Spitzbergen: The Northern Exploration Co. Ltd, London

The shortlived coal mining boom on Spitzbergen lasted from 1900-25 with British, Russian, Swedish and Dutch involved in mining settlements along the fjords the western coast. The settlements had a political purpose too, as the Russians, Americans and British all entertained claims over the archipelago -- a large Union Jack flies over the modest hut occupied by the company in a photograph in the present album. With Norway taking control of the island with the Svalbard Treaty in 1925, and with falling coal prices, the rush came to an end.