Robert Edwin Peary (1856-1920)

On Tuesday, April 6, 1909, Robert Edwin Peary accomplished an achievement worthy of the legendary explorers of history. Exhausted from sleep deprivation, in temperatures of forty degrees below zero, after sailing thousands of miles on the ship Roosevelt, with teams of dogs, and with the knowledge that more than 750 men had died in failure, Peary, along with Matthew Henson, four Eskimos, and...
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From Erie to Antarctica

For nineteen-year-old Eagle Scout Paul Allman Siple (1908–1968) of Erie, wintering over in Antarctica was perhaps the ultimate, yet seemingly unlikely, merit badge. He had completed his first year at Allegheny College, founded in 1815 in Meadville, Crawford County, when a fellow Boy Scout asked him if he was entering the contest to be the Scout who would accompany Commander Richard E. Byrd...
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