Lodge, Igloos. Two vessels the S.S. Hope (XP-XPU-5-41) and S.S. Kite (XP-XPU-5-38) are pictured in this series. Peary traveled to Greenland on the Kite in 1891 and on the Hope during 1896 and 1897 voyages. In addition, there are several photographs (XP-XPU-3-1 to 4) of Peary's wife, Josephine Deibitsch Peary and their newborn daughter, Marie Ahnighito Peary, both of whom joined the expedition on September 12, 1893.
It is not known which of the several photographers involved in Peary's expeditions accounted for the images in this series. Possible contributors include Peary himself, known to have taken ethnological photographs on the 1891-1892 expedition, as well as Samuel Entrikin (officially listed, on expedition rosters, as a "photographer" for the 1891-92 expedition), Frank W. Stokes (an "artist" for the 1891-92 and 1893-95 expeditions), Albert Operti (an "artist" with the 1891-92 and 1897 parties), and Arthur M. Dodge ("photographer" for the 1896 expedition).
