Pauline Kruger Hamilton

• Name — Pauline Kruger Hamilton • Born — 1870 • Birthplace — Middleton, Wisconsin, U.S. • Died — July 8, 1918 • Place of death — New York City, New York, U.S. • Occupation — Photographer Pauline Kruger Hamilton (1870 – July 8, 1918)

Her first husband, Frank Hamilton, killed a man in a quarrel and died of tuberculosis soon after being released from prison. After his death, she inherited a generous sum of money and moved to Vienna bringing a camera she received from a Minneapolis artist, Louis Sweet. Hamilton would go on to study painting, but was noticed for her photography and became friends with Archduke Friedrich. For five years, thanks to the patronage of Franz Joseph I, she served as the official royal court photographer. She was a friend of feminist activist May Wright Sewall and corresponded with her from Germany. She returned to the United States in 1915 to advocate for support for the widows and orphans of World War I. Her photo of a child in Austria was used for the 1919 American Red Cross annual campaign and membership drive. Later in her life she was suspected of being a spy, followed by federal agents, and died before charges could be proved. Suspicious that she might be attempting to fake her own death, the Department of Justice sent officials to her funeral who verified that hers was the body in the coffin.