Marguerite Harrison: The Socialite Spy

In this installment of ‘Profiles in History,’ we meet a wealthy young socialite who responds to tragedy with daring and adventure.

Marguerite Harrison in a scene from the film "Grass," filmed while on a trip to the Middle East. Public Domain

Born in Baltimore to wealthy socialite parents, Marguerite Harrison (1879–1967) was raised to become a socialite herself. Much of her upbringing was spent traveling Europe with her parents, Bernard Baker, a shipping magnate, and Elizabeth Baker. The opportunity to travel extensively abroad had lasting benefits for her future and unexpected career.

She attended St. Timothy’s School in Catonsville, Maryland, and then later, for a short time, Radcliffe College. Her true education, however, came through experience. During her time overseas, she learned to speak French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Through her experiences, she developed a love of history, and, through her prim and proper upbringing, she learned the art of social critique. Armed with her natural beauty and charm, she utilized these lessons, not only for herself, but also for other women of the age and for her country’s national security.

Bernard N. Baker, circa 1909, shipping magnate from Baltimore, Md., father of Marguerite Harrison. Public Domain

Before all that, though, she fell in love. She met Thomas Harrison, the son of an elite Baltimore family and one of the city’s most eligible bachelors. Marguerite’s mother, however, was utterly against the arrangement, even going so far as to remove her to Europe for a while, in hopes of clearing the young girl’s head of the idea. Nonetheless, as she recalled later, she had already “chosen [her] victim.” She informed her father that they could either accept her decision to marry Harrison, or they would elope. Her parents relented, and, in June of 1901, she and Thomas enjoyed “the most elaborate wedding that has taken place in Baltimore for many years.”

The couple sailed the globe for their honeymoon, and Marguerite became pregnant shortly after the wedding. The couple had a son, Thomas Harrison II, in March of 1902. She traded the socialite lifestyle to become a homemaker and a doting wife and mother. She became involved in charity organizations, and even founded her own to help children who were hospitalized for long periods of time continue their education. She called it the Children’s Hospital School.

War and Tragedy

Albert Ritchie, former governor of Maryland, and brother-in-law of Marguerite Harrison. Public Domain

In the summer of 1914, Europe became embroiled in war, and although the conflict held Marguerite’s attention, she could do very little about it. In 1915, that changed. Her husband Thomas died, apparently of a brain tumor, leaving her alone to raise their son. Her independent spirit led her to the doors of the Baltimore Sun, where she took a job as assistant society editor. Her brother-in-law Albert Ritchie, who was Maryland’s attorney general and later became its governor, provided the introduction to the paper. In 1917, after America entered the war, she began writing articles about women’s roles in the war effort.

After about three years with the paper, and with America officially fighting in the war, Harrison wrote to Marlborough Churchill, head of the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Division (MID), and offered her services. She wanted to be a spy. “Employment as a special foreign agent is the only work that would justify me in giving up the work I am doing now,” she wrote, “and I believe my qualifications and training would enable me to be of real service.”

With her language skills, knowledge of Europe, and already writing for a prominent newspaper, she seemed primed for espionage. Churchill agreed and hired her, making her America’s first female foreign intelligence agent. Her reports were dispersed to the appropriate departments within the U.S. Army and the U.S. State Department.

A Spy’s Life

Her first assignment was Berlin, where, under the guise of a war correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, she became the first American woman to enter Germany since the start of the war. She issued reports on the country’s political and economic situation. The reports were provided to the U.S. delegation in preparation for the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. She then ventured to Poland to report on that country’s conditions. After the peace conference during the summer of 1919, MID issued her a new assignment: Moscow.

She was to report on Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. She was initially denied entry into the country, but in February of 1920, she simply walked across the Polish-Russian border. It was a gutsy decision, but Harrison was a woman of sheer confidence. When a Red Army officer met her, she “explained to him in [her] very best Russian that [she] had come from America to learn the truth about the Soviet government and that [she] wished to go on to Moscow.”

She recalled that moment in her book “Marooned in Moscow: The Story of an American Woman Imprisoned in Russia.” She finally reached Moscow with Associated Press credentials, learned Russian (at least passably), and interviewed numerous high-ranking people, including the head of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky. But soon, she was outed as a spy. Harrison was arrested and interrogated.

Arrest, Release, and Arrest

The Lubyanka in 1961. It served as an active prison starting in 1920. Retired electrician/CC BY-SA 3.0

She confessed to being a spy for the U.S government, and then agreed to become a double agent for Russia. However, the Russians soon realized they had been double-crossed by their double agent, who had become a triple agent, and was passing the names of American prisoners in Russia to her MID handlers.

She was arrested again and spent 10 months in Lubyanka before being released. Her release was in exchange for American aid to Russia, an agreement apparently brokered by Sen. Joseph France of Maryland and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who was also the chairman of the American Relief Committee.

She did not remain in America for long. She soon made her way to the Far East to visit places like China, Korea, and Japan. Russia, however, haunted her; she was arrested while trying to enter Siberia. Luckily, she made her escape with an officer from the American Relief Administration. Having already written two books, “Marooned in Moscow,” and “Unfinished Tales From a Russian Prison,” she began her third work, “Red Bear or Yellow Dragon.”

Travels and a Women’s Society

Marguerite Harrison wrote books on her travels, the first one being "Marooned in Moscow," published in 1921.

Throughout her years as a foreign intelligence agent for the United States, she was one of the most reliable. Her skills, which she had established as a young girl, and her charismatic attitude made her a perfect spy. Her success in espionage seemed to stem from her mantra: “Be intellectual if you must, but learn to be charming. It will take you much farther.”

This mantra was figurative, but also literal. Her charm and her love of adventure took her to the farthest reaches of the Earth. After returning to America from an extensive trek through the former Ottoman states of modern-day Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, where she helped film the migration of the Bakhtiari people, she witnessed the men who were part of the filming be invited to the prominent Explorers Club. Since she was a woman and the Explorers Club at the time was male-only, she was not invited.

She and three other like-minded and equally travel-experienced women—Blair Niles, Gertrude Mathews Shelby, and Gertrude Emerson Sen—gathered at Shelby’s apartment to vent their frustrations. In addition to venting, the four founded the Society of Women Geographers in 1925. The society, which now has approximately 500 members across the globe in the United States and 27 other countries, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Over the past century, the society has boasted membership of some of the great explorers of the age, including Amelia Earhart, Margaret Mead, and Mary Douglas Leakey.

Harrison married Arthur Blake, a former British actor in 1926. In 1928, she wrote “Asia Reborn,” which was an effort to provide “a succinct account of the post-war history of Asiatic countries, singly and in relation to the racial groups to which they belong…[and] outline social economic and psychological conditions and Asia’s reactions to world movements in the light of historical happenings.” The work, which was well-received, was “based largely on [her] own observations in various Asiatic countries, where [she had] spent much time since 1919.”

In 1935, she followed with an autobiography entitled, “There’s Always Tomorrow: The Story of a Checkered Life.” Harrison was a woman of immense talent, but it was her love of adventure and her willingness to face countless dangers for which she is most remembered. Since her death in 1967, her feats were practically forgotten. It is only the past five years that she has witnessed a resurgence with the recent biographies, “The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison” by Elizabeth Atwood and “Flirting with Danger” by Janet Wallach.

What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [email protected]