Sadie Kneller Miller
(1867 – 1920)
A pioneer photojournalist, Sadie Miller was born in Westminster and graduated from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) in 1885. Pursuing her interest in writing, she began as a reporter for the Westminster Democratic Advocate and, later, as a sportswriter for the Baltimore Telegram. Around 1894, she covered the Baltimore Orioles by disguising herself as a man. Once discovered, her reputation grew as the only woman baseball reporter in the country.
She later, somewhat unconventionally for the times, combined the occupations of writer and photographer and worked for Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly. For a byline, she used her initials “SKM” and Mrs. Charles R. Miller. She filed illustrated articles from political conventions and inaugurations; the Baltimore Fire of 1904; the Yukon Gold Rush; a Hawaiian leper colony, scenes from Czarist Russia and pre-WW1 Germany. Teddy Roosevelt and Susan B. Anthony were among the notables that she photographed.
Ms. Miller was among the first female war correspondents when covering fighting in northern Morocco between the occupying Spanish military and the Rif Berber tribes in the 1920s.
Her name and her work slipped into oblivion after her death in 1920. Dr. Keith Richwine at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) rediscovered her life story while he was a professor there from 1962 – 1994. Sadie Miller is now recognized as the best known and most adventurous writer and photojournalist of her time.
Sources and more reading:
Album of Maryland Women: Vision and Action: A women’s history display kit created by Maryland State Department of Education and Maryland Commission for Women (unknown date)
Dr. Keith Richwine papers, McDaniel College, accessed 09/21/26
