Crises in the Arctic: Upheavals in the Memoir of Josephine Diebitsch-Peary

Abstract

In My Arctic Journey: A Year among Ice-Fields and Eskimos (1894), Josephine Diebitsch-Peary documents her experiences during the North Greenland Expedition of 1891–92, which began ominously when her husband, the famed Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary, broke his leg aboard the Kite and was carried to the expedition headquarters near the mouth of MacCormick Fjord. As the first white woman in the Arctic, Diebitsch-Peary faced numerous crises, torn as she was between True Womanhood ideals and desires for hunting and exploration. She navigated internal and external upheavals, depicting the Arctic landscape and native disputes, and vacillating between biased descriptions and identification with Inughuit women. Additional crises included the disappearance of mineralogist and meteorologist John M. Verhoeff and the pressures of her husband’s ambitions. Despite these challenges, she actively participated in the expedition, grappling with traditional role expectations and the demands of polar exploration. Her memoir reflects the personal, national, and international costs of a contested icescape, revealing the struggles she overcame and those she did not.