THE LAND ANNEXATIONS 1898-1925 PIONEERS Søren Zachariassen COMPANIES Norwegian German Swedish British American Russian/Norwegian Others THE CLAIM SIGNS The claim signs ADOLF HOEL SOURCES Adolf Hoel (1879 – 1964) The geologist Adolf Hoel was the leading Svalbard researcher in the first half of the 20th century. He conducted geological fieldwork in Svalbard every summer during the period 1907-1926 and made a comprehensive mapping of the geology of Svalbard. In 1911 he started his long-term career at the University of Oslo. Besides his work as an associate professor at the university, he was instrumental in the establishment in 1928 of Norges Svalbard- og Ishavsundersøkelser (Norway´s Svalbard and Arctic Ocean Research Survey), which in 1948 became the Norwegian Polar Institute. His focus on and research of the polar areas is largely credited as the reason Norway has the sovereignty over Svalbard. He also collected many of the claim boards from Svalbard. After the war he finished his work on the history of Svalbard in three volumes The mineral hoelite is named in his honour. The front page of this website is a reconstruction of one of the walls in Hoel's office.