A small plaque commemorating John Munro Longyear, the American founder of Longyearbyen, resides just outside of the center of the city. This small marker commemorates him in an incredibly simple way but is surrounded by other pieces of history to create an experience for audiences that is set to span across all eras of the community.
Celebrating the Found of Longyearbyen
John Munro Longyear, Sr. developed timber and mineral lands to great success in Michigan in the late 1800s. In 1906, he founded the Arctic Coal Company, which mined the recently discovered coal deposits. Laborers from the company named the settlement that they established to support this work Longyear City after him, which was renamed Longyearbyen in 1926. He died in 1922.
A small plaque mounted on the remains of a piece of a previous establishment mentions Longyear as the founder of the city. This Memorial to John Munro Longyear features an image of Longyearbyen himself along with an image of the settlement at the time. Nearby are additional markers with additional information that call out the historic nature of the area, all of which are connected to the origin of the city.
While the Memorial to John Munro Longyear is simple in both form and function, the direct and indirect connection it has to the origin of the city highlights what it can mean for such a simple monument to connect with the history of an area that resonates with both residents and visitors.
Transforming a Legacy
Various monuments and landmarks across Svalbard are connected to the history of the land but the direct connection that the Memorial to John Munro Longyear has to this history makes it distinct. Doing so has transformed what might otherwise be an inaccessible piece of history into something engaging for audiences across the eras.
