The Peary walruses came to the Museum in 1897 at a critical time in Peary's career as an Arctic explorer. His reputation was flagging due to a series of embarrassing exploration failures and he was struggling to find continuing financial support. Getting the walruses displayed in the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History was an important endorsement of the explorer and his goals. Ultimately it helped Peary to go on to become the first person to reach the North Pole on April 6, 1909.

Peary had gained worldwide fame in 1892 by crossing Greenland overland. However, his attempts to reach the North Pole in 1893-4 failed completely. Peary redirected his efforts in 1895-7 toward finding and recovering several large meteorites from an island off the coast of Greenland. The interlude gave Peary the chance to restore his reputation and thus assure a continuing flow of financial resources. More importantly though, the break gave him some much needed experience with arctic conditions and the opportunity to learn the ways of the Eskimos, including hunting walruses.