- Date: May 01st 2018
- Start: 6:00 pm
- End: 7:30 pm
- Free
- Venue: San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Research Center
The first comprehensive biography of Louise Arner Boyd — the intrepid American socialite who reinvented herself as the leading female polar explorer of the twentieth century.
Born in the late 1880s to a gritty mining magnate who made his millions in the California gold rush and a well-bred mother descended from one of New York’s distinguished families, society beauty Louise Arner Boyd was raised during a glittering era. She was presented at the British royal court, and travelled in genteel style from one dazzling capital to another.
After inheriting a staggering family fortune while only in her thirties, she began leading a double life. She fell under the spell of the north in the late 1920s after a sailing excursion to the Arctic Ocean. Over the next three decades, she achieved international notoriety as a rugged and audacious polar explorer while maintaining her flamboyant lifestyle as a leading philanthropist and society woman. Yet despite organizing, financing, and directing seven daring Arctic expeditions between 1926 and 1955, she is virtually unknown today.
About the Author
Dr. Joanna Kafarowski is a Canadian independent scholar and inveterate traveller who has a passion for the North. She has worked extensively with Indigenous women in the Arctic regarding natural resource management issues and has participated in a Last Degree North Pole Expedition. She is the author of the first comprehensive biography of female polar explorer Louise Arner Boyd entitled, “The Polar Adventures of a Rich American Dame A Life of Louise Arner Boyd (Dundurn Press, 2017) and edited Gender, Culture and Northern Fisheries (Canadian Circumpolar Institute, 2009).
Joanna has a bachelor’s degree in English literature, a master’s degree in Geography, a doctorate in Natural Resources and Environmental Studies and a Professional Specialization Certificate in Heritage Conservation Planning. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Member of the Society of Woman Geographers, an Affiliate Member of the American Geographical Society, a Member of the International Arctic Social Sciences Association and a Member of the Canadian Association of Geographers.
*Light Refreshments will be served
