June 1910

Scott

Peary, who had of course planned to personally lead his expedition to the Antarctic via the Weddell Sea, was persuaded that "anything short of perfect success ... would detract from the great achievement already reached" in the Arctic [1], and to let the US National Geographic Society take charge. Despite assurances, however, that the American Antarctic Expedition would be "a project which promised unusually rich scientific results, with the well defined possibility of bringing to our country an honor such as it now holds in the north" [2], the escalating controversy between Peary and Cook led to dwindling contributions from the public, and in June the expedition was postponed -- permanently, it turned out -- due to lack of funds.


Notes:

[1] Thomas Hamlin Hubbard, letter to Robert E. Peary, 24 December, 1909, quoted by Robert M. Bryce in Cook & Peary: the Polar Controversy, Resolved (Mechanicsburg, PA : Stackpole, c1997), p.499.
[2] Henry Gannett, letter to Thomas H. Hubbard, 28 February, 1910, quoted by Robert M. Bryce in Cook & Peary: the Polar Controversy, Resolved (Mechanicsburg, PA : Stackpole, c1997), p.499.