Marguerite Harrison
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Marguerite Elton Harrison Blake (1879–1967) was an American socialite who became a reporter and author, spy, filmmaker and translator. Although now known for her undercover work as well as her extensive writings, she considered her main contributions as founding the Children's Hospital School near Baltimore as a young wife, and decades later helping to found the
Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981. It is based in Washington, D.C., and ...
.


Early life and education

Harrison was born Marguerite Elton Baker, one of two daughters of wealthy Maryland shipping magnate Bernard N. Baker and his wife, the former Elizabeth Elton Livezey. Both her mother's and father's families had been socially prominent for generations, as well as wealthy for that era. They lived in a large house called Ingleside in the Baltimore County community of Catonsville (which she and her sister sold in 1919 after Bernard Baker's death, and which burned down decades later). She and her younger sister Elisabeth (who later married a future Maryland governor as described below) were raised as society princesses. Marguerite attended St. Timothy's School for girls (then located near their Catonsville home), and would later attend
Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that was founded in 1879. In 1999, it was fully incorporated into Harvard Colle ...
for a semester. Marguerite adored her father, who built the lucrative Atlantic Transport Line (which he later merged into an entity controlled by financier
J.P. Morgan JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * '' Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Pa ...
), and often accompanied him on trips to Europe, where she became fluent in French and German. However, Marguerite also flouted some conventions of the time, which caused her mother to send her on a chaperoned trip to Italy after that Radcliffe semester. Her relationship with her overprotective and all-controlling mother was distant and cold.


Personal life

Marguerite survived two husbands, and was survived by a son and grandchildren. In June 1901, despite her mother's vehement protestations, Maguerite succeeded in marrying a young stockbroker, Thomas B. Harrison, who lacked inherited wealth and who would die of a brain tumor in 1915. Their son, Thomas B. Harrison II, was born in 1902. In 1907, her sister Elizabeth married Albert C. Ritchie, who would later become the 49th governor of Maryland. Although she did not plan to remarry after Harrison's death, in 1927 she married British-born former actor Arthur Blake, in a marriage that produced no children and ended with his death two decades later.


Career


Children's Hospital School

In 1905, Harrison spearheaded an effort to open a school for indigent convalescent children. She used her many connections to procure donations and offered a large stone house her father owned in Catonsville. The school was initially called the Ingleside Convalescent Home, and later became the Children's Hospital School. Harrison concocted many schemes to raise funds for the school, including a charity baseball game and a circus performed by prominent society members. In 1911, Harrison was named to the board of directors of the Women's Civic League of Baltimore, which advocated for safer and cleaner streets and schools.


''The Baltimore Sun''

In 1915, Harrison's husband died of a
brain tumor A brain tumor (sometimes referred to as brain cancer) occurs when a group of cells within the Human brain, brain turn cancerous and grow out of control, creating a mass. There are two main types of tumors: malignant (cancerous) tumors and benign ...
, leaving her and their 13-year-old son. Although not legally obligated to repay them all, Marguerite felt a moral obligation to repay them and converted her large home into a boarding house, as well as sought employment. Despite having completed only one semester of college, she used her brother-in-law's influence to secure a position as an assistant society editor for ''
The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...
'' at $20 per week. Her society background and familiarity with foreign languages, led not only to continued employment but also advancement within the newspaper. By 1917, she was writing features about women's wartime labor.


Military Intelligence operative

In 1918, with the U.S. still involved in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and Europe virtually one large battlefield, Harrison wished to report on the conditions in Germany. As women were not recognized as war correspondents, she instead became a spy after being introduced to General Marlborough Churchill, head of the Military Intelligence Branch of the War Department. On her application, Harrison described herself as five feet six inches tall, weighing 125 pounds without physical defects and with no use of stimulants, tobacco or drugs. In response to a question asking about foreign nations and localities with which she was familiar, she replied:
The British Isles, France, Holland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Italy, Rome, Naples, Tyrol. I have an absolute command of French and German, am very fluent and have a good accent in Italian and speak a little Spanish. Without any trouble I could pass as a French woman and after a little practice, as German-Swiss ... I have been to Europe fourteen times ... I have been much on steamers and am familiar in a general way with ships of the merchant marine.
The November 11, 1918
armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...
was declared before she was officially hired, but Harrison was sent to Europe with a new assignment to report on political and economic matters at the forthcoming peace conference. Only her immediate family and her managing editor at ''The Baltimore'' ''Sun'' knew why she traveled to Germany in December 1918. Harrison later spied for the United States in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and
Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
. She arrived in the Soviet Union in 1920 as an
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
correspondent and assessed
Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
economic strengths and weakness and assisted American political prisoners. She was detained in the infamous Russian prison Lubyanka for 10 months, where she contracted
tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
. Because of pressure applied by her influential contacts, such as Maryland senator Joseph I. France, she was eventually set free in exchange for food and other aid to the Soviet Union. She was arrested again in 1923 in China and was taken to
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, but was released before her trial after she was recognized by an American aid worker. These experiences, and those of her fellow prisoners, are related in two of Harrison's books: ''Marooned in Moscow: the Story of an American Woman Imprisoned in Russia'' (1921) and ''Unfinished Tales from a Russian Prison'' (1923). She expressed her views of the Soviet Union and China as world forces in her book ''Red Bear or Yellow Dragon'' (1924). These books, along with her volume ''Asia Reborn'' (1928), comprise her major publications on Asia. Harrison was an important member and sponsor of the production team responsible for the classic ethnographic film ''
Grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...
'' (
1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...
). Harrison had met producer
Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893 – April 21, 1973) was an American filmmaker, actor, producer and air officer. In film, his most famous work was the 1933 movie ''King Kong (1933 film), King Kong'', and he is credited as co-inventor of ...
at a ball in
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
during the early days of the Russo-Polish conflict and provided him with food, books and blankets when he was taken prisoner by the Russians in 1920 and sent to work in a prison camp. ''Grass'' depicts the annual migration of the Bakhtiari, an Iranian tribe who herded their livestock through snow-bound mountain passes under conditions of great hardship to reach high-altitude summer grasslands and then to return to lower elevations for the winter. Harrison appears as herself in her role as a reporter in the film. Cooper's co-producer Ernest B. Schoedsack opined years later that Harrison had not done "a damn thing" during the expedition. As women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations such as the
Explorers Club The Explorers Club is an American-based international multidisciplinary professional society with the goal of promoting scientific exploration and field study. The club was founded in New York City in 1904 and has served as a meeting point for ex ...
, Harrison participated in the founding of
Society of Woman Geographers The Society of Woman Geographers was established in 1925 at a time when women were excluded from membership in most professional organizations, such as the Explorers Club, who would not admit women until 1981. It is based in Washington, D.C., and ...
in 1925. Harrison also founded the Children's Hospital School in Baltimore.


Later life

Despite her dissatisfaction with some of her co-producer's edits of ''Grass'', and determination not to marry again. Harrison met and married former actor Arthur Blake in 1926 and traveled extensively with him, ultimately moving to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. In 1942, she offered her services to the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
in the war effort, but the agency demurred. Marguerite would also survive her second husband by decades. Following his death, she returned to the Baltimore area in 1947 to live with her son and his second wife, as well as continued her writing and speaking activities.


Death and legacy

Marguerite Baker Harrison Blake died on July 16, 1967, in Baltimore at the age of 88. Her ashes were scattered at sea per her wishes. Rights to ''Grass'' were donated to a museum and it was reissued theatrically in the 1990s. In 1997 it was admitted to the National Film Registry maintained by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
.


Works

* ''Marooned in Moscow: the Story of an American Woman Imprisoned in Russia'' (1921) * ''Unfinished Tales from a Russian Prison'' (1923). (short stories) * ''Red Bear or Yellow Dragon'' (1924). * ''Asia Reborn'' (1928) * ''There's Always Tomorrow: the Story of a Checkered Life'' (1935)


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Marguerite Elton Baker 1879 births 1967 deaths American spies American women journalists Female wartime spies World War I spies for the United States Members of the Society of Woman Geographers American women's page journalists American anti-communists 20th-century American women American people imprisoned in the Soviet Union Interwar-period spies