Helen Johns Kirtland (1890 – October 3, 1979) was an American

photojournalist Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. It usually only refers to still images, but can also refer to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such ...

and war correspondent who competed with her male counterparts in her coverage of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Early life

The daughter of Henry Ward Johns of the Johns Manville Corporation and his wife Emily Warner. After her father died in 1898, her mother moved to Lawrence Park, an artists' colony in

Bronxville, New York Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, a ...

. Kirtland grew up in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

. In 1904, she attended a girls' school in Germany. While young, she also visited Switzerland and France. In 1917, she married Lucian Swift Kirtland, of Poland, Ohio, a newspaper reporter."Helen Johns Kirtland (1890–1979): Biographical Essay"
Library of Congress. Retrieved March 26, 2013.

Career

During

, Kirtland was first based in France, working for the YMCA, before she joined her husband as a correspondent for ''

Leslie's Illustrated Weekly ''Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper'', later renamed ''Leslie's Weekly'', was an American illustrated literary and news magazine founded in 1855 and published until 1922. It was one of several magazines started by publisher and illustrator Frank ...

''. As an acknowledged journalist, she competed with her male counterparts, seeking out action. One of her stories covers battles near the

Piave River The Piave ( la, Plavis, German: ''Ploden'') is a river in northern Italy. It begins in the Alps and flows southeast for into the Adriatic Sea near the city of Venice. One of its tributaries is the Boite. In 1809 it was the scene of a battle du ...

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 Henriette Poincaré (born Henriette Adeline Benucci, lived 1858–1943) was the wife of French statesman Raymond Poincaré. She was born in Passy, France. Her parents were a coachman of Italian origin, Raphael Benucci, and Louise Mossbauer, a young ...

, 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 ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', ''American Legion Weekly'', and the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'', his stories illustrated with photographs taken by Helen but seldom attributed to her. Following her husband's death in 1965, Helen Kirtland died at their home in

Bronxville Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, ...

on October 3, 1979.

References

External links

Examples of Kirtland's photographs
from The Library of Congress {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirtland, Helen Johns 1890 births 1979 deaths American photojournalists American women war correspondents American war correspondents American women in World War I People from Yonkers, New York 20th-century American photographers 20th-century American women photographers American women photojournalists