Peggy Hull

Peggy Hull (December 30, 1889 – June 19, 1967) was born in Bennington, Kansas. In 1918, she became America’s first female war correspondent, officially legitimized by the United States government. Peggy Hull followed American soldiers around the world and was the first woman covering from battlefronts. The reason for the popularity of her articles was her unique perspective. She presented personal stories of the lives of the soldiers in an intimate way.

At the age of 16 Peggy Hull made her first journalistic experiences, during her work for a local newspaper in Kansas.

Coverage of World War I
At the beginning of the World War I Peggy Hull volunteered to report the war from a western point of view. First the War Department did not allow her, but in 1917 - thanks to her good network - she was able to spend a month and a half at an artillery training camp in France.

A lot of jealous male reporters complained to the authorities because Peggy Hull was not an official war correspondent and that was the reason why she had to return to the United States. Till that time the War Department in Washington did not allow woman to report from battlefields, but this changed just a few weeks before the World War I ends. Finally Peggy Hull was given the permission for war coverage. In 1918 Hull became America’s first officially legitimized female war correspondent. Now it was possible for her to follow several military actions: She visited Siberia and reported about the role of American troops in the Civil War, which followed the Russian Revolution. After Russia, Peggy Hull moved to China and reported in Shanghai on the invasion by Japan.

Coverage of World War II
At the beginning of World War II Peggy Hull already was a senior correspondent compared to the rising number of younger reporting women. Her time as an adventurous correspondent had taken over. She lost her style of an eye-witness reporter, what she had been famous for during the World War I. In World War II Peggy Hull mainly covered the Pacific War. Therefore she was working in military bases and hospitals in Hawaii until January 1945, writing stories about soldiers in a relaxed, sensitive and heart breaking way. Although Peggy Hull wrote about the problems that women faced while trying to report the war, her human interest stories of the war had a more lasting impact on her readers.