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Arctic
Club Medal found at
Missouri Historical
Society site
On
September 23,1909,
Frederick A. Cook
was presented a Gold
Medal for the
Discovery of the
North Pole by the
Arctic Club of
America. The event
was captured in a
wide-angle
photograph of 1,000
guests in the
ballroom of the
Waldorf-Astoria
Hotel in New York,
two days following
Cook's triumphant
return to the United
States from Denmark
and the Polar
Regions.
Both
events were
represented in the
2005 number of Polar
Priorities. The
whereabouts of the
Gold Medal has
eluded interested
writers and
scholars, as well as
the family for much
of a century since.
This month part of
the mystery was
resolved in a letter
to the Society from
Associate Curator
Jeff Meyer of the
Missouri Historical
Society in St.
Louis. Mr. Meyer
wrote:
"I
have discovered in
our collection a
gold metal medal,
about 2-1/2 inches
in diameter that
is associated with
Frederick A. Cook.
On the obverse is
an image of Cook
in polar clothing
holding a flag
with "APRIL
21-1908 / F.A.
COOK" in text
above him; the
reverse reads
"APPROVED BY
/ THE / ARCTIC
CLUB / OF /
AMERICA / SEPT. 23
/ 1909."
How
the medal came into
the possession of
the Missouri
Historical Society
remains somewhat of
an enigma. Normally
contributions or
acquisitions are
recorded as gifts or
purchases, but the
Society reports only
that in 1914 a
benefactor made a
gift of the medal.
The
Arctic Club medal
was not with the
awards and
decorations given to
Cook which resided
with the family at
his 1940 death, and
which were
subsequently
catalogued and
displayed in the
family niche in the
chapel at Forest
Lawn Cemetery in
Buffalo, NY. These
were detailed in an
article in Polar
Priorities vol. 18,
1999.
For
more Polar Priorities
and Membership News
stories, check our online
archive
Copyright
2005 - The Frederick A.
Cook Society
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