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Papers of the Frederick A. Cook Society: Scope and Content The Frederick A. Cook Society Collection occupies thirty-seven and one-half cubic feet and spans the years 1891 to 1996. The collection presents a comprehensive picture of the work conducted by Helene Cook Vetter and others, some under the auspices of the Cook Society, "to gain official recognition for the scientific and geographic accomplishments of Dr. Frederick A. Cook." General subjects documented by the collection include Cook's Mount McKinley expeditions (1903, 1906), his North Pole expedition (1908-1909), and his 1923 mail fraud conviction. Records in the Frederick A. Cook Society Collection include the following series:
The Frederick A. Cook Society Records are comprised of four subseries: Russell W. Gibbons Papers; Patricia Burns Papers; William G. Smith Papers; and Mary Allison Farley Papers. While none of the four subseries should be considered complete, taken together they provide a fairly comprehensive record of the workings of the Society. The series of Frederick A. Cook's Papers is but a small portion of Dr. Cook's original materials. The majority of his papers are housed in the Library of Congress as a bequest from Cook's granddaughter, Janet Cook Vetter, who died in 1989. Additional Cook papers are held in the Stefansson Collection at the Dartmouth College Library in New Hampshire. Researchers are encouraged to investigate all relevant collections to insure access to the most complete information. The Helene Cook Vetter Papers comprise the largest series in the collection. Around 1950 Vetter began an extensive (and life-long) campaign to vindicate her father. Subject files collected by Vetter document the major controversies surrounding Dr. Cook and his explorations; the files are arranged essentially in the order Vetter established. It should be noted that Vetter's filing methods resulted in an intermingling of her own files with those of others. As an example, when she obtained records created by others, she then culled out topical information from those files and merged them with her own files to create specific subject files. She also took letters, cut them apart based upon subject, and placed these excerpts in her own subject files. The provenance of the early clippings files is uncertain, but handwritten notes by Vetter on the file folders and on actual materials within the folders indicates her use of these materials in her research. Since Vetter obtained her father's papers upon his death, it is possible that many of these early clippings actually were collected by Dr. Cook himself. Handwritten notes found on many of the clippings also support this conclusion. Additionally, while there is a separate subseries for Andrew Freeman's papers, many of his folders are filed among Vetter's according to date and/or subject, resulting in an intermingling of Freeman's files with Vetter's.
Upon Helene Cook Vetter's death in 1977, Janet Cook Vetter moved
into the family home and assumed maintenance of her mother's
research files. Janet Cook Vetter's Papers chronicle her
involvement with the production of the 1983 television movie,
"Cook and Peary: the Race to the Pole," and her service as a
board member of the Cook Society until her death at the age of
51. Return to the Papers of the Frederick A. Cook Society |
