Herschel C. Parker, US explorer, wearing fur clothing and holding an ice pick. Parker was a professor of physics at Columbia, New York, USA. He was also an explorer who unmasked the fraudulent claims of Frederick Albert Cook (1865- 1940). Parker started out with Cook and others on the 1906 expedition to climb Mount McKinley, in Alaska, USA, the highest mountain in North America. Parker and others turned back, but Cook carried on with a guide and later claimed to have reached the summit. Parker returned to the area and obtained photographs of Cook's 'peak', showing it was many miles distant from the real peak. This photograph is from the Bain News Service, one of the USA's earliest news picture libraries.