Our ability to understand the present and future Arctic and global climate, its physical drivers and linkages across spatial scales, and the probable impacts on ecosystems and society, depends on our knowledge of the past climate. This in turn requires the preservation, recovery, and analysis of historical environmental data, especially synoptic and hourly resolution weather and ocean observations. Together these documents comprise a unique first-hand record of the human experience in the North, and contain a vast but largely untapped wealth of scientific and cultural information.