First publication appeared in Dunkirk, New York: Dunkirk Evening Observer, January 31, 1931. p 10 There is also this from the New York Daily News,(masthead shows the whole newspaper is copyrighted), but the image appears to have been cropped from the Dunkirk Evening Observer, which says first photos wired and distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association (Uploaded the clearer image of the same grouping published in Canada.[1]) Delving further, these appear to have been taken by ACME Newspictures, which makes sense since NEA was their distributor. These appear to be separate shots that were cobbled together and distributed, as can be seen here and here Checking Periodicals copyright for 1931 I get no results for "Demme", "Arctic", "polar", "Riabtzova", "Petrovna", "Franz Joseph Land", "Acme", "NEA", or "Newspaper Enterprise Association". Checking Works of Art for 1931 for each of those, I get no result either. Based on the search of copyright.gov there were no renewals for anything having to do with Demme, nor for "Franz Joseph Land" as a title, name, or keyword. As the author is ACME Newspictures, I also searched for that as the "claimant" and get no results.

Cette œuvre est dans le domaine public car elle a été publiée aux États-Unis entre 1929 et 1977 inclus, sans indication de copyright. À moins que son auteur ne soit mort depuis suffisamment longtemps, elle n'est pas dans le domaine public dans les pays ou régions qui n'appliquent pas la règle du terme le plus court pour les travaux provenant des États-Unis, comme le Canada (cinquante ans pma), la Chine continentale (cinquante ans pma, Hong Kong et Macao exclus), l'Allemagne (soixante-dix ans pma), le Mexique (cent ans pma), la Suisse (soixante-dix ans pma) et d'autres pays signataires d'accord bilatéraux. Voir cette page pour de plus amples explications. العربية ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ čeština ∙ Deutsch ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ italiano ∙ 日本語 ∙ 한국어 ∙ македонски ∙ Nederlands ∙ português ∙ русский ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenščina ∙ ไทย ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ 中文（简体） ∙ 中文（繁體） ∙ +/−