Kat Long

There’s a lot going on in the world right now. Maybe you need a break. With cold bois and a missing love letter. Introducing Arctic Archives, my newsletter uncovering gripping stories from the history of Arctic exploration and science. First up: the search for a lost message on Svalbard!

For this Indigenous Peoples Day, your astonishing artifact is the earliest known Indigenous depiction of a European — a wood carving from Nunavut dated to 1350. 🧪🏺

As are the similarities to Caspar David Friedrich’s “Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog” in which the figure can be interpreted as contemplating the awe and terror of nature’s sublime

Good advice for journalists covering the story too 👇

I love the MLB Postseason but if I have to listen to Bob Costas’ Old-Timey Sports Poetry™️ for the next month I’m not going to be responsible for my actions

If this list doesn’t include The Terror how credible can it really be

A brief biography of my great-great-great-great uncle and his second career—after his first career as an Arctic explorer 🤩👇

If you care about keeping the Academy of Natural Sciences open to the public in Philadelphia, I need you to read and share this thread. Trish Wellenbach was sent from the mayor's office to oversee the Academy of Natural sciences situation. She needs to hear from us. Here comes the action item:

Interesting #Whitby-related thread about my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather!

Excellent news ! 🧊❄️

'Icebergs and Aurora Borealis in the Arctic Regions' watercolour by Charles Hamilton Smith c.1840s Yale Center for British Art

I've written an article on the history and future Whitby's soon-to-be-removed whale bone arch! And before you ask, yes I managed to mention William Scoresby Junior (rude not to) whitbymuseum.org.uk/whitbys-whal... #whaling #polarexploration #animals #history #Nature #Arctic

I hate this

Calling themselves ‘Greenland Energy’ is simply Greenland-washing old fashioned Texas-based oil-and-gas exploration. Greenland — and the world — deserves better than US neo-imperialism. A ‘frontier mentality’ for resource extraction challenges our rule of law.

ICYMI: Spend your Monday submersed in the story of P.T. Barnum and his beguiling belugas 🐋

Recently, I read about a rescue of 30 beluga #whales from a closed marine park in Canada and their transfer to new U.S. facilities. That got me thinking — when and how did the #Arctic whales become so popular in aquariums? I dove into the #history in this issue of my newsletter, Arctic Archives 👇

The flag says “Mardelva” but there are more potential options Marvadel Vamardel Vadelmar Delvamar

I will not

Between the recent heatwave and my post-surgery convalescence, I've been spending a lot of time indoors lately. Here are the #Arctic and non-Arctic books, podcasts and more that have had me dreaming of cooler climes. ❄️ (Also, subscribe for free to my monthly newsletter, Arctic Archives! 👇)

You're gonna need a bigger boat* *scientific understanding of #shark anatomy 🦈

Echoes of Nansen’s Fram expedition!

I think this is my best finish yet—thank you, "Medallion with the Virgin from an Icon Frame," for those 10,000 points Anthropeum.com · Jun 23 2026 🟨🟩🟦🟦🟩🟦🟨🟩🟩🟩 75,716 · top 8% of players today!

Hey, do you live in Maryland, aka the best state in the union 🦀? @thebaltimorebanner.com and @bannermoco.bsky.social put together an amazingly thorough, easy-to-understand voters’ guide that just helped me fill out the most informed primary ballot of my life. Get your questions answered!👇

In North America's Western Great Lakes, thousands of 17th-century glass beads have been found. Introduced by European traders, they quickly reached further than the colonists themselves, emphasising Indigenous participation in emergent global trade. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

setting up my group chat on bsky

Just mentioning that the woman on the book’s cover is Josephine Diebitsch Peary, wife of Robert E. Peary, one of the exceptionally few explorers’ wives who actually joined their husbands’ expeditions

Really looking forward to "The Wreck of the Mentor" by Eric Jay Dolin thanks to this review from @blairbraverman.bsky.social (also kinda funny that the NYT illustrated the review with the same cover image from Dolin's "Leviathan: The History of #Whaling in America" from 2007!) 🎁 link:

One of my top regrets during my (continuing) #Scoresby book research is that I never had a chance to visit Hull’s Maritime Museum. Must start planning my visit now!

Melting permafrost on Svalbard. Our local guide told us this amount of melt used to occur not before mid July.

Well, it’s Pride month, so let’s celebrate the 195th anniversary of the birth of Amelia Edwards, ghost story writer, poet, novelist, pioneering traveller, Egyptologist, campaigner for the preservation of ancient stuff, and someone who “formed emotional attachments almost uniquely with women” 🧵

The oldest hominin footprints ever found are at risk of destruction, researchers warn www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-... "A new investigation alleges that official organizations in Tanzania have imperiled the country's artifacts and remains at four critical human heritage sites..."

This looks amazing! 🐋