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WHO WON WWII? THESE WOMEN SPIES HAVE A STRONG CLAIM.

Monday, March 4, 2024

In today’s newsletter, we surface long-buried heroes of women’s history, from the feared Messalina to the Russian empress who outdid Putin, from hidden figures of space exploration to critical WWII spies to the woman who broke secret Nazi codes.

Noor Inayat Khan, her hair is parted and she looks straight into the camera for a portrait that's tightly cropped around her face

PHOTOGRAPH BY IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

Move over MacArthur and Patton, Turing and Oppenheimer.

Pay attention to Josephine Baker and Josefina Guerrero, to Agnes Meyer Driscoll and Noor Inayat Khan (shown above). They each played key roles in winning World War II—without Oscar-nominated portrayals to show for them.

Today’s newsletter looks at their roles—and those of other women pioneers who have gotten short shrift by history. Let’s start with the spies.

Related: History’s greatest women warriors

GAINING SECRETS

PIONEERS WE’RE FOLLOWING

Artworks, such as the Eugene Brunet 1884 sculpture, often emphasize Messalina’s notoriety as a sensuous woman with an unbridled sexual appetite.

JEAN-MANUEL SALINGUE/RMN-GRAND PALAIS

The most dangerous woman in Rome (depicted above)

Overlooked no more: The next women commemorated on U.S. quarters (Free article)

Codebreaker Elizebeth Friedman smashed Nazi spy rings (Free article)

Fearsome, too: The wife of Genghis Khan took no prisoners

Unparalleled: The golden legacy of Queen Elizabeth I

The images that documented the hidden figures of America’s space race (Free article)

Sally Ride’s pioneering life: In pictures (Free article)

This book vanished when Anne Boleyn was executed. Now it reveals her secrets.

AN EYE FOR THE ROAD

A 1980s family photo: Anastasia Taylor-Lind heads toward her mother, Eleonore Lind, who’s taking the photograph as her father, Bethlehem Taylor, looks on. Horses Star and Blue wait to pull the wagon that was Taylor-Lind’s home.

PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY ANASTASIA TAYLOR-LIND

Her big world: Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Anastasia Taylor-Lind (pictured above, as a child) began her life on the road, caravanning through southern England with her parents. Her lust grew for a bigger world—and she told her folks she would be a war photographer. “My mom freaked out—she didn’t want me working in dangerous places—but my dad was very supportive,” she tells us. Here’s what she did.

HER WORLD IN PICTURES

Related: Taken by women—Nat Geo’s most memorable images
Also: Seeing worlds hidden to men

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

Catherine II of Russia makes a grand entrance before her courtiers in a colorful lithograph from 1909

PHOTOGRAPH FROM ALBUM/ FINE ART IMAGES

Why was she great? Expectations weren’t high for Catherine the Great when she took the Russian crown (pictured above, a colorful lithograph of her grand entrance among her courtiers). Yet, the native German-speaking empress did some things the current Moscow ruler hasn’t. Which things did she do?

A. Gained control of Ukraine
B. Sharply raised literacy
C. Sharply raised life expectancy
D. B and C
E. All of the above

HERE’S THE ANSWER

Today’s soundtrack: Most Girls, Hailee Steinfeld

Today’s newsletter was curated and edited by Jen Tse, Nancy San Martín, Nishita Naga, and David Beard. Let us know if you have any suggestions for us.

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