Among hundreds of thousands of captions, just a handful proclaim Sgt. Irene Marquardt’s position as the “only Wac photographer” in the European Theater of Operations. A colleague had asked if we knew how many women photographers are represented in the holdings of the Still Picture Branch. Searching by photographer can get complicated; depending on the source and format of the photograph, the photographer may not have been credited or indexed in a searchable way. I thought we might have a selection of copyrighted images by some of the more well-known World War II war correspondents, like Margaret Bourke-White or Lee Miller, and certainly we have many of the photographs that Dorothea Lange produced for various government agencies. Additional photographs taken by Lange and others who worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) or the Office of War Information (OWI) – Marion Post Wolcott, Marjory Collins, Esther Bubley – are held by the Library of Congress.
Some light internet searching also pointed me to pioneer military photographers like Elizabeth “Tex” Williams and Stacy Pearsall, as well as a book about Captain Charlotte T. McGraw’s photographs for the Women’s Army Corps (which raises questions – or begs clarification – about Sgt. Marquardt’s distinction as the “only” Wac photographer in Europe). Given the sheer volume of military photographs in Still Picture Branch holdings, I figured I might narrow my scope that way, and started my search for any “woman photographer” cited as such within our Army Signal Corps caption cards (a portion of which were recently made available online). The search results introduced me to Sgt. Marquardt.
Original caption (right): Cpl. James Todd, former photographer on the Lexington, Ky., Courier-Journal, shows Sgt. Irene Marquardt of Holstein, Iowa, her latest picture in Stars and Stripes Newspaper, in APS Cameraman’s Room, 35 Davies, London, England. Sgt. Marquardt is the only Wac photographer in ETO. In the background are (l-r) T/Sgt. Richard Johnson of Pasadena, Calif., and T/Sgt. Knight Harris of Beverly Hills, Calif. March 3, 1944. Photographer: Kenny. Local Identifier: 111-SC-314120.
While there are a few photographs showing Sgt. Marquardt as the subject (and more credited to her name), the Signal Corps captions reveal almost nothing about her personal story, beyond her hometown of Holstein, Iowa. It would take searching online newspaper archives and genealogical databases to discover more about the woman behind the camera.
Irene Marquardt was born March 9, 1916, in Logan Township, Iowa, to William and Martha Marquardt. In her early twenties, Irene moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she worked as a professional photographer. When she was 26, she enlisted in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC, later WAC), about eight months after her younger brother, Ernest, entered the service. By the end of 1943, they were both serving overseas. Irene’s assignments with the Army Pictorial Service appear to have been focused largely on photographing the activities of her fellow Wacs, first in England and later in France.
Original caption (right): WACs wave hello to France through porthole of transport just before docking. On left is Sgt. Onita L. Carter, daughter of Mrs. M. M. Lilly, Sanford, N.C.; and on right is Pfc Madeline Bass, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. I. Bass, 1910 Polk St., Houston, Texas. July 17, 1944. Photographer: Sgt. Marquardt. Local Identifier: 111-SC-255375.
Original caption (right): Wac Pfc. Lila A. Hunkins, 233 E. Broadway, Waukesha, Wis., listens to a few road directions from T/Sgt. Clarence E. Miller, 13 Mill Road, Port Washington, New York, as to the way to Paris and other points. August 7, 1944. Photographer: Marquardt. Local Identifier: 111-SC-340727.
A unique complication in confirming which photographs Irene took is the fact that another Army photographer with the Signal Corps was also named Marquardt (Lt. Erwin “Ernie” Marquardt, Jr., of Columbus, Ohio), and the photo captions usually only credit the photographer by last name. (Actually, there were three “Marquardts” serving overseas as U.S. military photographers – the third being Carl F. Marquard, Jr., of Los Angeles, California, who served with the U.S. Navy and was attached to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The “camera cousins” met each other in England.) We can make the educated guess that most Marquardt photos of Wacs taken from late 1943 through 1945 were taken by Irene, but not with one-hundred-percent certainty.
Then there are photographs, like the one below, that invite further inspection. What photograph in Stars and Stripes has drawn the attention of Sgt. Marquardt and Cpl. Todd? Is there a copy of it at the National Archives?
The barely-legible publication date on that issue of Stars and Stripes is February 14, 1944. Based on a copy of the newspaper online, the photograph accompanying the article “WACs’ Goddess to Fly Against Hitler” is a clear candidate for the one capturing the officers’ attention. Among Army Signal Corps photographs, there is one photo taken by Sgt. Marquardt of the christening of the B-24 Liberator Pallas Athene, but it is not the image that was used in Stars and Stripes. However, if we search photographs from the U.S. Air Force and its predecessors – as they acquired some of their photos from the Army Signal Corps – there are more Pallas Athene christening photos in Record Group 342, including the one published in Stars and Stripes. The field number seen on the edge of each negative is similar to the one in Record Group 111, though only the Signal Corps caption credits Marquardt.
Right: RG 342 (Air Force) photo, field number ETO-HQ-44-1371. Local Identifier: 342-AF-50175AC.
Right, RG 342 (Air Force) photo, field number ETO-HQ-44-1372. Local Identifier: 342-AF-50174AC.
On March 30, 1945, Irene married Sgt. Arthur H. Rand, Jr., of Minneapolis. The couple married in Paris at the American church on Quai d’Orsay – the same church where Sgt. Rand’s parents, a military officer and a Red Cross nurse, had married thirty years earlier during World War I. Marriage announcements in newspapers at the time indicated their plans to spend a furlough on the French riviera in the summer of 1945. By September, Irene returned to the States and was discharged from the Army.
I didn’t find out much else about Sgt. Marquardt Rand’s life, other than that she passed away in 1985. I don’t know what propelled her to move from Iowa to Missouri as a young woman, what drew her to photography, or whether she continued in her profession after her military service ended. I don’t know why she enlisted in the Army, or what she thought of her time serving in Europe during the war. At the same time, the amount of coverage she got in historical records and newspapers feels like a gift. (I’m still slightly in awe of the “camera cousins” thing.)
Besides, some little-known stories are enjoyed not for the wealth of detail or the scope of their impact, but rather for the humble, briefly intimate life sketch – a curtain lifted on a few moments in time.
Happy 109th birthday, Irene.
Use of the newspaper clippings in this blog post is believed to qualify as fair use under United States copyright law, but this material may otherwise be subject to use restrictions. The photographs included in this post (i.e., those that include a Local Identifier) have no known copyright restrictions. If you have any questions about the images in this post or the holdings of the Still Picture Branch, please contact us at stillpix@nara.gov.
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Generally, copies of photographic records held by the National Archives may be published without special permission or additional fees. The National Archives does not grant exclusive or non-exclusive publication privileges. Copies of Federal records, as part of the public domain, are equally available to all. A small percentage of photographs in our holdings are or may be subject to copyright restrictions. The National Archives does not confirm the copyright status of photographs but will provide any information known about said status. It is the user’s responsibility to obtain all necessary clearances. Any use of these items is made at the researcher’s or purchaser’s own risk.
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Examples of preferred credit lines are as follows:
- National Archives photo no. 210-G-C241
- Credit National Archives (photo no. 83-G-41368)
- Courtesy National Archives, photo no. 83-G-41430
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