An Accident Brings Peary to the Times.

By 1908 an American explorer, Comdr. Robert E. Peary, had made several attempts to reach the North Pole. The New York Herald had subsidized his previous expeditions in return for the exclusive rights to his story. In 1908, seeking funding for another attempt, Peary discovered that his contacts, the financial officer William Reick and the city editor Charles M. Lincoln, now worked for The New York Times. Peary then asked to see the new city editor, who told him that the public was tired of Arctic adventures. Discouraged, Peary walked from downtown all the way to the new midtown headquarters of the Times, Times publisher Adolph Ochs and managing editor Carr Van Anda shared a boyish enthusiasm for the scientific exploration of remote places, and in short order the paper paid Peary $4,000 for the exclusive New York rights to his story. The Times would also...