Peary Monument

Visitors to the Arlington National Cemetery looking to visit the gravesite of Admiral Peary will appropriately find themselves at the farthest edge of the complex. Unexpectedly, however, one must walk to the far southwest end to reach the memorial for the famous North Pole explorer. 

Robert E. Peary's ambitious expeditions to be the first documented person to reach the North Pole were deemed a success on April 6, 1909 after eight years of attempts. While modern researchers suggest that Peary and his crew (which included assistant Matthew Henson and Inuit guides) may have been several miles off from reaching the true North Pole, Congress nonetheless promoted Peary to the rank of Rear Admiral in 1911 for his historic accomplishment.

Rival explorer Frederick Cook disputed Peary's claim by asserting that he had actually been the first to reach the Pole a year prior in 1908. The unvalidated (and suspected bogus) claim points to the fierce competition between the two explorers, not to mention the intense media coverage of the yearslong expeditions. While the news of both discoveries reached U.S. media the same week in September 1909, the National Geographic Society (a sponsor of Peary) claimed his discovery as the first. 

Born in Cresson, Pennsylvania in 1856, Peary led a daring career, including as a civil engineer for the U.S. Navy, chief engineer for the never-completed Nicaragua Canal and the first Western explorer to reach the Cape York meteorite in Northwestern Greenland. His multiple North Pole attempts also led him to conclusively prove that Greenland is an island. 

Peary's expeditions also led him to fabricate a fictitious Crocker Island in 1906, possibly to ensure revenue for future explorations. The discovery followed a failed attempt to reach the North Pole, where Peary announced he had found a "lost continent" west of Greenland and north of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian arctic. Named after a benefactor, the nonexistent, moon-shaped island can be found on maps from 1910 to 1913. 

Peary died on February 20, 1920 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. Initially interred on the side of a hill in a cramped section of the complex, his remains were reinterred shortly after in a far southwestern end of the cemetery. The National Geographical Society sponsored a monumental globe in 1922 with a bronze star designating the North Pole, oriented due north. Matthew Henson, the African American assistant who accompanied Peary, was reinterred in 1988 next to the monument to appropriately recognize his contributions to the expedition. The Latin phrase "Inveniam Viam Aut Faciam" engraved on the Peary monument means "I shall find a way or make one."