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After a brief stint as a society columnist for the Baltimore Sun, Marguerite Harrison was bored and wanted more adventure. She took a job in the Military Intelligence Department (MID). Under the guise of an AP correspondent, she traveled to Berlin and then, in 1919, to Russia as part of America’s nascent spy network.
What Was Marguerite Harrison Like?
Marguerite Harrison was born into a prominent Baltimore family and married a handsome blue blood, but she was not content to live her life within the social conventions of her day. She drew upon her aristocratic lineage, her shipping-magnate father’s fortune, and her good looks to become an international journalist and, later, America’s first female foreign intelligence officer.
Her restless spirit was further fueled by her grief over the death of her husband in 1915 and a desire to free herself from the constraints of Victorian society. She turned to journalism, using her connections and her linguistic skills to secure a position at the Baltimore Sun. As soon as she entered the newsroom, which was rife with “the exhilarating clatter of typewriter keys” and the “exotic smells of paper, ink, and tobacco,” her feet began tapping and she knew she’d found her calling.
When the United States entered World War I, Harrison wanted to help in any way she could. When her efforts to join Naval Intelligence were rebuffed, she used her social connections to meet General Marlborough Churchill, head of the Military Intelligence Division. He agreed to hire her, and she was sent to Berlin and other dangerous locations in Europe. With her shrewdness, charm, and knack for subterfuge, she infiltrated Communist networks, foiled a German coup, and even tracked down an American conscientious objector in Russia.
How Did She Become a Spy?
Harrison parlayed her social connections and extensive knowledge of Europe into a dual career as a journalist and foreign correspondent, and a part-time spy for American intelligence agencies. She first traveled to Germany as an AP reporter in 1918 reporting on the aftermath of the Versailles armistice and then to Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, where she assessed economic and political strengths and weaknesses. Her trips to both places brought her into contact with the heads of the Cheka (the national secret police), or NKVD, who labeled her a double agent and demanded she betray other Westerners.
Harrison was a rare breed of woman for her time: She was intelligent, spoke several languages, and had the right connections. She also possessed the unflinching directness that would propel her into world espionage. In her early life, she had rebuffed expectations that she be meek and humble in favor of a career writing music and theater reviews, political propaganda, and the like for the Baltimore Sun.
After her husband’s death in 1915, Harrison seized upon the opportunity to use her social status, international connections, and talents to become a journalist for the Sun, then a foreign correspondent, and ultimately an American spy. Her harrowing adventures ranged from the dangerous streets of postwar Berlin to icy plains of Siberia. She also took on a physically demanding sojourn with Merian Cooper among the Bakhtiari nomads in Persia that yielded the 1925 documentary film Grass.
Why Was Marguerite Harrison Captured?
Marguerite Harrison was a woman of Gilded Age privilege who broke with the conventions of her class to become America’s first female foreign intelligence officer. After her husband died, leaving her with a young son and heavy debt, she used her family connections to land a position at the Baltimore Sun as a society reporter and later music and drama critic. Fluent in several languages, she used her social standing and knowledge of Europe to get to the heart of international espionage.
In 1918, as World War I neared its end, Harrison wrote to the director of the Army’s Military Intelligence Division (MID) asking for a job. He replied that he assumed she meant a clerical position, but she was sure that she could gather information for the government. He agreed to hire her, and Harrison traveled to Berlin, Moscow, Siberia, and other dangerous locations posing as a journalist and film-maker.
Harrison’s linguistic skills and ability to blend in with native populations enabled her to collect information on Germany’s growing economic and political strength during the fraught period between the world wars. She was also able to relay covert messages back to MID. In the fall of 1919, she was sent undercover to Russia to gather information on Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party. She was captured by the Cheka, the secret police, and imprisoned in Lubianka. Harrison escaped only when the American Relief Administration offered food for famine-ravaged Russia in return for her release.
What Happened to Marguerite Harrison?
Harrison was a woman of privilege, fluent in several languages and knowledgeable about Europe. Her family vacationed in the summer and traveled extensively. After her husband died in 1918, she turned her social connections and qualifications into a career as a journalist for the Baltimore Sun. She worked 14-hour days and used her contacts to obtain a position as assistant society editor despite having no previous writing experience.
Harrison’s linguistic skills and knack for subterfuge led to assignments in Berlin, Moscow, Siberia, and the Middle East. She infiltrated Communist networks, foiled a German coup attempt, found American prisoners of war in Russia, and probably helped American oil companies gain entry into the Far East. Her stories drew on her intrepid travels, including her encounters with King Kong creator Merian C. Cooper and the twice-survived imprisonment in Moscow.
After World War I, Harrison spied for the United States in Russia and Japan. She arrived in 1920 in Russia as an Associated Press correspondent, assessed Bolshevik economic strengths and weaknesses, and assisted American political prisoners. During her stay in the infamous Russian prison Lubyanka, she contracted tuberculosis. She was released after 10 months due to pressure from her influential contacts, including Maryland senator Joseph I. France. Harrison continued her world travels almost until her death in Baltimore in 1967 at age 88.
