the travels of Louise Arner Boyd
In scrapbooks stored with the Marin County Historical Society, news clippings
from newspapers around the world proclaim, in several languages the events in
Louise Boyd's life. "ARCTIC DIANA", "THE GIRL WHO TAMED THE
ARCTIC", read the headlines. The Independent Journal announces the gala
receptions for the Marin Music Chest. And then there are little clippings about a
dinner for several friends or a tea to raise money for a worthy cause. These two
phases of Louise Boyd's life lie side by side on the scrapbook page; the Arctic
explorer and the society woman. Louise Boyd was a paradox. She seemed to
slip from one lifestyle to the other so easily. It has always been a puzzle how
Louise Boyd accomplished the transition so gracefully.
Why did she want to go off to the Arctic? When we look at the time period in
which she began her Arctic trips, it becomes apparent that the freedom that was
allowed the women of the 1920s must have influenced her activities. Women
were cutting their hair, throwing away their corsets and putting on short skirts.
It was the age of the flapper. The long struggle for women's suffrage had
finally been won in 1920. Add to this the freedom of a California girlhood, riding
horses and romping with her brothers, and it begins to become clear why
Louise Boyd didn't want to spend the rest of her life pouring tea when her father
died in 1920 and left her with three million dollars.
Louise began to travel. She began to seriously look for something meaningful in
her life. When she was aboard a tourist ship in 1924, she cruised along the
coast of Norway and then headed out to sea to Spitsbergen where she could
view the polar ice pack. That view determined her future and immediately she
began to plan her first Arctic adventure.
In 1925 Louise Boyd went to England and was presented to the King and Queen
of England at the Court of St. James. There was very strict protocol to follow
and practically every piece of clothing was dictated by rules of dress. This
grand event was reported in all the English newspapers, the Eastern press
picked it up and of course the home town paper had to carry a story on an
American woman, a Californian, being presented at Court to the King and
Queen of England.
This noteworthy event was followed almost immediately by the beginning of
Louise Boyd's Arctic explorations; she set off on her first Arctic expedition. She
had hired an Arctic expert, Francis de Guisbert, to teach her everything he
could about the Arctic. She chartered a ship, the Hobby, which had been used
by Roald Amundsen as a supply ship when he flew over the North Pole in a
dirigible piloted by Umberto Nobile. This first trip was to be a hunting and
filming trip. Louise Boyd brought along her San Francisco friend, Janet
Coleman and the Count and Countess Rivadavia of Spain. On the trip the party
shot 29 polar bears. Louise shot 11 of these and two blue seals. The
newspapers picked this story up immediately and Louise and her polar bears
became world news. Also mentioned in the news story was the fact that Louise
Boyd was the first woman to set foot on Franz Josef Land, islands lying within
the Arctic Circle.
In 1928 Louise Boyd again hired the Hobby, but when she and her party arrived
at Tromsoe, Norway, the place was all abuzz with the news that Umberto
Nobile and his crew had crashed while aboard a dirigible somewhere in the
Arctic. The Hobby had already been in use as a rescue ship and had come back
to port to pick up Louise. Roald Amundsen had set out in a plane to try to find
the lost men. Louise Boyd immediately put the Hobby at the disposal of the
Norwegian government. As she said, "How could I go on a pleasure trip when
those 22 lives were at stake?" Under orders of the Norwegian government,
Louise and her friends set off as part of the rescue effort. Louise Boyd stood
her shift at watch with the others and she described the illusions and mirages
that appeared on the ice. "There were times when we clearly could see tents.
Then we'd lower boats and go off to investigate. But it was always the same -
strange formations of ice -nothing more."
Nobile and his men were rescued but Amundsen and his plane were never
found. Louise Boyd said to the press, "It was a privilege for me to have a part
in such a humanitarian enterprise."
When the Hobby arrived back in Norway, Louise discovered she was to receive
the Chevalier Cross of a Knight of St. Olav from King Haakon of Norway.
Since the only apparel she had was her rough Arctic clothing, she took the first
steamer to Paris and returned with a new fur coat and several gowns. When the
royal carriage came to fetch her at the hotel to take her to lunch at the castle,
Louise Boyd was properly attired to receive the Order of St. Olav. She was the
first American woman to receive the order and the third woman in the world to
be so honored. The French government later presented her with the Chevalier of
the Legion of Honor. Several other governments also honored her for her part in
the rescue work.
The trip in 1928 put Louise Boyd in contact with many men who were engaged
in Arctic exploration and were contributing to the scientific knowledge of the
area. Perhaps it was this contact that inspired her to change her voyages from
hunting expeditions to scientific explorations. From this time on she surrounded
herself with scientists and their equipment. She found an official spot for herself
on these trips by becoming the photographer She had always been interested in
photography and now had a chance to use her hobby to advantage. For her next
four trips she chartered the ship Veslekari. She did all the planning, found the
crew and scientists, and equipped them with the necessary provisions and
instruments. She equipped four expeditions: 1931, 1933, 1937, 1938. The last
three were sponsored by the American Geographical Society. Her work was to
chart the Northeast Coast of Greenland. She describes one expedition aboard
the Veslekari.
"Well, our ship is a sealer about 127 feet long and perhaps 25 feet wide and
about 25 or 30 of us are aboard. We are on reconnaissance. Laying the
groundwork. Mrs. Roche, my secretary and I are the only women on board.
Along the north east coast of Greenland there is a strip of land visible in the
summer virtually free from snow. But we have to sail across a strip of pack ice
100 to 150 miles wide which takes from one to two weeks. Polar bears, seals,
musk oxen and foxes are there also the farthest north wireless station.
Eskimonaes (a village) where people live is far behind us. Hunters go a little
further north. The nearest settlement is Scoresby Sound and ahead of us the
great icebergs and fields stretch. Cold? Yes, of course, but there's unearthly
grandeur about it all and I love it."
The primitive conditions on board were evident when Boyd recounted that
there was no running water, making it necessary to carry all their water by
hand. There were no baths or showers. The usual clothing on shipboard was
heavy coats and hip boots to protect the wearer from the heavy swells that
washed over the sides. There was no refrigeration and all food was canned.
Extra food stocks had to be taken aboard in case the ship was stranded or stuck
on the ice. Dynamite was routinely carried for breaking up ice packs.
Once the scientists were able to get to land, there was feverish activity. All
photography, botanical collection, and gathering of scientific information had to
be done in a few short weeks before the ice closed in around them. Louise Boyd
and the other scientists would trek out each day. In the evening, by oil lamp,
they would go over the data they had collected. Louise herself set the pace and
was quoted as saying, "I'm reproached sometimes for wearing out the crew but
they haven't suffered yet. There is never any hardship in doing what you are
interested in."
Louise describes one eventful evening on board: "One night while I was writing
down some notes on a rough table, a sudden squall broke and the motorship
was bouncing around like an eggshell in a bathtub. My oil lamp overturned and
the entire floor of the room caught on fire. I shut the door quickly and ran for
fire extinguishers and help. Mind you, I didn't know the dynamite was stored
under my bunk or else I might not have enjoyed my sleep so well.
"I told Captain Olson what had happened and that I had confined the fire to my
room by shutting the door. He yelled bloody murder and rushed to the room
with fire extinguishers before the flames had started to lap at the supposedly
fireproof case."
Louise Boyd's work as an explorer did not end when the voyage was over.
Photographs had to be developed and labeled. Scientific specimens had to be
mounted. She said once, "The real work of an expedition begins when you
return. I'm going to spend this winter and next summer studying our findings.
You're an explorer even when you're home, you see." She had three books of
her photographs published by the American Geographical Society: The Fiord
Regions of East Greenland, 1935, The Polish Countryside, 1937, The Coast of
Northeast Greenland, 1949.
Louise Boyd had hoped to continue her expeditions but these and all else were
interrupted by history. With war rumbling in Europe, there would be no more
private expeditions for awhile. Then she heard that her valuable cameras and
scientific equipment stored in Norway were in the hands of the Nazis and she
went to retrieve them.
When Louise Boyd returned home to San Rafael in 1939, the city gave a party
for her at the Marin Golf and Country Club. Everyone recognized that she had
brought distinction to her native city with her many honors. It was a gay and
happy occasion where Louise received much affection and admiration as San
Rafael's best known citizen. In an official speech Mayor Nock made her an
"honorary citizen". As she stated in the San Rafael Independent, "No recognition
from any foreign country brought me the happiness my friends and neighbors
provided by giving a reception and dinner for me." Speaking for her friends, Dr.
Lynn T. White said, "Her friends hold her not as a famous person but as a
woman great in spirit." Or as another guest put it, "She's a darn swell person."
It seemed Louise would spend the war years at home but further adventure
awaited her.
When Greenland became a sensitive area at the beginning of World War II, the
United States government began looking around for an expert in this area and
discovered that all of them were behind enemy lines except Louise Boyd. In the
summer of 1940, the State Department contacted Louise Boyd and asked her
for information on Greenland. At that time the publication of her book, The
Coast of Northeast Greenland was canceled. The information that was
contained in the book was thought to be useful to the enemy. All these
photographs, charts and other information that Louise Boyd had assembled, she
sent to Washington, D.C., at her own expense, for the use of the State
Department.
In the fall of 1940 Louise Boyd went to Washington at the request of the
National Bureau of Standards to arrange an expedition to Western Greenland and
Eastern Arctic Canada for the next summer. In 1941 she organized an
expedition aboard the Effie M. Morrissey. Louise paid for the ship and crew as
well as for the food and supplies, arranging it all herself. The scientific staff and
equipment were supplied by the National Bureau of Standards.
The expedition sailed June 1, 1941, going up the West coast of Greenland and
down the coast of Baffin Island and Labrador. The object of the expedition was
to collect data on radio wave transmission which seemed irregular in the Arctic.
The main concern was the necessity that communications be kept open
between American fliers and sailors protecting United States ships and
submarines.
When Louise Boyd returned from this expedition, she continued to work for the
Bureau of Standards. She had an office in the Pentagon and was employed until
June 1942. These were busy times for her and she probably did not realize that
this had been her last voyage. Later, when she heard that the Veslekari had gone
down, she wrote a friend, "I am going out to dinner tonight with an awful
feeling of sadness for I feel as if I have lost one of my best friends when I think
that the Veslekari has gone down in the Atlantic, I loved that ship and all she
meant to me and enabled me to do." She could no longer lead the Veslekari into
the Arctic so she settled for the challenges she found at home. Louise Boyd
became the honorary chairman of Nutrition for the San Francisco Chapter of
the American Red Cross.
Since she had inherited Maple Lawn, Louise Boyd was known as a marvelous
hostess. She had the best of everything in her home and her guests shared in
her lavish hospitality. When there was a dinner party at Maple Lawn, the guests
were seated in the formal dining room decorated with antique Swedish murals.
There was an elegant lace tablecloth and the finest wines were served in crystal
goblets. Fine Danish porcelain and heavy heirloom silver graced the tables. Gay
and witty, Louise could keep the conversation flowing. She could talk to men
on their level but also enjoyed a good gossip with her women friends.
In 1952 Louise Boyd remodeled the house to facilitate entertaining her guests.
The old house was very Victorian with small dark rooms. Louise kept the
Victorian decor and heirloom furniture but opened up the house by adding a
large living room/library in which she displayed the mementos and maps of her
expeditions. Photographs of royalty as well as heads of state with their personal
greetings crowded the walls. To the opposite side of the house Louise added a
large dining room that would seat 40 guests. She also undertook some major
landscaping projects that resulted in a formal terraced garden for her garden
parties. There was also added a glassed-in card room that looked out on the
garden. A large retaining wall was built to allow a swimming pool complex on
an upper level. This beautiful pool had changing rooms and a fully equipped
kitchen so nothing had to be removed from the house during pool side parties.
The gardens at Maple Lawn had gained a widespread reputation for their beauty
and superb care. Much of this was due to the gardener, Ah Sing, who was
hired by Louise's father and cared for the gardens for 50 years. When he
wished to retire, Louise Boyd paid his expenses to return to China. Many of the
plants at Maple Lawn were quite rare and had been imported in the early days
from all over the world. Alice Eastwood who trained Louise in plant collecting
for her expeditions found one variety of tree from South America that she
identified as the only specimen in California.
Louise Boyd had a well known Camellia collection, said to be the best in the
West. It was reported as a news item when Louise Boyd spent several hundred
dollars on a rare Camellia bush she found in Covina. She carved a flat area out
of the hill behind her house and covered it with a lath house. There she grew the
beloved camellias that became her trademark. She would be approached by
perfect strangers while attending a public event who recognized her by the huge
Camellia she wore.
Louise Boyd also had a penchant for moving trees. She moved a 45 foot fir tree
from the San Rafael fire house when it was threatened with destruction. When
she was constructing the formal terrace garden, full grown magnolia trees
located in other parts of the garden were moved to provide an instant garden.
Another way that Louise Boyd indulged her guests was by serving fine food.
When remodeling her house, the kitchen received a thorough renovation with
new appliances and a walk-in refrigerator. She had an extensive cookbook
collection, with recipes from the many countries she had visited. She had a
group of friends from the South who often discussed Southern cooking while
having a cocktail in the garden. They absolutely adored soft cornbread, or
spoonbread as some of us call it, and would have luncheons that featured this
special treat. One of Louise Boyd's particular friends was Julia Langhorne
Calhoun who along with her husband, John, accompanied Louise on her early
Arctic voyages. Julia had a special Southern recipe for Calhoun punch that she
convinced Louise to serve at the lavish reception honoring Nelson Eddy, when
he was the guest artist at the Marin Music Chest performance. What goes into
Calhoun punch is not recorded, but this deceptive drink was certainly one of the
reasons the party was such a memorable one.
Louise Boyd was often the hostess for the reception held for guest artists of
the Marin Music Chest. This organization was formed by Maude Fay
Symington to bring world acclaimed artists to the public at reasonable prices.
The performances were out-of-doors in Forest Meadows at Dominican College.
The proceeds went to scholarships to help young Marin musicians continue
their musical studies. Several other prominent Marin women led the Music
Chest and in 1950 Louise Boyd became the president and served for several
years in that capacity.
Louise Boyd also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the San
Francisco Symphony for more than twenty years. Her appearance at the
symphony always attracted notice because of her elegant gowns and jewelry
and of course, because of her famous Camellia which she sometimes wore in
her hair. She usually bought three Grand Tier seats for the opera and attended
with a married couple. She was an early supporter of the San Francisco Ballet,
an art which she grew to enjoy while traveling in Europe. Louise's love of music
was developed as a child. It was part of her home life in San Rafael where
mother played the piano and taught Seth and Louise. Brother John accompanied
them on the guitar and one can picture the charming musical evenings she
enjoyed at Maple Lawn.
Louise Boyd made Christmas a special time at Maple Lawn. Even while she was
traveling, Louise made a special effort to be home for Christmas. Starting in the
1930s, she began the tradition of a Christmas Eve party for the San Rafael city
officials, policemen and firemen. Also invited were the local business men of
San Rafael, any one who had done business with her during the year. She had
an open house where all these old friends could mingle and renew old
acquaintances. The house at Maple Lawn would be brightly lighted in the
evening and a magnificent Christmas tree would greet the guests in the entrance
hall. A hot pecan punch (one of Julia's recipes) would be served and there
would be an atmosphere of conviviality. Then Louise herself would come down
the staircase and call out "Merry Christmas", in her raspy voice. Everyone
would receive a present, usually a necktie, and the more important officials
received a check. This homey tradition was carried out through the years until
Louise sold her house and moved to San Francisco.
The last expedition that Louise Boyd organized was a flight over the North Pole.
She never liked flying in airplanes but in this case, the plane was the only way
she could achieve her long dreamed of goal to reach the North Pole. In 1955
she chartered a DC-4 and crew and made a trip to the North Pole. It was the
first private flight over the North Pole. She carried the flag of the Society of
Women Geographers with her on that flight. This flag is in the collection of the
Marin County Historical Society as well as flags used by other women
geographers.
Louise Boyd continued her travels although she slowed down as the years
progressed. She especially enjoyed touring in California and took a great deal of
pleasure in driving. Of course, she always had a chauffeur; the first one had
driven her parentsÕ horse and buggy. In the early days she owned a
Locomobile when these were considered top of the line, even better than a
Cadillac. She enjoyed calling up her Marin friends and saying, "L.A.B. will be
over to pick you up in the Loco." She liked to refer to herself as L.A.B. The
last car she owned was a Packard formal sedan customized by Dietrich to her
and his specifications. She gave the car to her chauffeur when she moved to
San Francisco.
As the years went by, Louise accumulated many honors from universities and
scientific organizations. She received an honorary law degree from the
University of California, Berkeley and from Mills College. She flew to Alaska in
1969 to receive an honorary Degree of Science. These honors were in
recognition of all she had accomplished with only a high school education.
Louise Boyd was the second woman ever to receive the Collum Medal of the
American Geographical Society and in 1960 was the first woman to be elected
to their board. She was made an honorary member of the California Academy
of Science. The Louise Boyd Junior Museum was named in her honor. The
ultimate compliment any explorer can receive was given to her when a portion
of Greenland was named for her, Miss Boyd Land.
At the end of her life, Louise Boyd made some mistakes in managing her
finances. The fortune that had supported all her adventures dwindled. She sold
her home, Maple Lawn, to the Elks Club in 1962 for $350,000. Her fine
furniture, Danish china and other valuable possessions were auctioned off at
Butterfield and Butterfield. She moved into a nursing home near the end of her
life. When she died in 1972, there was no money left. A group of friends had
supported her in her last days. Her funeral was held at St. Paul's Episcopal
Church in San Rafael. Instead of burial, Louise Boyd chose to have her ashes
scattered over the North Pole. There is no grave or plaque in San Rafael
commemorating her life and contributions.
Louise Boyd was a legendary figure and a type of person that those who knew
her remembered well. She was not a sweet or gentle person, you couldn't
overlook her. She was a vivid personality and the life of the many parties she
hosted.
To explain her life, perhaps a quote from one of the news clippings would begin
to do the job. "Miss Boyd decided that being an heiress wasn't enough to fill
one's life especially if one had the adventuresome blood of do-and-daring
ancestors in one's makeup." The ancestors helped, but to accomplish all she did
took more than inherited traits Rev. Hugh Hardin said in his eulogy, "She
possessed a freedom that too many of us are afraid to exercise." An Arctic
explorer and a society woman, Louise Boyd never let other's expectations
determine her way of life or keep her from living a full and meaningful life.
From Bodie to B St
Boyd Park History
Marin History Museum
(formerly Marin County Historical Society)