Images

The entrance to the Global Seed Vault built in 2008 in Longyearbyen, Svalbard.

The Pomors – the indigenous population of Pomomerie (the Arkhangelskaya Oblast region in northeastern Russia that mainly lies south of the White Sea) - were skilled sailors. Pomor hunters and trappers were in Svalbard in the 17th and 18th...

Painting depicting the death of William Barents (Willem Barentsz) (1550-1597). Oil on canvas, 1836, by Christiaan Julius Lodewijk Portman (1799–1868).

From Kings Bay Kull Compagni's mining operations on Svalbard. Photo: Sigvald Moa. From the archive of Kings Bay Kull Compagni AS (PA-1632, series D, pcs. 1, 2_8).

The whale oil refinery of the Amsterdam chamber of the Greenland Company on Amsterdam Island off the coast of Spitsbergen. Oil on canvas, 1639.

The abandoned Soviet coal mining settlement of Pyramiden on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

John Munro Longyear (1850-1922), who was the central figure behind the Arctic Coal Company which surveyed and mined coalfields on Spitsbergen, now Svalbard, from 1905 to 1916. Longyearbyen - the world's northernmost settlement and largest...

Topographic map of Svalbard archipelago (formerly known as Spitsbergen).

1598 Map of the Three Arctic Voyages (1594–1596) by Willem Barentsz. Spitsbergen (now Svalbard) is mapped for the first time and indicated as "Het Nieuwe Land" (Dutch for "the New Land"), centre-left.

A Depiction of Willem Barentsz's three expeditions in search of the coveted Northeast Passage to Cathay (China) and the Spice Islands. Woodcut. 1598.