The American Geographical Society awarded Boyd its Cullum Geographical Medal and she became one of the first women to autograph the Society's Explorers Globe.
On April 26, 1938, the American Geographical Society (AGS) honored Louise Arner Boyd with its prestigious Cullum Geographical Medal, one of the highest distinctions in the field of exploration and geography at the time. The award recognized her decade-plus of self-financed Arctic expeditions to Franz Josef Land and East Greenland, during which she had contributed significant photographic, botanical, and oceanographic data to the scientific community.
During the same ceremony, Boyd became one of the first women to autograph the Society's famed Explorers Globe, a ceremonial globe reserved for signatures of the era's most distinguished explorers — a group dominated almost entirely by men such as Roald Amundsen and Robert Peary. Her inclusion was a symbolic and substantive breakthrough, publicly affirming that a woman could be recognized among the ranks of the world's great explorers.
This recognition came at a moment when women were still largely excluded from serious scientific and exploratory institutions. Boyd's rigorous, well-documented expeditions — conducted with professional scientists and cutting-edge photographic equipment — had earned her genuine credibility in a field that often dismissed women's contributions as amateur or incidental. The honor cemented her reputation as a serious polar scientist and set a precedent for women's future participation in geographic societies.