Louise Arner Boyd 1930 Finland Diary Entry

In 1930, Louise traveled to the extreme north of Finland in anticipation of her 1931 expedition to Greenland and took a cross-country ski trip to the Russian border area known as Petsamo which was ceded to the Russians after World War II. It was there that she met refugees walking across the border of Finland in order to escape the harsh conditions and repressive regime of Stalinist Russia.

1930 Finland Diary – Sep. 21, 1930 -  “Russian refugees met on the trail…only a few kilometers from Moskova, extreme NE Finland about 30km from frontier of Russia...packs on there (sic) back, feet wrapped in socks because their shoes were wore out, long coats, Three with fur boots, they had come eleven days with food, bread and some fat that they carried, fish they caught & berries in the woods....A minister, his wife & 2 children, a business man & his 2 children, all in their teens....nice upper class people. "

Louise Arner Boyd / Letter from U.S. War Dept. 1941

On Sep. 12, 1941 Louise received the letter below from Col. Giles of the U.S. Air Corps thanking her for her photographic and cartographic contributions to a Greenland air base. Her Arctic expeditions in 1937 and 1938 provided the War Department with invaluable images and information in support of the Atlantic Naval and Air Campaigns.

Louise Arner Boyd / Poland Diary 1934

Louise Boyd was honored in 1934 by being selected as the U.S. representative to the International Geographical Congress in Warsaw, Poland. Always the intrepid traveler and observer, Louise set out on a 3 month journey across the Polish countryside, after the Congress, photographing and recording the customs, dress, economy and culture of the many ethnic Poles and Russians in the newly formed nation. The journey, by car, rail, boat and on foot took her through regions that are now part of the Ukraine and Belarus today. Her travel narrative was supplemented with over 500 photographs and published by the American Geographical Society in 1937 as Polish Countrysides.

Sept. 11, 1934 Poland Journal Entry

Czestochowa…market in square, 13 covered wagons with cross being carried in front…barefoot women walking, men with high boots, all wagons half covered, half open. The covered part is decorated with artificial flowers and garlands.