English travel writer, artist, and naturalist George Clayton Atkinson (1808-1877) set sail for the Faroe Islands on May 26, 1833.
Of particular interest to Atkinson were the birdlife, geology, and folklore of the Faroe Islands and Iceland. 
George Clayton Atkinson’s expeditions throughout the North Atlantic are rarely referenced in Nordic circles. His scholarly work is nevertheless so revered in other parts of Europe that Queen Elizabeth II deemed it fitting to present a copy of Atkinson’s Journal of an Expedition to the Faeroe and Westman Islands and Iceland 1833 to Iceland’s President during her first official visit to Reykjavík in June 1990.
This remarkable volume also contains some of the first and most interesting descriptions and images of the Faroe Islands that have ever been committed to record.
Relatively few depictions of the Faroe Islands were produced in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. 
Atkinson’s first encounter with the inhabitants of the Faroe Islands took place near the island of Vágar. It was there that Peggy happened upon a French vessel conducting illicit trade with a group of Faroese. Atkinson noted that the Faroese were afraid of contracting cholera and chose to remain in their boats: “They didn’t have much interest in money, but they brought sheepskins, milk, and other goods to trade. The French exchanged red wine and cognac for the items the natives offered. They certainly were a curious bunch of people.” 
The images that have been selected to commemorate George Clayton Atkinson’s expedition to the Faroe Islands were originally sketches made by Atkinson himself. These sketches were subsequently rendered into watercolour paintings by the renowned English artist Thomas Miles Richardson (1784-1848).