But archeology was in Boyd’s
future. In 1896, Athens simmered with anger over decades of conflict with the
Ottoman Empire—and Greece’s desire to enlarge its own territory. Conflict over
the disputed island of Crete brought the simmer to a boil in early 1897, when
Greece defied stern warnings from the so-called “Great Powers” (Russia, Great
Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Germany) and annexed the island. The war between Greece and Turkey quickly followed.
As a young American woman in a
circle of (largely English-speaking) Greek women, Boyd was swept up in the
fervor as mobilization began. The “letters home” she sent from Athens to the Philadelphia
Public Ledger oscillate between keenly dispassionate observations and the enthusiasm
of her own immersion in Greece’s jingoistic frenzy. Her desire to be part of these
events prompted her to take a nursing course in the early winter of 1897. But her
hopes of becoming a volunteer nurse seemed all but dashed when she flunked a practical
exam in front of Queen Olga of Greece on March 20, 1897.
As open hostilities loomed in
mid-April, however, Boyd played a final card. On the day before the nurses planned
to depart for a Red Cross hospital near the front, she sent a letter directly to
Queen Olga, asking for permission to join them. Hours before the nurses embarked,
the queen gave her assent.