This is neat - they have found some maps of the Arctic ice in Norway that go waaaay back to 1893:
Index of /pub/trausti/Iskort/Pdf
And they include 1930's - 1938 was a lot of melting (relative to the previous decades) but it does not even come close to 2012:
Pesky Reality Intrudes in Denierville (again). Danish Ice Maps from the 30s. | Climate Denial Crock of the Week
In fact, the 1938 melt doesn't even match the median from 1979-2000!