Karolina Iwaszkiewicz was born in
Minsk on July 26, 1905. Her family belonged to a Polish community living in the then Russian Empire. She went to
Vilnius for her high school education. After graduation, Karolina Iwaszkiewicz moved to
Kraków to study at the
University of Economics. While a student, she began flight training at the Academic Aeroclub of Kraków, where she took theoretical training and later a pilot course. In 1928 she passed her pilot exams and became the first woman in Poland to receive a pilot's license. She completed her first solo flight in an
Ansaldo A.300. In 1932, she completed a first-degree pilot course in her new home of
Gdynia. During the war, Borchardt escaped to Sweden and eventually settled in the United Kingdom, where she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the
Polish government-in-exile. While in London, she later pursued art education and became a proficient artist, painting abstract works that were exhibited across Europe and in New York. Borchardt died in London in 1995. == Exhibitions ==