Name Helen Kirtland | Died 1979 | |
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Helen Johns Kirtland (1890–1979) was an American photojournalist and war correspondent who competed with her male counterparts in her coverage of World War I.
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Early life
The daughter of Henry Ward Johns of the Johns Manville Corporation, Kirtland grew up in Yonkers. In 1904, she attended a girls school in Germany. While young, she also visited Switzerland and France. In 1917, she married Lucian Swift Kirtland, a Polish-born newspaper reporter.
Career
During World War I, Kirtland was based in France as a correspondent for Leslie's Illustrated Weekly. As an acknowledged journalist, she competed with her male counterparts, seeking out action. One of her stories covers battles near the Piave River in northern Italy with pictures of the Austrian trenches captured by the Italians.
In 1919, Leslie’s Photographic Review of the Great War included several pages of her war photographs. During the war, she had also written an illustrated article, "A Tribute to Women War Workers", explaining how women had helped the Allies. It included a rare portrait of Henriette Poincaré, the president's wife.
In the 1920s, Kirtland and her husband worked together, covering stories in Europe and Asia. Lucian contributed to journals including Harper’s Monthly, American Legion Weekly, and the New York Herald Tribune, his stories illustrated with photographs taken by Helen but seldom attributed to her.
Following her husband's death in 1965, Helen Kirkland died at their home in Bronxville on 3 October 1979.