Louise Boyds Land

Louise Boyd

Study Area

Louise Boyds Land Louise Boyds Land is in northeast Greenland: latitude 73°30' N, 27°30'W, separated from the Greenland Icecap by a range of nunataks. It is approximately 250km NNW of MestersVig, a Danish military outpost, and well within the Artic Circle (defined by the line of latitude at 66°N). The area is also inside the National Park of Greenland. [Back to top]   Louise Boyd The area is named after the American Explorer Louise Arner Boyd, who first discovered an adjacent region. Born in San Francisco in 1887, Louise Boyd inherited her family‘s fortune and was inspired to explore large areas of Greenland and the Arctic after a cruised trip to Arctic regions in 1924. In 1928 she led an expedition to find Roald Amundsen (the Norwegian Arctic explorer who was first to navigate the Northwest passage and, in 1911, first to reach the South Pole). Amundsen was never found, but for her efforts the Norwegian government awarded Boyd the Chevalier Cross of the Order of Saint Olav.   Throughout the 1930s Louise Boyd explored the fjords of Greenland's northeast coast, taking depth soundings and studying Arctic plant and animal life. She later became, at 68, the first woman to fly over the North Pole. [Back to top]   ©Derek Marshall for Cambridge Greenland Glaciology Expedition 2002