My grandmother Edith Hamlin gave me a book BOOK OF THE ESKIMOS by Peter Freuchen. I still have it. Two years ago I was pleased to meet him face to face with his portrait over the trophy room's fireplace at the Explorer Club. Edith Smith was good friends with Marie Peary, the Snowbird, daughter ofAdmiral Robert E Peary, one of the founder's of the club. I had thought my grandfather Frank A Smith had been his doctor in Westbrook, Maine after returning from his stint with the Royal Canadian Medical Expedition in France during World War I, but no one is left in my family who can verify that he might have been on service to the Arctic Explorer. Edith did speak about Marie on her death, bemoaning that Marie, a hard drinker, was going to outlive her. That she did, but I dropped Marie's name at the bar in the club and showed them BOOK OF THE ESKIMOS. I am still a member.
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