This is a list of Arctic expeditions.
15th century
1472: Didrik Pining and Hans Pothorst mark the first of the cartographic expeditions to Greenland 1496: Grigory Istoma, venturing out of the White Sea, travels along the Murman Coast and the coast of northern Norway
16th century
1553: English expedition led by Hugh Willoughby with Richard Chancellor as second in command searches for the Northeast Passage 1557: English expedition led by Stephen Borough reaches the Kara Strait 1576–1578: English expeditions led by Martin Frobisher reach Baffin Island 1579: Danish-Norwegian expedition led by James Alday fails to reach Greenland due to ice 1580: English expedition led by Arthur Pet and Charles Jackman reaches the Kara Sea 1581: Danish-Norwegian expedition led by Magnus Heinason fails to reach Greenland due to ice 1585–1587: English expeditions led by John Davis explore the Davis Strait–Baffin Bay region and reach Upernavik 1594: Dutch expedition led by Willem Barentsz, Cornelis Nay and Brandt Tetgales reaches the Kara Sea via Yugorsky Strait 1595: Dutch expedition led by Cornelis Nay fails to make further progress towards a Northeast Passage than in the previous year 1596–1597: Dutch expedition piloted by Willem Barentsz discovers Spitsbergen and registered the first recorded Farthest North
17th century
1605–1607: Danish-Norwegian king, Christian IV of Denmark, sends three expeditions led by John Cunningham, Godske Lindenov and Carsten Richardson (all piloted by James Hall), to search for the lost Eastern Settlement, one of the Norse colonies on Greenland 1606: John Knight, who had captained the in 1605 with John Cunningham, dies commanding a joint Muscovy Company/East India Company expedition in search of the Northwest Passage 1607: Henry Hudson explores Spitsbergen 1608: Henry Hudson gets as far as Novaya Zemlya in his attempt to find the Northeast Passage 1609: another unsuccessful attempt by Henry Hudson at finding the Northeast Passage 1610: Jonas Poole thoroughly explores Spitsbergen's west coast, reporting that he saw a "great store of whales"; this report leads to the establishment of the English whaling trade 1610: Russian Kondratiy Kurochkin explores the mouth of the Yenisei River and the adjoining coast 1610–1611: Henry Hudson reaches Hudson Bay in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage 1612: James Hall and William Baffin explore southwest Greenland 1612–1613: Button expedition, commanded by Thomas Button, in search of the Northwest Passage 1613: Several whaling expeditions, consisting of a total of at least thirty ships from England, France, Spain, and the Netherlands crowd Spitsbergen's west coast 1614: Dutch and French expeditions discover Jan Mayen 1615: Robert Fotherby, in the pinnace Richard, is the first English expedition to reach Jan Mayen 1615: English expedition captained by Robert Bylot and piloted by William Baffin reaches the Foxe Basin in search of the Northwest Passage 1616: English expedition captained by Robert Bylot and piloted by William Baffin explores the Davis Strait–Baffin Bay region 1619–1620: Danish-Norwegian expedition led by Jens Munk in Enhiørningen (Unicorn) and Lamprenen (Lamprey) to discover the Northwest Passage penetrated Davis Strait as far north as 69°, found Frobisher Bay, spent a winter in Hudson Bay 1633–1634: I. Rebrov explores the mouth of the Lena River 1633–1635: Ilya Perfilyev explores the Lena and Yana Rivers and intervening coast 1638: I. Rebrov explores coast between the Lena and Indigirka Rivers 1641: Dimitry Zyryan and Mikhail Stadukhin explore the mouth of the Indigirka River and adjoining coast 1646: I. Ignatyev explores the mouth of the Kolyma River and adjoining coast 1648: Ya. Semyonov explores the mouth of Kotuy River and adjoining coast 1648: Semyon Dezhnev and Fedot Alekseyevich Popov explore from the Kolyma River through the Bering Strait 1649: Mikhail Stadukhin explores the coast from the Kolyma River to the Bering Strait 1676: English expedition led by John Wood fails to find the Northeast Passage 1686–1687: Ivan Tolstoukhov expedition explores the mouth of the Yenisey River and the coast of the Taymyr Peninsula
18th century
1712: Merkury Vagin and Yakov Permyakov explore the vicinity of the mouth of the Yana River and adjoining coasts, both were murdered by mutineering expedition members 1725–1730: Vitus Bering leads the First Kamchatka expedition 1728: Claus Paarss attempts to cross Greenland's interior from the west in search of the old Norse Eastern Settlement 1733–1743: Second Kamchatka expedition explores the north coast of Russia and discovers Alaska 1751: Lars Dalager attempts to find the lost Eastern Settlement by crossing Greenland's ice sheet from the west 1751–1753: Peder Olsen Walløe explores the east coast of Greenland from Cape Farewell in umiaks 1760–1763: S. F. Loshkin explores Novaya Zemlya 1765–1766: Vasily Chichagov explores the Kola Peninsula coast and Spitzbergen 1768–1769: F. F. Rozmyslov explores Novaya Zemlya and the Matochkin Strait 1770–1771: Samuel Hearne traces the Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean 1773: Ivan Lyakhov discovered Kotelny Island 1773: The Phipps expedition towards the North Pole reaches 80° 37 N, north of Spitsbergen. This was the first Arctic expedition to carry out scientific research. 1776–1780: James Cook charts the northwestern coast of America and sails through the Bering Strait during his third voyage in search of the Northwest Passage 1785–1794: Russian expedition led by Joseph Billings explores Eastern Siberia, the Aleutian Islands, and the west coast of Alaska 1789: Alexander Mackenzie traces the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean
19th century
Early Period (1800–1818) 1800: Yakov Sannikov charts Stolbovoy Island 1809–1811: Yakov Sannikov and Matvei Gedenschtrom explore the New Siberian Islands 1815–1818: Otto von Kotzebue explores the Bering Strait during the Rurik expedition
Ross, Parry and Franklin (1818–1846) 1818: Royal Navy expedition led by captain David Buchan sails north from Spitsbergen 1818: Royal Navy expedition led by John Ross with his nephew James Clark Ross, sails north along the west coast of Greenland to Pituffik in search of the Northwest Passage and encounters the Inughuit (Greenlandic Inuit) of Cape York 1819: Royal Navy expedition aboard and led by William Edward Parry in search of the Northwest Passage* 1819–1822: The Coppermine expedition in northern Canada, led by John Franklin, includes George Back and John Richardson 1820s 1820–1824: Ferdinand von Wrangel and Fyodor Matyushkin explore the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea areas 1821–1824: Fyodor Litke explores the eastern Barents Sea and the west coast of Novaya Zemlya, including Matochkin Strait 1821–1823: Pyotr Anjou continues exploration of New Siberian Islands 1822: William Scoresby lands in east Greenland near the mouth of the fjord system that would later be named for him – Scoresby Sound 1823: Douglas Clavering and Edward Sabine explore East Greenland northwards to Clavering Island, where they get in contact with the now extinct Inuit of Northeast Greenland 1825–1827: The Mackenzie River expedition descends the Mackenzie River and maps much of the Arctic coast 1826: Frederick William Beechey aboard explores the Alaskan coast from Point Barrow to the Bering Strait 1827: First Norwegian expedition to the Arctic, led by Baltazar Mathias Keilhau 1827: Royal Navy expedition to Spitsbergen led by William Edward Parry reaches 82°45 N 1828–1830: Danish expedition led by Wilhelm August Graah tries to locate the Eastern Settlement in southeast Greenland, but does not reach Ammassalik Island. 1829–1833: Royal Navy expedition led by John Ross to search for the Northwest Passage explores James Ross Strait and King William Land, locates the North Magnetic Pole 1830s and 1840s 1832–1835: Pyotr Pakhtusov explores the southern half of the eastern coast of Novaya Zemlya 1833–1835: Royal Navy expedition led by George Back from Fort Reliance to the mouth of the Back River at Chantrey Inlet 1836: George Back attempts to ascertain if Boothia Peninsula is an island or a peninsula but his ship, , is trapped by ice near Southampton Island 1837: Karl Ernst von Baer leads a natural history expedition to Novaya Zemlya 1838–1839: Avgust Tsivolko leads an expedition to Novaya Zemlya, primarily for surveying 1838–1840: La Recherche expedition, under the command of Joseph Paul Gaimard, a scientific venture to explore the islands in the North Atlantic 1845: Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition is sent to map the remaining Northwest Passage
Search for Franklin (1846–1857) 1848: John Richardson and John Rae lead the Rae–Richardson Arctic expedition and search overland for Franklin's lost expedition 1849: Henry Kellett discovers Herald Island searching for Franklin's lost expedition 1850–1854: McClure Arctic expedition led by Robert McClure, a British search for the members of Franklin's lost expedition 1850–1851: First Grinnell expedition led by Edwin De Haven, the first American search for the members of Franklin's lost expedition, finds the graves of crew members John Torrington, William Braine and John Hartnell on Beechey Island 1851: William Kennedy leads a search expedition for Franklin in the Prince Albert, sponsored by Lady Franklin 1852: Edward Augustus Inglefield sets out to search for Franklin's ill-fated expedition in the , also sponsored by Jane Franklin 1853–1855: Second Grinnell expedition led by Elisha Kane looks for Franklin searching Grinnell Land 1857–1859: McClintock Arctic expedition led by Francis Leopold McClintock is the fifth expedition sponsored by Lady Franklin and finds artefacts, a crew member's skeleton and the final written communications from the last survivors of the Franklin expedition
Nordenskiöld Period (1857–1879) 1858: Swedish expedition to Spitsbergen led by Otto Martin Torell 1860s 1860: Paul A. Chadbourne, a Williams College professor, conducts the Williams College Lyceum of Natural History expedition to Greenland. 1860–1861: American Arctic Expedition led by Isaac Israel Hayes who claims to see the Open Polar Sea 1860–1862: First expedition led by American Charles Francis Hall searching for Franklin 1861: Swedish expedition to Svalbard led by Otto Martin Torell explores Hinlopen Strait and the north coast of Nordaustlandet 1861–1862: Otto Paul von Krusenstern's expedition through the Kara Sea on the Yermak 1864: Swedish expedition to Svalbard led by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld 1864–1869: Charles Francis Hall leads his second expedition to determine the fate of Franklin, to King William Island 1867: Edward Whymper and Robert Brown attempt to explore the inland ice of Greenland 1868: First German North Polar Expedition led by Carl Koldewey along the east coast of Greenland 1868: Swedish expedition led by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld attempts farthest north from Svalbard 1869–1870: Second German North Polar Expedition ( and Hansa) led by Carl Koldewey reaches Sabine Island 1870s 1870 Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld leads a short journey on the inland ice of Western Greenland 1871: Benjamin Leigh Smith's first expedition explores the northeastern boundary of Svalbard 1871–1873: Polaris expedition, known for the death of its commander, Charles Francis Hall 1872: Benjamin Leigh Smith returns to Svalbard in his second expedition 1872–1873: Swedish expedition to Svalbard led by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld winters at Mosselbukta 1872–1874: Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition led by Captain Karl Weyprecht discovers Franz Josef Land 1873: Benjamin Leigh Smith comes to Nordenskiöld's aid in Spitsbergen 1875: Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld is the first to reach the Yenisey by sea 1875–1876: British Arctic Expedition led by Captain George Nares 1876: Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld repeats his voyage to the Yenisey