Frederick Cook

Frederick Cook (1865-1940), American explorer and doctor, born in Hortonville, New York, and educated at New York Medical College. He was appointed surgeon for the Greenland expedition of 1891-1892 led by the American explorer Robert Peary and held the same position on the Belgian Antarctic expedition of 1897-1899. Beginning in 1903 he made the first of several attempts to climb Mount McKinley in Alaska. His claim to have succeeded in 1906 was disputed by many; a photograph he claimed to have taken on the mountain to support his case was later shown to have been taken from a different Alaskan mountain altogether. The following year he led an expedition in the Arctic region, and in September 1909 he claimed that he had reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908, one year earlier than Peary. The conflicting claims touched off a widespread controversy. Cook was discredited by scientists, and his case was damaged by the conflicting testimony of his Inuit companions, one of whom claimed that the party had never been out of sight of land, but he received acclaim from audiences who crowded to hear him lecture. His book, My Attainment of the Pole (1909), sold widely. In 1925 he was imprisoned for fraud for his part in a fraudulent oil transaction. In 1930 he was released, and in 1940 he received a presidential pardon.