author
Marie Ahnighito Peary
1893–1978
Born in Greenland and nicknamed “Snow Baby,” she turned an extraordinary childhood into a life of writing, lecturing, and preserving the story of Arctic exploration.
1 Audiobook
Children of the Arctic
by Josephine Diebitsch Peary, Marie Ahnighito Peary
About the author
Born on September 12, 1893, in Greenland, she was the daughter of polar explorers Robert E. Peary and Josephine Peary. Her middle name, Ahnighito, came from a large meteorite associated with Greenland, and her unusual early life drew public attention from the start.
She later became an American writer, lecturer, and philanthropist. Sources also describe her as a longtime champion of her parents’ legacy, and Maine library and archival records note that she wrote books and articles and spent much of her later life in Maine.
She died on April 16, 1978. Archival collections preserve her papers, scrapbooks, diaries, and photographs, which help keep both her own story and her family’s Arctic history alive.