Samoyeds were brought out of Siberia at the end of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century to pull sledges on Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Among these dogs were those brought out by Ernest Kilburn Scott, a British zoologist who spent three months in Northern Russia and Siberia among native tribes in 1889. His first dog, a brown male puppy named “Sabarka,” is believed to have been the first dog of his breed in England, though at the time, the Brits called the breed
“Bjelkier, ” the Russian name for the dogs. His next import was a cream colored bitch named, “Whitey Petchora.” From  the western side of the Urals, he imported “Musti,” a snow white Samoyed. These few dogs, along with a few others brought out by explorers, were the basis for the western Samoyed. 

It was Kilbum-Scott, however, who started the Samoyed Club of England in 1909. It’s also believed that after Kilburn-Scott learned how to say and spell the breed’s name from locals, he renamed the dog breed after the Samoyed people.

Image: “Samoyed Dogs” by Natasha Denger has already been already sold, but the artist invites inquiries regarding this or other pieces here.