Harry Whitney

Harry Whitney (December 1, 1873 – May 20, 1936) was an American sportsman, adventurer, and author. He traveled to northern Greenland with Robert Peary in 1908, staying over the winter with the Inughuit at Etah and Annoatok. In the spring of 1909 Whitney found himself at the center of the controversy between Frederick Cook and Peary over who had reached the North Pole first. A year after his return, he published a book on the trip. He is sometimes confused with his contemporary Harry Payne Whitney, who was no relation.

Early life and education Harry Whitney was born on December 1, 1873 in New Haven, Connecticut, to a wealthy family. His given name was "Henry", but he was known professionally as "Harry Whitney" throughout his adult life. His great-grandfather was Stephen Whitney, one of the first millionaires in New York City. His mother was Margaret Lawrence Johnson, a daughter of Bradish Johnson (1811–1892) who had owned a sugar plantation in Louisiana, and distillery and real estate in New York. He attended the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven and St. Paul's School in Garden City, Long Island.

Whitney worked briefly at Wallace & Sons, a wire manufacturing company in Ansonia, Connecticut, in 1901 and 1902. In 1903 he went by sailing vessel to Australia. There he spent two years learning about the sheep business and mining. Whitney returned to the United States in 1905, where he spent some time ranching in the West. He eventually became known as a big game hunter, or "sportsman". When Whitney reached St. John's, Newfoundland in September, he found himself at the center of the rival claims of Cook and Peary. He declined to take sides in the controversy. The following year Whitney published his book Hunting With the Eskimos, In 1916, Whitney married Mrs. Eunice Chesebro Kenison, with Captain Bob Bartlett serving as an usher. When the United States entered World War I, Whitney served as a captain in the Ordnance Section of the United States Army. After the war he attended Cornell, where he studied agriculture. He continued to hunt in Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, and the Arctic, providing skins and specimens to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and the Philadelphia Zoo as well as the Bronx Zoo. The Whitneys lived in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, at the time of his death. He died at a hospital in Montreal on May 20, 1936.