International Spy Museum Blog

March is Women’s History Month! SPY pays homage to female spies whose achievements, courage and strength outshine even James Bond!

Virginia Hall
America’s “Incredible Limping Lady”

Of the many women who served in the OSS, field agent Virginia Hall was one of the most distinguished. Undaunted by her artificial leg, she created a spy network and helped organize and arm French commandos behind enemy lines. Posing as a dairy farmer, she scouted potential drop zones while herding cows. Later, she tapped out Morse code messages over wireless radio to officials in London.

Virginia Hall was the only female civilian in World War II to receive the coveted Distinguished Service Cross.

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHT – Distinguished Service Cross

Julia Child
Years before she learned to cook, Julia Child worked for the OSS during World War II. Julia had wanted to join military services, but was denied because of her height – a statuesque 6 ft.2. However, she was not too tall to join the OSS. While she started out as a secretary but soon enough she was given more responsibility within the agent. Her superiors praised her drive and cheerfulness, saying she inspired other workers. She helped develop a shark repellent, so sharks would no longer accidentally trigger bombs. Ever modest Child said, “I was not a spy, only a lowly file clerk.” She received an Emblem of Meritorious Civilian for her work.

Mata Hari
Mata Hari embodied all the romance of espionage. During World War I,  this exotic dancer turned spy was involved with German intelligence, using her female wiles to worm secrets out of high ranking Allied military officers.

While the details of her brief espionage career remain murky, in 1917 French counter-intelligence intercepted an enemy telegram implicating her as a German spy. The French arrested, court-martialed, and executed her by firing squad in 1917.

Letter written by Mata Hari
France, 1908 International Spy Museum

Sarah Emma Edmonds
Sarah Emma Edmonds was probably the closest thing the Union Army had to a master of disguise during the American Civil War. In fact, Edmonds entered the Civil War in disguise. She enlisted in the 2nd Michigan Infantry dressed as a man, calling herself Franklin Flint Thompson. Working as a Union spy, she frequently traveled into the Confederacy in disguise — sometimes as a black man or woman — seeking out information and stealing papers from Confederate officers. However, when she contracted malaria, she deserted the army, fearing she would be found out as a woman. She ended up serving out the rest of the war as a nurse once again.

Marlene Dietrich
German born Marlene Dietrich became a U.S. citizen after defying Hitler’s orders to return to her native Germany. The sultry performer risked her own safety to entertain American troops at the front lines during World War II. In 1944, the OSS tapped Dietrich to record songs for broadcast to German troops. Her nostalgic reading of German lyrics was intended to lower morale and promote defection. After the war, she received the Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.

Elizabeth P. McIntosh
Elizabeth P. McIntosh “Betty” was a war correspondent and independent journalist who joined the OSS shortly after Pearl Harbor. McIntosh was one of the few women assigned to Morale Operations, where she helped produce false news reports, postcards, documents, and radio messages designed to spread disinformation. She also detected a copy of the Imperial Order discussing terms of surrender which was then disseminated to Japanese troops, as were intercepted orders of other sorts.

Mary Bowser
Mary Elizabeth Bowser (born c. 1840) was a freed slave who worked in connection with Elizabeth Van Lew & Ulysses S. Grant as a spy. She operated as a servant in the home of Confederate President, Jefferson Davis where she gathered important military information to pass on to the Grant administration.

To avoid suspicion, she pretended she was crazy and went by the nickname, “Crazy Bet.” Little did anyone know that Bowser had a photographic memory – she gathered intel reading military documents left out on desks or tables and eavesdropping on conversations. She then wrote the information in cipher code and passed it on through the Union lines to Grant and other officers.

Chevalier d’Éon
The Chevalier d’Éon is a fascinating figure, even beyond her career as a spy. Born Charles-Geneviève-Louis-Auguste-André-Timothée d’Éon de Beaumont, d’Éon was likely assigned male at birth and lived publicly as a man for the first 49 years of her life. She worked for King Louis XV’s Secret du Roi, and, as part of a plot against the Habsburg monarchy, was sent to Russia to meet with Empress Elizabeth. Because only women and children were able to cross into Russia at that time, d’Éon had to dress as a woman, calling herself Lea de Beaumont and serving as Empress Elizabeth’s maid of honour.

While living in exile in London, d’Éon was subject to rumors about her true gender, and after Louis XV’s death, she returned to France and demanded to be recognized as a woman. The court of King Louis XVI agreed to recognize her as a woman, on the condition that she dress as a woman, a condition that included funds for a whole new wardrobe. D’Éon lived out her life as Mademoiselle La chevalière d’Éon de Beaumont.

Jonna Mendez  – CIA Chief of Disguise
Jonna Hiestand Mendez is well known as the other half to the CIA’s leading disguise specialist Tony Mendez (ARGO).  Tony and Jonna served over fifty years combined as Chiefs of Disguise in the Office of Technical Service, the technical arm of the CIA’s operations directorate, creating false identities for America’s undercover agents. Jonna started her career as an intelligence officer and lived undercover for 27 years in such places as Germany, Thailand, and India, specializing in clandestine photography. Her duties included instructing the CIA’s most highly placed foreign assets in the use of spy cameras and the processing of intelligence gathered by them. Her impressive record afforded her the opportunity to work in Southeast Asia as a generalist in Disguise, Identity Transformation and Clandestine Imaging. In 1988, she was promoted first to Deputy Chief of Disguise and then, Chief of Disguise. She retired from the government in 1993, earning the CIA’s Intelligence Commendation Medal.

Mendez Diguises

Melissa Mahle
Melissa Boyle Mahle, a sixteen-year covert operative for the CIA in the Middle East, was the Agency’s top-ranked female Arabist before she left in 2002. As a field operative for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), she worked against many of the key challenges to US national security, including running operations against al-Qaeda terrorists and illicit networks selling weapons of mass destruction. She received a Presidential Letter of Appreciation for her work on the Middle East Peace Process and numerous exceptional performance awards from the CIA for her recruitment of agents and collection of intelligence. Ms. Mahle is the author of the book Denial and Deception: An Insider’s View of the CIA from Iran-Contra to 9/11.

Josephine Baker
Singer-dancer Josephine Baker moved to France to escape racism in America and became the toast of Paris. In gratitude, she became a World War II spy for her adopted country – the French Resistance. No one suspected that her sheet music was covered with messages written in invisible ink or that her dress contained hidden photographs. Her fame enabled her to attend parties with high-ranking Japanese and Italian officials and report back what she heard. For her counterintelligence work, Baker was awarded the Medal of Resistance.

COLLECTION HIGHLIGHT – Voluptuosa Sheet Music by Josephine Baker and Jose Padilla, (c. 1930s)

Princess Noor-un-nisa Inayat Khan
An author of children’s books might seem an unlikely candidate for being a spy, but Princess Noor was just that. The great niece of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy and daughter of Indian royalty, Princess Noor joined the SOE as “Nora Baker” in London and trained to operate a wireless radio transmitter. She was sent to occupied France using the code name Madeline. She carried her transmitter from safe house to safe house with the Gestapo trailing her while maintaining communications for her Resistance unit. Eventually she captured and executed as a spy, in 1944. She was awarded the George Cross, the Croix de Guerre and the MBE for her valor.

On July 19, 2002 – the International Spy Museum opened its doors – introducing you to the shadowy world of espionage! Over 9 million visitors and 14 years later, we thank YOU for spying on us!

Explore milestones from the International Spy Museum’s past years!

In honor of Black History month, SPY profiles extraordinary clandestine African American men and women throughout history. These unsung heroes have been active agents in the defense of American freedom on the frontlines and behind the scenes of every American military conflict. While the nature of their efforts required a cloak of secrecy, their stories are numbered and varied. What is shared is their collective courage, loyalty, and opposition to tyranny.

Mary Elizabeth Bowser (1839 – ?), was part of a Union spy ring known as “the Richmond underground”, directed by Elizabeth Van Lew, whose family was well respected and well connected socially in Richmond. Bowser had been a slave of the Van Lew family, but Van Lew freed her and sent her North to be educated. When Van Lew decided to establish a spy ring in Richmond shortly before the fighting began, she asked Bowser to return and work with her for the Union. Van Lew obtained a position for Bowser as a servant in the Confederate “White House” through the recommendation of a friend who provided supplies to that household. Bowser pretended to be uneducated but hardworking and, after working part-time at several functions, was hired as a regular employee. Her access provided her with opportunities to overhear valuable information. As a Black woman – and a servant at that – she was ignored by the President’s guests. Bowser had a photographic memory and could report every word of the documents she saw at the “White House”. In recognition of her intelligence contributions, Bowser was inducted into the US Army Intelligence Hall of Fame at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, on June 30, 1995.

James Armistead Lafayette (c. 1748-1830)

Born enslaved in Virginia during the time of King George’s War, with permission of his holder, James Armistead joined the Continental Army in the battle of the American Revolutionary War under the Marquis de Lafayette—in whose honor he would later adopt this surname. Armistead infiltrated the camps of the notorious British Brigadier General Benedict Arnold and Lord Cornwallis posing as a fugitive slave. Serving the British troops in this role, he would record their tactics and report back to operatives fighting on the side of America. His communications were essential in the Battle of Yorktown and the overthrow of British forces. Where many enslaved gained freedom as a condition of military service, Lafayette remained bonded until he petitioned the Virginia Assembly for his freedom with a testimonial of his service from the Marquis de Lafayette that stated, “This is to certify that the bearer by the name of James has done essential services to me while I had the honour to command in this state. His intelligences from the enemy’s camp were industriously collected and faithfully delivered. He perfectly acquitted himself with some important commissions I gave him and appears to me entitled to every reward his situation can admit of.”

Harriet Tubman (c. 1822-1913)

Respectfully known as the ‘Moses of her people’ for ushering numerous enslaved persons to freedom, Harriet Tubman is most often associated with her epic works as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. The same stealthy mobility and furtive operations that facilitated repeated and undetected journeys across military fronts were enlisted by the Union Army to disable, upset, and aid the fall of travel and supply utilized by the Confederate States Army. Traveling as far south as Florida, she served the Union Army as a nurse, by scouting enemy posts, and as a spy. She was a daring leader behind combat lines and on the battlefield. In 1863, after a successful maraud leading Colonel James Montgomery’s Union troops, General Rufus Saxton reported to Secretary of War Staton, “This is the only military command in American history wherein a woman, black or white, led the raid and under whose inspiration it was originated and conducted.” While aiding Union efforts, she helped many seeking freedom to realize their goal by delivering them to safe harbors. Whether on the frontlines or shepherding people out of bondage, Ms. Tubman fought in the war for freedom on two sides—for her people and her country.

Robert Smalls (1839 – 1915)

In May 1862, the second bloody year of the American Civil War, a 22-year-old slave named Robert Smalls accomplished an unthinkable feat of cunning, deception, and bravery: he stole a ship. Smalls along with 16 people on board, including his wife, brother, and their children commandeered the ship on which he worked (The Planter) past the Confederate-occupied Fort Sumter, and surrendered it to the blockading Union navy. He also delivered important information about Confederate dispositions in and around Charleston Harbor. Smalls supplied Admiral Samuel F. Du Pont with the necessary intelligence to seize Stono Inlet, occupying it with several gun-boats and securing an important base for military operations. He would go on to serve as a pilot for both the navy and the army during the remainder of the war. After the war, he was elected to the US House of Representatives multiple times.

John Scobell (1861)

John Scobell was a freed slave who was recruited by Union intelligence chief Allan Pinkerton to spy behind Confederate lines. Scobell was intelligent and a good actor. He took on several identities, including food vendor, cook and laborer. Scobell often worked with two of Pinkerton’s best agents—Timothy Webster and Carrie Lawton—posing as a servant.

Scobell provided valuable information about Confederate order of battle, status of supplies and troop morale. He also sought out leaders in the black community to collect information about local conditions, fortifications, and troop dispositions.
To learn more about the “black dispatches,” read the CIA’s publication Black Dispatches: Black American Contributions to Union Intelligence During the Civil War.

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

An icon of the Jazz Age—singer, dancer, and actress Josephine Baker is internationally recognized as an entertainer. She was also an agent of the French Resistance during World War II. Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis Missouri, the first African American woman to star in a major motion picture would catapult herself to the intercontinental stage with audiences easily engaged in English and French. Refusing consent of segregated engagements at home, it was her appreciation of France’s acceptance that led to her work as an ‘honorable correspondent’ in the war against Germany. Capitalizing on her celebrity status, Ms. Baker mingled with military personnel, politicians, and bureaucrats at parties and during performances. She re-counted pertinent intelligence to aid the French Resistance. Baker also smuggled important information out of France. No one suspected that her sheet music was covered with messages written in invisible ink or that her dress contained hidden photographs. She was awarded the Croix de guerre and received a Chavalier of the Legion d’honneur, two distinguished French military commendations.

*COLLECTION FEATURE — See Josephine Baker’s sheet music in the Spy Museum collection.

Captain Gail Harris (1949 –   )

At the time of her retirement in 2001, US Navy Captain Gail Harris was the highest-ranking African American woman in the United States Navy. Hailing from the ghettoes of Newark, New Jersey, Captain Harris’ destiny to serve in the US Navy was cemented at the age of 5, when she saw a World War II-themed movie that featured a scene with Navy pilots being briefed before the climactic Battle of Midway. Then, she decided that was what she’d do when she grew up.  Unaware of the existence of a federal law which prohibited women from going into combat—which would not be changed until 1994—she forged ahead with her dream. In 1973, she became the first woman in US Naval history to serve as an Intelligence Officer in an operational Navy aviation squadron. Her career included hands-on leadership during every major conflict from the Cold War, to El Salvador, to Desert Storm, to Kosovo, and at the forefront of one of the Department of Defense’s newest challenges, Cyber Warfare. For every job assignment taken, Captain Harris was the first woman or first African American for that post, and was frequently hand-selected for challenging jobs based on her outstanding performance. Her career highlights include being pulled from her Hawaiian assignment 18 months early in 1988, and sent to South Korea to head up the intelligence support for the Games of the XXIV Olympiad (1988 Summer Olympics). This task involved extensive coordination with the United States and South Korean military, intelligence and civil agencies.  She was also hand-selected by the Director of Naval Intelligence and Commander of US Naval Forces Central Command to fill an interim position as Acting Naval Attaché in Egypt, thereby becoming the first female to serve as a military attaché in a Middle Eastern country.

Malcom W. Nance (1961-   ) 

Retired US Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer Malcolm Wrightson Nance holds the distinction of being one of a select few African-American intelligence operatives who engaged in the secret war against Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization years before the September 11 terrorist attacks. Born in Philadelphia, PA, Mr. Nance hails from a family boasting over 100 years of military service: fighting in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the War on Terrorism. In 1981, he entered Naval Intelligence learning to speak Arabic, break enemy codes, interrogate prisoners and track international terrorists across the globe.

For more than twenty years, Mr. Nance conducted numerous secret covert and clandestine intelligence missions in many Middle Eastern, African and South Asian countries as well as participating in combat missions in Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Syria. He often worked from intelligence collection platforms that included the Battleship USS Missouri, aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, destroyers, high speed special boats, helicopters and drones. However, many more missions involved working in remote, austere environments where his knowledge of foreign languages and his ability to blend in to collect information proved vital to protecting the lives of American citizens.

A fierce advocate of holding the moral high ground in intelligence activities he was called to testify before Congress against the use of torture on captured enemy prisoners. His powerful testimony would be quoted by President Obama who proclaimed “Waterboarding is torture … period,” and then halted the use of unethical and ineffective interrogation methods.  Mr. Nance is the author of several books on al-Qaeda and his textbooks on terrorism are used by the FBI, CIA and global intelligence agencies and a regular speaker at the International Spy Museum. He attributes his success in intelligence to an early love of reading, geography, foreign languages and studying the history of other African American spies.

Want to learn more about African Americans in espionage? Don’t miss SPY’s upcoming programs:

Anonymous Heroes: African American Spies of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War on Wednesday, February 10; 6:30PM. *Click here for tickets.

Intelligence as a Career Path: A Black History Month After-School Program with Malcolm Nance on Tuesday, February 23, 4:30-5:30PM. This event is free and open to the middle and high school students only. In partnership with the Greater Washington Urban League. 

The first Bond film, Dr. No hit theaters on Oct. 5, 1962. Five decades and 24 films later, the super spy Agent 007 has been immortalized as an iconic screen hero. In anticipation of SPECTRE, latest installment in the Bond franchise, SPY has compiled 10 interesting, fun tidbits for your reading pleasure.

1. JAMES BOND WAS NAMED AFTER A BIRD-WATCHER
Meet the real Bond. Dr. James Bond, ornithologist, at your service! Ian Fleming named the character ‘James Bond’ after American ornithologist Dr. James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert. During an interview, Fleming remarked that he wanted ‘the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name’ he could find and happened to have Dr. Bond’s book Birds of the West Indies on hand.

2. 8 ACTORS HAVE PLAYED JAMES BOND
The first man to ever embody 007 was American actor Barry Nelson, who played card shark ‘Jimmy Bond’ in Casino Royale (1954). In total, eight actors have played Bond in 25 films! Barry Nelson, David Niven (Casino Royale, 1967), Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and of course Daniel Craig!
Daniel Craig is the only Blond Bond!

Check out this video of Barry Nelson in action as Jimmy Bond:

3. JAWS’ METAL TEETH MADE HIM GAG
The late Richard Kiel, who played Jaws, could only keep his metal teeth in his mouth for about 30 seconds at a time [SEE INTERVIEW], and the chain that he bit through at the Pyramids in The Spy Who Loved Me was made of licorice. You can see JAWS’ steel teeth on display in the Spy Museum’s Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond exhibit.

4. SEAN CONNERY’S HAIR TALE
Sean Connery played 007 in exactly 7 movies. And in each and every appearance as Bond, Connery wore a hairpiece.

5. Sex BOND
From Dr. No to Skyfall, James Bond has slept with 53 women if you don’t count him sleeping with Eve during the shaving scene of Skyfall – that’s an average of 2.3 women per film! According to research, Roger Moore was the most promiscuous of Bonds. He bedded 19 women over 7 movies. Sean Connery’s time as 007 saw him net 15 beauties over 6 films, while Pierce Brosnan came in as the third randiest Bond, over his four films he slept with nine women.

6. Shaken, Not Stirred
It seems Bond had it right. According to a study by the University of Western Ontario, shaking a martini releases more antioxidants than stirring. At further testing, shaken martinis had a tendency to remove hydrogen peroxide, which is a good indicator of the ability of a drink or a substance to act as an antioxidant.

In the film, Quantum Of Solace, 007 shares the recipe for a proper Dry Martini: “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large slice of lemon-peel. Got it?”

7. DOUBLE OO AGENTS
We all know Bond’s rank is 007, but what of the other 00-agents at MI-6? A look back through film history shows: 002 is killed by The Man With The Golden Gun, 003 dies in the opening scenes of A View To A Kill, 004 dies in The Living Daylights and 006 was Sean Bean’s villain in GoldenEye – while others, such as the mythical 001 and 005, remain a mystery. You can’t forget poor old 009 – he was killed while dressed as a clown in Octopussy. 008 is Bond’s replacement in the unfortunate event of his death.

8. THE WALTHER PPK: BOND’S GUN
James Bond’s weapon of choice, the Walther PPK, is the same model of gun that Adolph Hitler used to commit suicide on April 30, 1945.

9. DANIEL CRAIG GETS ASTON MARTINS FOR LIFE
According to autorevolution.com, Aston Martin offered Daniel Craig any Aston Martin car, any time, for the rest of his life. Essentially, Craig can walk into any Aston Martin dealership and say, ‘One please’ and drive off.

For the new Bond film, SPECTRE, Aston Martin is once again providing the wheels for Britain’s best secret agent, and this time it’s in the shape of the DB10. Feast your eyes!

10. BOND RULES THE BOX OFFICE
According to IMDB usage, the Top 5 Bond films are:

1. Casino Royale
2. Goldfinger
3. Skyfall
4. From Russia with Love
5. Dr. No

Spectre, the 24th installment in the 007 franchise, hits U.S. theaters on November 6, 2015. COMING SOON – See exclusive items from the new film, including villain Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz)’s ring, costumes, props and more in our 007 exhibit!