Louise Arner Boyd Alejandra Ramirez & Tiffany Ortiz 8-3

Early Life Although there weren't many wonderful women explorers in the 1900s. There was a brave woman named Louise Arner Boyd. Louise Arner Boyd, also known as “ice woman”, was born in September 16,1887 in San Rafael, California, near San Francisco. At the age of 13, she inherited a family fortune in 1920 from a California gold rush. Both of her brothers were utterly ill and they died in their early childhood. Her parents, who were also very ill, traveled for their health. She succeeded her father as president of the Boyd Investment Company in San Francisco taking up a big job. Before the family fortune, she traveled to Europe and Egypt and worked as a nurse in the Influenza epidemic in After her parents died, she went back to Europe with a friend. On that trip she developed an interest in the great Arctic exploration. Even though she had a rough childhood, she still became the greatest woman explorer of her time.

Why is she a leader? Louise Arner Boyd, who was an arctic explorer, set out on many adventures. Between the years of 1919 and 1920 both of her parents died. She spent most of her time going to the Arctic with her friends taking pictures and films. She made her first trip to the Arctic in the summer of 1926 when she traveled to Franz Josef Land, a group of islands north of Siberia, with a group of friends to go hunting for polar bears. She boarded the ship to go to the Arctic and later she returned with thousands of feet of film and 700 photographs. There was no doubt that she wanted to go back. Boyd went back to the Arctic in 1928 and chartered the same ship. She got there just at the time that a search was underway for Umberto Nobile, the Italian aviator whose airship had crashed on the polar ice. Nobile was eventually rescued and as a result of her efforts she was presented with a medal by the King of Norway. Boyd set out again in 1931, but this time she hired some scientists to go with her to make the trip a more satisfying scientific adventure. The expedition went up the east coast of Greenland, sure enough later that part of that coast was named Louise Boyd Land. The expedition included several scientists, but the botanists became sick so Boyd took on the job of collecting the plant specimens. She undertook more expeditions to the same area in 1937 and In 1934, as a result of her increasing knowledge of these areas, Boyd was chosen by several American learned societies to represent them at international conferences in Europe. The knowledge she had gained about the east coast of Greenland became very valuable after World War II broke out that she was asked by the United States government not to publish the book she had in preparation. Instead of doing nothing, she was sent at the head of an expedition to investigate magnetic and radio phenomena in the Arctic in Her book, The Coast of Northeast Greenland, was eventually published after the war in During the remainder of the war Boyd worked on secret assignments for the U.S. Department of the Army. By the time the war was over, Boyd was almost 60 and did not take part in any other Arctic expeditions. However, she chartered a private plane and flew across the North Pole in 1955,and was the first woman to do so. She died on September 14, 1972, spending most of her fortune on Arctic explorations.

Should she be admired? Even though many people have different opinions about Louise, we believe that Louise Arner Boyd should be admired because she had fun being in the Arctic. What women do you think would go out in the cold just to take pictures and videos of Polar Bears at that time? She used her compassion to make a living for herself doing something that she loved. Don’t get us wrong but we know that there were a lot of wonderful women during that time period but majority of the women had jobs within the city and at home. However, every woman started off from somewhere. Some were just to lazy to have a good career doing something that they loved. Many women did have great careers and made history at times but this notable woman was the first to fly over the North Pole while she was 68 years old. Many women had the opportunity to do something like this; they just didn’t want to. Therefore, Louise Arner Boyd should be admired.

Citations Louise Arner Boyd. web feat. 3/19/09. " The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. © 1994, , on Fact Monster. © 2000–2007 Pearson Education, publishing as Fact Monster. 19 Mar Marshell, Derek. Louise Boyd. Cambridge Greenland Glaciology Expedition /19/09.