Controlled names derived from the AMNH Library catalog.
For use with uncontrolled names found in AMNH documentation.
The meteorite was found on an island in Greenland.
The meteorite was transported by ship from Melville Bay to New York.
Summary
The Ahnighito meteorite is one part of several pieces of the Cape York Meteorite that fell into Earth thousands of years ago. The 200-ton iron meteorite landed in Greenland after breaking into separate pieces: the "The Woman", "The Dog", "The Tent", and "The Savik". Of the heavier masses "The Savik" was found on a peninsula, "The Tent," on a nearbly island, "The Woman" and "The Dog" were found on a second island all on the north coast of Melville Bay, about thirty-five miles east of Cape York (3, p. 523). The Inuit, native to the land, used the iron from the meteorites to craft tools. On May 27, 1894, Inuit Tallakoteah guided Robert E. Peary and expedition member Hugh J. Lee to the Cape York meteorites around "Saviksue" also known as "Iron Mountain" or "Great Irons" outpost at Melville Bay (2, p. 3-4) (4, p. 35).
Peary returned to Melville Bay in 1895 to obtain the meteorites. He successfully loaded the "Woman" and "Dog" on board the ship "Kite", but the crew did not have the means to move Ahnighito on this expedition. Another attempt was made in 1896 without success. Then in 1897, Peary returned to Saviksoah Island, "this time with a one-hundred ton and two thirty-ton jacks and ample supplies of railroad iron and great timbers, dertermined to win at all hazards" (2, p. 4). The meteorite was brought to the Brookyln Navy Yard on the ship "Hope" in the autumn of 1897 (2, p. 5). In 1904, Ahnighito was transported to the Museum using a crane for the first leg of the journey to the foot of Fiftieth Street, North River (Hudson River). It was then loaded onto a massive truck and pulled through the streets by twenty-eight horses "forming the length of an avenue block" (2, p. 5). On October 1, the meteorite arrived at the Museum.
The Ahnighito meteorite was on display at the American Museum of Natural History in the Grand Gallery, formerly called the Main Gallery, and the historic Hayden Planetarium (3, p. 518-519). It currently sits on supports going straight into the bedrock beneath the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites.
A hunter of the 'Smith Sound Eskimos', he led Peary and Lee to the site of the Cape York Meteorites in 1894 (4, p. 523).
Member of the expedition party; Peary's assistant (5, v. 1, p. 46).
Ahnighito was also exhibited in the Outer Space Black Light Gallery before moving to the Arthur Ross Hall of Meteorites.
During this expedition, Peary and Lee were led to the "Iron Mountain" with the help of their guide, Tallakoteah.
This relief expedition took most of the expedition party back on the ship "Falcon". Peary, Lee and Matthew Henson remained in Greenland to revisit the "Iron Mountain".
Upon the request of Peary's wife, Josephine Peary, the American Museum of Natural History, with the backing of Morris K. Jesup, helped fund a relief expedition to Saviksoah Island to retrieve the men along with the Cape York meteorites. "The Woman" and "The Dog" were successfully loaded on board the ship "Kite".
Second unsuccessful attempt to bring the Ahnighito meteorite to the U.S.
Ahnighito was successfully excavated and shipped to New York on the ship "Hope".
Painting by Albert Operti of the meteorite, 1896. AMNH Library Special Collections Floor 1, Stack 1-3.
Logbook, 1896. AMNH Library RF-85-G.