Sadie Kneller Miller (October 7, 1867 – November 21, 1920)[1] was aBaltimore journalist, known for being one of the earliest femalebaseball reporters, as well as the only female correspondent covering some international events.[2]
Miller was born inWestminster, Maryland. She graduated fromWestern Maryland College in 1885 and worked as a journalist for theWestminster Democratic Advocate. She then moved to Baltimore with her parents and started working for theBaltimore Telegram. At theTelegram she began covering theBaltimore Orioles in 1894 by disguising herself as a man; only after her female identity was found out was she known as the “only woman baseball reporter in the country”. She moved on to photography, submitting photos ofSpanish–American War activities from theUnited States Naval Academy in Annapolis toLeslie’s Illustrated Weekly, securing her a position there. At Leslie’s, Miller covered stories such as theBaltimore Fire of 1904, the presidential inauguration ofHoward Taft, andDemocratic party conventions. She also photographed portraits ofSusan B. Anthony andTeddy Roosevelt.[3]
Miller was a professional journalist, but most people did not know she was a woman. She wrote with the byline "SKM", which hid her female identity. She may have been the first woman to cover major league baseball and is one of the few to combine photography with journalism. While on national tour with the Orioles in 1897, her gender was "discovered".[4]
She became the world's first femalewar correspondent while covering the fighting in Morocco between Spanish forces and the Moors in 1909.[5]
While working on an assignment in Germany, she was arrested as a spy. She also wrote on theYukon Gold Rush and did interviews from several countries including Cuba,Czarist Russia, and Turkey. Her most reprinted interview was withPancho Villa, a Mexican Revolutionary general in 1916 at his guerrilla base.[3]
A stroke in 1918 forced Miller to retire fromLeslie's Illustrated Weekly, ending her career as a journalist. She died two years later.[6] Her name was added to theMaryland Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.[7]
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