Josephine Peary (Diebitsch)

Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch Peary was an American author and arctic explorer.

She was born Josephine Cecilia Diebitsch in Maryland, on May 22, 1863. Her mother, Magdalena Augusta Schmid Diebitsch, was from Saxony. Her father, Hermann Henry Diebitsch, was a military officer from Prussia. During the Civil War, the Diebitsch family farm was destroyed which led to a relocation to Washington, D.C.. Hermann later became a clerk in the Exchange Department at the Smithsonian Institution. She had a brother, Emil Diebitsch, who later became the mayor of Nutley, New Jersey, and a sister Miss Marie Diebitsch of Washington.

Josephine attended Spencerian Business College and graduated the class valedictorian in 1880. She found herself qualified and on track for a copyist, clerk, and tallyist position at the Smithsonian and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Josephine wrote My Arctic Journal (1893) during the 1891-1892 expedition, which gave the world an actual picture of Inuit culture and Arctic Geography. Josephine Peary was an active participant in all her voyages to Greenland, showing her talent as a hunter of reindeer, ptarmigan, and other game for food and clothing.

Robert Edwin Peary was born in Pennsylvania in 1856. He attended Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine. Josephine first met Robert in 1885 while she was attending dancing school. She later married him on August 11, 1888. She often accompanied him on his northern travels, where she traveled farther North over the ice fields than any white woman had before. She accompanied him on six of his Arctic expeditions and was considered a First Lady of the Arctic. Her eagerness to explore the world prompted her to accompany her husband on his second expedition to Greenland from 1891-1892. While they were married, Robert Peary successfully lead an expedition to the North Pole. Thus earning him the title of the first white man to explore the Arctic. At this time Josephine stayed home on Casco Bay's Eagle Island in Maine, which Robert had bought in 1877.

Josephine and Robert had two children. Marie Ahnighito Peary born in 1893, who became known as "Snow Baby", was born less than thirteen degrees from the North Pole. Her son was named Robert E. Peary Jr. Although both children were Arctic adventurers, Robert Jr. later became a construction engineer. They also had three grandchildren, Cmdr. Edward Peary Stafford, U.S.N., Robert E. Peary III, and Lt JG Peary Diebitsch Stafford, U.S.N.

Robert Peary died on February 20, 1920. After his death, Josephine settled in Portland, Maine, in 1932. Josephine Peary died on December 19, 1955 at 92 years old.

http://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Peary&GSfn=Joseph...

http://www.une.edu/mwwc/research/featured-writers/josephine-diebits...