Puck and Life Discover the Pole.

The controversy over who was the first to reach the North Pole has raged since 1909, when Frederick Cook and Robert Peary made conflicting claims. Both have had advocates and disparagers; innumerable books and articles attack, defend, and describe their adventures. What is missing, however, is a composite study on how Puck and Life, the leading American humor periodicals of the day, reflected and influenced their readers’ perspectives on related cultural issues, including “native” residents, the monetary value of the Pole itself, funding for the expeditions, and the permanent effect on social and cultural mores. While the magazines’ early focus displays a more nominal view of the impact of northern exploration (for instance, introducing terms such as “igloo” and “sleddogs,” and the use of stock Arctic sketches), later issues place a greater emphasis on the social and political repercussions of Polar discovery. To focus on the way Puck and Life reacted to the Cook/Peary controversy in their cartoons, quips, comments, and columns is to see how America in the early twentieth century became known for a growing global initiative that began in the farthest north. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]