Video: Marguerite Garrison: the courageous woman who traded home life for travel and espionage
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The beginning of the 20th century can be called a turning point in many ways. The age-old foundations were breaking, science was developing rapidly, and travelers were exploring the most remote corners of the earth. Despite all the progressiveness of that time, women were still mostly assigned the role of housewives. But not everyone put up with the fate allotted to them. So, the American Marguerite Garrison managed to circumnavigate almost the entire globe, become a spy and found the Women's Geographical Society.
In 1918 Marguerite Harrison, who previously wrote for the newspaper, offered her services to the US Army's Department of Defense Intelligence. A 39-year-old woman who has raised her son alone and has been to Europe more than once, decided to become a spy. She reported about herself:
In November 1918, despite the ceasefire, she was sent to Europe with the task of "reporting on political and economic matters of interest to the United States delegation at the forthcoming peace conference." Unlike ordinary spies, Marguerite's mission did not include, in fact, military espionage. She traveled for several years posing as an Associated Press journalist.
While in Russia, torn apart by the civil war, she correctly assessed the economic weakness of the Bolsheviks and helped American political prisoners. On suspicion of espionage, Marguerite Garrison was arrested and held for ten months at the Lubyanka, where she contracted tuberculosis. After being released, she continued her mission. In 1923 she was arrested again, already in China, and taken to Moscow. And again, with the participation of American diplomats, she was released.
But Marguerite Garrison could no longer remain a housewife. In August 1923, she sailed from New York to Constantinople. Here the woman joined a small expedition to study the migration of the nomads of the Bakhtiar tribe. Its path ran through the fragments of the Ottoman Empire: through Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
When Marguerite Garrison returned to New York, the newspaper did not even want to consider the ethnographic notes of the "lady researcher". "The journalists only wanted to know if I fell in love with the sheikh!" said Garrison. She was also saddened by the refusal from The Explorers Club, New York, of which she wanted to become a member. 1920s were the era of housewives who, if they participated in any travel and research, could neither receive proper recognition nor publish.
In 1925, Garrison and like-minded people founded the Society of Woman Geographers. It brought together the most famous female explorers, including the climber Annie Smith Peck, aviator Amelia Earhart, historian Mary Ritter Bird, anthropologist Margaret Mead, photographer Margaret Burke-White, writer Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson.
The most famous spy in history is considered Mato Hari, who was also a dancer and courtesan.
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