Generations dreamed of reaching the Earth's northernmost point, finally succeeding in 1926. Ahead of the centennial, we remember the stories of those who valiantly came before – and failed.

Before humankind first reached the North Pole, it was theorised to be an open sea, a hollow shell and even the birthplace of the human race. The fight to be first was front-page news as nations raced to find Earth's northernmost point.

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen finally won the race on 12 May 1926. Thanks to his valiant efforts, it is now textbook knowledge nearly 100 years later that the North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, covered in ice. Lesser known are the stories of the manifold failures and mishaps that came before its discovery.

"These were foolhardy expeditions combined with the sober pursuit of cutting-edge research data," says Eystein Markusson, museum director of Svalbard Museum.

Cold competition

Though Amundsen is most often credited as first to reach the Pole by land, there were competing claims. Frederick Cook (1908) claimed to have arrived with two Inuit men, but the commission found his documentation insufficient, and his story was widely discredited. Then Robert Peary (1909) claimed to have reached the Pole with his valet, Matthew Henson, and four Inuit men. While his account was widely believed at the time, it later faced scrutiny. In 1988 the National Geographic Society concluded after analysing his records that his claim was unproven.

Svalbard – a remote, treeless archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole – is home to polar bears and the midnight sun. Longyearbyen, its icy capital, was the starting point for numerous expeditions thanks to its northernmost location and logistical support for Arctic travel.

By the 17th Century, Svalbard had become a whaling hub. The dangers of working in the brutally icy high North were well known, and men brought feathers, soil or a layer of moss from home to place in their own coffins. Those who died were buried at Likneset ("Corpse Point") and Gravneset ("Grave Point"). In the early 18th Century, Russian trappers became the first to hunt year-round here, but Svalbard remained a perilous place to conduct research.

An 1861 attempt to find the Pole by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, a geologist and professor at the University of Stokholm, was thwarted when his reindeer ran away. Scientists in the early 1900s made several expeditions financed by the Prince of Monaco as more would-be explorers were attracted by the prospect of the Pole discovery.

"When I talk to people now, there's a clear distinction between adventurer and researcher, but at the time, these expeditions had scientific value – they were very closely intertwined,"........

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