The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison
America's First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent
Marguerite Harrison secured permission from the Polish commander in Vilna to cross the border into Russia. She returned to Minsk with the safe conduct pass and discovered that the resourceful Dr. Karlin had found smugglers willing to take them to Barysaw where they could slip into Russia. Farman reports "B's" entry into Russia. On Feb. …
Marguerite Harrison spent two months in Poland trying to figure out a way to enter Russia. The two countries were at war, which heightened both the risks and opportunities. Occasionally prisoner exchanges took place along the border at Minsk and a shady characters ran a brisk contraband trade. In December, Marguerite sent a cryptic message …
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Merian C. Cooper in Poland Marguerite Harrison reached Poland just in time for the winter holidays. Conditions were harsh. Five years of war had left Warsaw in shambles. Poland, which had emerged from the remnants of three empires, struggled to gain a foothold in the new European order. War had broken out with Russia as …
Although her mission was to reach Russia, Marguerite Harrison filed reports to the Military Intelligence Division while she was traveling. On the voyage to London aboard the White Star Line’s RMS Adriatic, she encountered Julius F. Hecker, a Russian-American Y.M.C.A. worker who lived in Lausanne, Switzerland. He told her that he had been in the …
Robert Collins Getting into Russia was a complicated matter. The Bolsheviks had stopped allowing most Western journalists into the country as they sought to solidify their power in the midst of a bloody civil war and a blockade was wreaking havoc on the economy. The United States did not have diplomatic relations with Russia, so …
Marlborough Churchill’s decision to send Marguerite Harrison to Russia is testament to the confidence America’s intelligence service directors had in her. Tommy Harrison was co-captain of the football team in Gilman when his mother pulled him out of school to take him with her to Switzerland. Photo courtesy of Gilman School. In the autumn 1919, …
Continue reading "The mission to Russia challenges America’s top spies"
Marguerite Harrison returned to the United States the summer of 1919 went back to work at the Baltimore Sun while she waited for Military Intelligence Division officials to decide on her next assignment. Her superiors had been so impressed with her work, they fought over where she should go next. Colonel Edward Davis, who ran …
Continue reading "Coming and going: Harrison’s next assignment"
Robert Minor Marguerite Harrison’s most publicized espionage success in Germany was her role in aiding the arrest of journalist and political cartoonist Robert Minor. Minor came from a distinguished Texas family and drifted toward socialism in his early 20s. He joined the New York World as a cartoonist in 1911, and a few years later, …
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Stan Harding While working in Berlin, Marguerite Harrison encountered another woman journalist who would have a profound impact on Harrison’s work and reputation. The woman was Stan Harding. She was every bit as adventurous and ambitious as Marguerite, and she would prove to be a formidable enemy. Harding had been born to a well-to-do family …
Continue reading "A fateful encounter in Berlin has lifelong consequences"
Even while working as a spy for the U.S. Army, Marguerite Harrison continued to write dispatches for the Baltimore Sun throughout the spring of 1919. She described living on rations and witnessing the opening session of the Weimar Assembly. But her most thrilling and vivid articles were her accounts of fighting in the streets of …
The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison 